Relationship between In-service Teachers' concerns and their use of technology, using the Concerns-based Adoption Model

This study assessed in-service teachers’ concerns about the use of technology using the concerns-based adoption model in Ibadan North Local Government area, Oyo State, Nigeria. It investigated the relationship between teachers' concerns and their characteristics, specifically age and years of teaching experience. By examining these relationships, the study aimed to provide insights into the factors influencing teachers' adoption and integration of technology in the classroom. The research instruments utilized were the Technology Enabled Learning (TEL) (r=0.86) and the Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SOC) (r= 0.80), while the participants were 95 secondary school teachers selected through the random sampling technique. The relationship between teachers' concerns and their level of use of technology shows a positive relationship (correlation coefficient of 0.24). This relationship is also statistically significant at a 0.05 level (p<0.05), indicating that as teachers' concerns decrease, their level of technology use tends to increase. Teachers between the ages of 26-30 years and 36-40 years demonstrated higher mean stages of concern, while teachers below 26 and between 46-50 years exhibited lower mean stages of concern. Teachers with 11-15 years of teaching experience exhibited a higher mean stage of concern, followed by teachers with 6-10 years of experience. On the other hand, teachers with 5 or less than 5 years of experience displayed the lowest mean stages of concern. The relationships between teachers' stages of concern and their characteristics (age and years of experience) using Pearson correlation tests indicate a positive correlation (correlation coefficient of 0.33) between stages of concern and age, signifying that older teachers tend to have higher stages of concern. A negative correlation (correlation coefficient of 0.26) exists between stages of concern and years of experience, suggesting that their stages of concern tend to decrease as teachers' years of experience increase. It is therefore recommended that targeted professional development programs be designed to equip teachers with the skills and confidence to integrate technology into their teaching practices effectively.