COMPUTER USE BY TEACHING FACULTY IN NURSING AND EDUCATION.
Contributors: University of Cincinnati.
Published: 1991
Number of pages: 322
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Education, Curriculum and Instruction.; Education, Higher.; Education, Technology.
Description: The use of computer technology has been heralded as a means for revolutionizing education, teaching, and the learning process. In order for this revolution to take place in higher education, faculty need first to learn how to effectively use computers and, secondly, they need to implement computer use in the instructional process. In the literature for nursing and education, there were no previous qualitative studies found that asked teaching faculty how they actually used computers.

This study reports interviews with faculty, currently teaching in departments or schools of nursing and education, relating to how they used computers in their professional work. The data from this study were analyzed in relation to the Theory of Reasoned Action, promulgated by Icek Ajzen and Martin Fishbein. This theory proposed that behavior is the result of the individual's intention to perform, or not perform, the behavior of interest, i.e., computer use. Further, that intentions were the result of both attitudes towards performing the behavior and subjective or social norms relative to the behavior. This theory had been used in numerous quantitative studies in a wide variety of research settings, however, apparently this was the first study to use it in a qualitative research project. The analysis has also incorporated a new construct, the individual's perceived behavioral control.

Most studies that used the Theory of Reasoned Action showed that the intention to perform specific behaviors was more often the result of attitudes rather than the result of subjective norms. This study of teaching faculty found that their intentions to use computers were sometimes the result of their attitudes about the consequences of computer use, however their intentions and the resulting behaviors seemed to more often be the result of subjective norms or intervening variables that affected the individual's perceived behavioral control.

The data indicated that computer using faculty initially did not make reasoned or informed judgements about the computers or the programs that they used. It frequently appeared that they chose to use whatever was required or was available, indicating that subjective norms or perceived behavioral control were the antecedent factors.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-09, Section: B, page: 4671.

Thesis (ED.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI, 1991.

School code: 0045.