Italian in-training teachers: What influences their acceptance of Distance Education?

Abstract

The willingness of educators to introduce opportunities for Distance Education (DE) is not yet something that can be taken for granted, even despite the substantial use of such approaches during the Covid-19 pandemic. The aim of the study is to identify which factors may influence Italian in-training secondary school teachers’ DE acceptance. We hypothesized that the factors encompassed by the Technology Acceptance Model (perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness) could be possible predictors of intention of future use of DE, which is an indicator of DE acceptance. We also hypothesized that a social factor - such as subjective norm - and a contextual factor - such as facilitating conditions - could influence perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. One hundred and fifty in training teachers (F = 139; average age 37.11 years) completed the Teacher’s Acceptance of Distance Education Scale (TADES) and its factor structure was verified by a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA).  Results emerging from a Path Analysis confirmed in part our hypotheses. Implications to promote future use of DE in higher education are discussed.