Early childhood educators’ attitudes and beliefs around the use of touchscreen technologies by children under three years of age

Abstract

This paper reports on an Australian study around early childhood educators’ attitudes and beliefs on the use of touchscreen technologies by very young children, under three years of age. The study adopted an ecological perspective and educators and directors of early childhood centres completed an online survey and were interviewed on this specific topic. Data were analysed to identify teachers’ competencies (eg, digital skills) but also possible factors behind attitudes and beliefs (eg, leadership styles; training; teaching philosophy). Findings suggest that early childhood teachers’ views are evolving and they are now more confident when they use technology for work/personal purposes but not as confident when integrating technology with very young children. Educators’ overall confidence and hours using technology is significantly associated with a positive attitude towards the incorporation of technology. Their teaching philosophy is also associated with their technology use with very young children. In contrast, training or lack of it is not significant. This study has direct implications for Early Childhood Education as it will contribute to better understanding educators’ views and practices on a hotly debated topic and whether they are ready to change their traditional views and embrace this new social reality. The need for more research on the influence of technological use on very young children’s development will also be underlined.

Izobraževalna tehnologija in izgradnja avtentičnega učnega okolja

“…Za uporabo izobraževalne tehnologije pri zgodnjem učenju so med ključnimi dejavniki digitalna pismenost in spretnosti vzgojiteljev (Hatzigianni in Kalaitzidis, 2018). Razvoj digitalnih spretnosti in uporaba digitalne tehnologije sta odvisna od pojmovanja in stališča učiteljev o uporabnosti izobraževalne tehnologije (Istenič Starčič in .…”

A cross-cultural exploration of early childhood educators’ beliefs and experiences around the use of touchscreen technologies with children under 3 years of age

“…Educators' philosophy is also worth further exploration as recommended by previous studies (Hatzigianni and Kalaitzidis 2018;Lynch and Redpath 2014;Lindahl and Folkesson 2012;House 2012). Overall, in this study constructivist approaches (statements 2 and 4), appeared to be the most eminent views.…”

“…confidence) to such usage (Blackwell, Lauricella, and Wartella 2014;Ertmer et al 2012). More recently Hatzigianni and Kalaitzidis (2018) focusing on children under 3 years of age in Australia offered a new insight into the factors impacting integration of technology into Early Childhood Education by underlining the role of the teachers' pedagogical philosophy.…”

Early childhood practitioner beliefs about digital media: integrating technology into a child-centred classroom environment

“…Furthermore, there is little evidence of digital technologies being embedded in the curriculum in ways that support the development of new and creative practices around technology. Although practitioners may be open to change, they remain unconvinced about the use of technology in play (Hatzigianni and Kalaizidis 2018) and do not use their pedagogical skills to support child-initiated learning with technology (Morgan 2010;Vangsnes and Økland 2015). Although research into the use of digital technologies in early childhood education is in its infancy, it has identified that there are many unresolved issues in the effective integration of technology into child-centred learning environments (Kewalramani and Havu-Nuutinen 2019).…”