| This thesis reports the findings of a study investigating the impact of the Internet on English teachers in Chinese higher education. Convenience sampling methods were adopted for the study. The samples were English teachers from four categories of colleges and universities in China. Data were collected via a questionnaire based on TAM and interviews. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis applied to answer the following questions:(1).How is the Internet adopted to English teachers'teaching and research in higher education?(2).Whether the impact of the Internet on English teachers'adoption is different among different categories of colleges and universities? What are those specific differences?(3). Which elements in the TAM contribute to the effective measurement of teachers'adoption? How do the samples respond differently to these elements?The major findings are:(1) Currently more than 88% of English teachers have adopted the Internet in teaching and research for more than 5 years. The Internet has been integrated into their teaching, (2) The Internet has influenced English teachers' teaching, researching, teacher-student relationship, but Independent T-test analysis shows that teachers from different categories of universities were influenced differently in those three aspects. (3) Factor analysis shows that 14 items in the questionnaire related to TAM are valid for the measurement of teachers'adoption of the Internet to their career, which indicates uniqueness of certain influential factors in Chinese context. Comparison of samples of different categories through one-way ANOVA, the author found that self-efficacy, subjective norm, system accessibility and perceived usefulness are important to English teachers'adoption of the Internet.Based on the findings of the study, suggestions for English teachers professional development and policy decisions in the field are provided. The study also provides further research opportunities.
|
PDF Full Text Request