THE COMPUTER: AN ASSESSMENT OF TEACHER TRAINING, TEACHER ATTITUDES, AND COMPUTER INVENTORY (HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE) IN GRADES K-8 IN THE METROPOLITAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF NASHVILLE-DAVIDSON COUNTY (TENNESSEE).

摘要

Data were gathered from teachers through a questionnaire concerning their attitudes and training of computers. The questionnaire contained demographic data, three openended questions, and the Minnesota Computer Literacy and Awareness Assessment, Form 8, Part I, consisting of twenty items. Teachers were asked to either strongly agree, agree, be undecided, disagree, or strongly disagree to the statements. Data were also gathered from appointed school computer coordinators through an assessment form concerning equipment, software, location of computers, and their perception of computer use in the schools.;Recommendations included further studies of computer programs in other school systems, a staff for the system-wide computer coordinator, better communications from the school system concerning seminars and availability of help and information for the teachers, released time for training, a system of sharing and previewing software, a computer laboratory with a teacher for each school, and the development of a system-wide computer program with a curriculum for grades K-6. Other recommendations were suggestions to interview the teachers for their needs, seek out skilled teachers in computer science and hire them, and use available laboratories within the system for seminars.;The findings revealed that experience in years of teaching appeared to have no significance in relationship to positive attitudes of teachers towards computers. Positive attitudes were found in teachers and coordinators who had previous training on computers. They wanted to learn more about the computer and to be on school computer committees. Many of these teachers owned their own computers. The teachers with training usually provided their students with more computer time. Trained teachers reflected more enjoyment in computers, and more confidence in their ability to use computers. More positive attitudes were reflected in teachers and coordinators who were under 40 years of age and who had higher degrees of learning. They had positive feelings toward the integration of computers into the educational system and revealed less anxiety in working with computers. Teachers' comments on the open-ended questions revealed needs for more computers, more software, released time for training, computer laboratories with teachers, and numerous other concerns.