Abstract

Electronic resources have become a more accessible and convenient method for teaching. However, the rate of using e-learning resources and materials between different education levels is not equal. Many kindergarten teachers think that hard copies of picture books are preferable to electronic picture books. Most people assume that early childhood education teachers have lower rates of utilization of electronic materials. This study investigated the usage of e-learning resources and materials of the pre-service teacher, and the survey through questionnaire was used as research design to carry out the study. Two hundred and eighty-five pre-service teachers from eight universities offering teacher education programs in Taiwan completed the web-based survey. We developed a scale called The Computer Attitudes Test (CAT) for Pre-service Teachers as our survey instrument. The Computer Attitudes Test for Pre-service Teacher consists of thirty-six items, and the format of the response to each item was five-point Likert scale. Three components of attitudes towards using computers, cognitive, affective, and behavioral components, construct these survey tools. The internal consistency was calculated using Cronbach’s Alpha for each of the three components, and the correlations were also calculated for the scores between each of components and the total score. Coefficients indicate a high level of internal consistency for each attitude component. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted and supported to construct validity of the three factors model. The results revealed that the respondents who enrolled in public schools, studied in technical universities with Natural Science as majors, and disadvantaged status were more favorable toward using e- learning resources than those who enrolled in private schools, studied in tertiary universities, major in Humanities or Social Sciences, and without disadvantaged status. The differences did not exist when their gender was taken into account. According to our result, some limitations and suggestions to the future study were discussed.

Key words: Pre-service Teachers, Teacher Education, Attitude, e-learning, e-resources