Exploring adoptions, purposes, and uses of social networks in education from the perspective of Uses and Gratifications. Representations of pre-service and in-service teachers

Abstract

Social media are present in everyday life. This presence has transcended and penetrated the educational sphere. In order to analyze the reason why this happens, this research was based on the Theory of Uses and Gratifications, applying the Social Media Perception Scale (Saini and Abraham, 2019) to a total sample of 160 teachers (56 teachers in their initial training and from seven different universities, and 104 active teachers from 30 schools). The results showed that the highest scores corresponded to the sharing of resources and/ or materials, collaboration, and the usefulness of social media. In contrast, the lowest scoring dimensions were social relationships, facilitating conditions, and social influence. In any case, it was the trainee teachers who scored the highest in all cases. The results obtained confirmed the proposed theoretical model according to which the educational use of social networks is explained by adoption and purpose. Finally, it is concluded that both pre-service and in-service teachers use social networks to exchange resources and practices beyond the classroom, which is an important way for them to improve the understanding of new concepts and ideas.