Meta-analysis on the attitudes of active teachers about the use of educational technology according to gender

Abstract

Studies analysing and comparing the attitudes of teachers towards Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) based on gender have provided mixed results. In this work, we carried out a meta-analysis on gender differences in attitudes towards ICT, from a global perspective and exploring four dimensions: affective-emotional attitude, beliefs, self-efficacy, and mixed with each other. Through the collection of 55 studies providing 73 effect sizes based on a total sample of 21,325 working teachers, a negative effect was found, almost null (d=-0.0297) and not statistically significant. These results indicate that female teachers have a more positive attitude towards the educational use of ICT than male teachers. Independently, the dimensions affective-emotional attitude (d=-0.342), beliefs (d= 0.114), and self-efficacy (d= 0.273) produced significant effect sizes, although with small effects. The analysis of moderating variables showed that different moderators intervene significantly in the variability of effect sizes: continental origin of the teachers (emotional and beliefs dimensions); teacher’s workplace (dimension self-efficacy); type of publication (emotional dimension) and validity of the instruments (emotional and beliefs dimension). With this meta-analysis, it is possible to take another step towards a better measurement and explanation of the attitudes that teachers have towards the use of new technologies in educational contexts.