1. EMERGENCE OF THE PROBLEM
Our world is going through a great change. For preparing students for the demands of today’s world, education has to be delivered in a vastly different way. A real 21st century education must involve something more than information literacy alone. Besides the 3 R’s of education (reading, writing and arithmetic); a new “4 Cs” – Creativity and innovation, Critical thinking and problem solving, Collaboration and Communication are also required for our students to be able to compete in this new world, Sherrelle Walker, M.A. (2012). As a result of ICT integration in education, information sharing is happening more rapidly and more easily than we could carry that information into the classrooms.
2. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
ICT is considered as the most important element of the education system. The Government, educational authorities and educational institutions are taking various measures to integrate Information and Communication Technology into education in all possible ways. But, all the efforts will be worthless if the teachers do not have the favorable attitude towards technology. The B.Ed. student teachers, as future teachers, can meet the needs of this twenty first century education only if they have a right attitude towards ICT and the competencies of ICT. This study of student teachers’ attitude towards ICT is of great significance as the attitude seems to influence not only the initial acceptance of Information and Communication Technology, but also the implementation of the ICTs in their teaching learning process in future. Social intelligence has become one of the vital skills for teaching profession, as it has to deal with human relations. According to Daniel Goleman (2006) Social intelligence is being able to tune in to other people, to read them, to know how they are thinking about things, what they are feeling right now, and using that (knowledge) to communicate effectively with them. Socio economic status is another important factor which creates impact on one’s behavior and attitudes. The investigator felt that social intelligence and socio economic status of the B.Ed. student teachers may have an influence on their attitude towards Information and Communication Technology. Hence the present study is titled as, “AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE ATTITUDE TOWARDS ICT IN RELATION TO SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE AND SOCIO ECONOMIC STATUS AMONG B.Ed. STUDENT TEACHERS”.
3. REVIEW OF RELATED RESEARCHES
The study conducted by Arul Sekar J.M. and Arul Lawrence A.S. (2015) on “the attitude of B.Ed., students towards information and communication technology (ICT)” revealed that there was no significant difference in the attitude of B.Ed., students towards ICT with regard to gender, discipline, course of study, and locality, and that the aided colleges of education B.Ed., students were better than government college students in their attitude towards ICT. Mahabir Singh and Rajender Kumar (2013) in their study “A Study Of Social Intelligence Of Trainees Of B. Ed. College In Haryana State In Relation To Adjustment” had revealed that there was a significant mean difference in the level of Social Intelligence of male and female B.Ed. trainees and rural and urban B.Ed. trainees. Prakash S. and Amaladoss Xavier S. J. (2015) revealed “A study on relationship between personality and socio economic status of student teachers”. The results showed that there was significant relationship between personality and socio economic status of student teachers.
4. AIM OF THE STUDY
The study aims to evaluate the attitude of B.Ed. Student teachers towards ICT and to find out if there exists any relationship between the attitude of B.Ed. Student teachers towards ICT and their social intelligence and socio economic status.
5. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The objectives of the present study are given below.
1. To find out the level of attitude towards ICT among B.Ed. student teachers.
2. To find out the significant difference of B.Ed. student Teachers’ attitude towards ICT and its dimensions Hardware, Software and E-Resource based on the following demographic variables viz., Gender, Marital Status, Mode of stay, Locality, Medium of Instruction, Educational Qualification, Subject Stream, Type of Family, Siblings, Type of Institution.
3. To find out the level of Social Intelligence of B.Ed. Student Teachers.
4. To find out the significant difference of B.Ed. student Teachers’ Social Intelligence and its dimensions Patience, Cooperativeness, Confidence, Sensitivity, Sense of Humour, Tactfulness and Memory based on the following demographic variables viz., Gender, Marital Status, Mode of Stay, Locality, Medium of Instruction, Educational Qualification, Subject Stream, Type of Family, Siblings, Type of Institution.
5. To find out the level of B.Ed. student Teachers’ Socio Economic Status.
6. To find out the significant difference of B.Ed. student Teachers’ attitude towards ICT based on their levels of Social Intelligence.
7. To find out the significant difference of B.Ed. student Teachers’ attitude towards ICT based on their levels of Socio Economic Status.
8. To find out the relationship between the attitude of B.Ed. student-teachers towards ICT and their social intelligence.
9. To find out the relationship between the attitude of B.Ed. student-teachers towards ICT and their socio economic status.
5. HYPOTHESES
Based on the objectives the following null hypotheses were formulated under four divisions.
I. I. Attitude towards ICT among B.Ed. Student Teachers
• There is no significant difference in the attitude towards ICT and its dimensions Hardware, Software and E-Resource among B.Ed. Student Teachers with regard to their Gender, Marital Status, Mode of stay, Locality of Residence, Medium of instruction, Educational Qualification, Subject Stream, Type of Family, Siblings and Type of Institution.
II. Social Intelligence of B.Ed. Student Teachers
• There is no significant difference in the social intelligence and its dimensions patience, cooperativeness, confidence, sensitivity, sense of humour, tactfulness and memory among B.Ed. Student Teachers with regard to their Gender, Marital Status, Mode of stay, Locality of Residence, Medium of instruction, Educational Qualification, Subject Stream, Type of Family, Siblings and Type of Institution.
III. Difference between Attitude towards ICT, Social Intelligence and Socio Economic Status of B.Ed. Student Teachers
• There is no significant difference in the attitude towards ICT among B.Ed. student teachers based on their levels of Social Intelligence.
• There is no significant difference in the Attitude towards ICT among B.Ed. student teachers based on their levels of Socio Economic Status.
IV. Relationship between Attitude towards ICT, Social Intelligence and Socio Economic Status of B.Ed. Student teachers
• There is no significant relationship between the attitude towards ICT and social intelligence of B.Ed. Student teachers.
• There is no significant relationship between the attitude towards ICT and socio economic status of B.Ed. Student teachers.
6. METHOD OF INVESTIGATION
In the present study, the investigator followed the Normative Survey method to collect data, as it can clearly tell what exists at present by determining the nature and degree of existing conditions.
7. SAMPLE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUE
From the population of Student Teachers studying in Colleges of Education affiliated to Tamil Nadu Teacher Education University (TNTEU), Chennai, a sample of 724 B.Ed. student teachers studying one year B.Ed. degree programme from ten different Colleges of Education in Namakkal District of Tamilnadu are selected using simple random sampling technique.
8. VARIABLES OF THE STUDY
Independent Variables – Social Intelligence and Socio Economic status
Sub Variables of Social Intelligence – Patience, Cooperativeness, Confidence, Sensitivity, Sense of Humour, Tactfulness and Memory.
Sub Variables of Socio Economic Status – Education & Employment, Possession of ICT Gadgets, Family’s Monthly Income, Property and Social Status.
Dependent variable -Attitude towards ICT
Sub Variables of Attitude towards ICT- Hardware, Software and E-Resource.
Demographic Variables – Gender, Marital Status, Mode of stay, Locality, Medium of Instruction, Educational Qualification, Subject Stream, Type of Family, Siblings, Type of Institution.
9. TOOLS USED IN THE STUDY
1. Attitude towards using new technology scale – developed by Dr.S.Rajasekar (2009). The reliability of the tool is 0.76 found by the split-half technique. Validity was established through content validity and face validity.
2. Social Intelligence Scale – adopted and modified the original scale developed by Dr. N.K.Chadha and Usha Ganesan (1986). The reliability of the tool is 0.71 found by Test Retest Method (interval of 20 days). Validity was established through content validity and face validity.
3. Socio Economic Status Scale developed by the investigator. The reliability of the tool is 0.782 found by Test Retest Method (interval of 20 days). Validity was established through content validity and face validity.
10. PILOT STUDY
A pilot study was conducted using a preliminary draft of all the three tools viz., Attitude Towards Using New Technology Scale (30 statements), Social Intelligence Scale (35 questions) and Socio Economic Status Scale (13 questions), on a sample of 150 B.Ed. student teachers from three different colleges of education. Later on item analysis was carried out for Social Intelligence Scale considering only the highest and the lowest 27% of the respondents. Items having difficulty index value between 0.40 to 0.70 and discriminating index value between 0.30 to 0.70 were accepted and other items were dropped. This led to the elimination of 11 items. The selected items were categorized into 7 dimensions. Later on 3 more items seeming weak in nature were also dropped in view to keep equal number of items in 7 dimensions i.e., three items under each in all the seven dimensions of social intelligence scale. After item analysis, the final draft of Social Intelligence Scale consisted of 21 items.
11. FINDINGS OF THE MAIN STUDY
The findings derived from the statistical analyses of the present study are given below.
1. From the present study it is clear that majority of the B.Ed. student teachers have high level of positive attitude towards ICT.
2. There is no significant difference in the attitude towards ICT and its dimensions – Hardware, Software and E-Resource among B.Ed. student teachers based on gender, marital status, mode of stay, locality of residence, medium of instruction, educational qualification, subject stream, type of family, siblings and type of institutions.
3. Majority of the B.Ed. student teachers have medium level of Social Intelligence.
4. Significant difference is found in the social intelligence of B.Ed. student teachers based on their locality of residence. It is also found from the mean scores that urban B.Ed. students have better social intelligence when compared to the rural B.Ed. student teachers.
5. There is no significant difference in the social intelligence of B.Ed. student teachers based on gender, marital status, mode of stay, medium of instruction, educational qualification, subject stream, type of family, siblings and type of institution.
6. There is significant difference in the social intelligence dimension – Patience of B.Ed. student teachers based on their gender. It is also found from the mean scores that female B.Ed. students have more Patience when compared to their male counterparts.
7. There is no significant difference in the social intelligence dimension – Patience of B.Ed. student teachers based on their marital status, mode of stay, locality of residence, medium of instruction, educational qualification, subject stream, type of family, siblings and type of institution.
8. Significant difference is found in the social intelligence dimension – Cooperativeness of B.Ed. student teachers based on their mode of stay. It is also found from the mean scores that B.Ed. student teachers staying in hostel have better Cooperativeness when compared to their counterparts staying in home.
9. There is no significant difference in the social intelligence dimension – Cooperativeness of B.Ed. student teachers based on their gender, marital status, locality of residence, medium of instruction, educational qualification, subject stream, type of family, siblings and type of institution.
10. Significant difference is found in the social intelligence dimension – Confidence of B.Ed. student teachers based on their educational qualification. It is also found from the mean scores that UG B.Ed. student teachers have more Confidence when compared to their PG counterparts.
11. There is no significant difference in the social intelligence dimension – Confidence of B.Ed. student teachers based on their gender, marital status, locality of residence, medium of instruction, subject stream, type of family, siblings and type of institution.
12. There is no significant difference in the social intelligence dimensions – Sensitivity, Sense of Humour and Tactfulness of B.Ed. student teachers based on their gender, marital status, mode of stay, locality of residence, medium of instruction, educational qulification, subject stream, type of family, siblings and type of institution.
13. Significant difference is found in the social intelligence dimension – Memory of B.Ed. student teachers based on their locality of residence. It is also found from the mean scores that Urban B.Ed. student teachers have better Memory when compared to their Rural counterparts.
14. There is no significant difference in the social intelligence dimension – Memory of B.Ed. student teachers based on their gender, marital status, mode of stay, medium of instruction, educational qulification, subject stream, type of family, siblings and type of institution.
15. Majority of the B.Ed. student teachers belong to the medium socio economic status background.
16. Majority of B.Ed. Student Teachers’ fathers are educated. Among those educated fathers, majority of them have studied till 12th standard.
17. Majority of B.Ed. Student Teachers’ mothers are educated. Among those educated mothers, majority of them have studied till 10th standard.
18. Majority of the B.Ed. Student Teachers’ father and mother are working on daily wage basis.
19. Majority of the B.Ed. Student Teachers do not own a PC/Laptop nor a broadband connection but have android phones to access internet.
20. Majority of the B.Ed. Student Teachers’ total family monthly income is less than Rs.25,000/-.
21. Majority of the B.Ed. Student Teachers’ families do not own land or own house.
22. Majority of the B.Ed. Student Teachers’ believe they are economically middle class having an average social rating.
23. Majority of the B.Ed. Student Teachers’ neighbours are middle class families.
24. There is no significant difference in the attitude towards ICT among B.Ed. student teachers based on their levels of Social Intelligence and on their level of SES.
25. There is no significant relationship between the attitude towards ICT among B.Ed. student teachers and their social intelligence nor with their socio economic status.
12. CONCLUSION
The present study has revealed that the majority of the B.Ed. Student Teachers of Namakkal District have a high level positive attitude towards ICT and its uses, irrespective of their social intelligence and their socio economic status. This is a good augury for the future. Even though the study has revealed that there is no significant relationship between the B.Ed. student teachers’ attitude towards ICT and their social intelligence, the majority of the B.Ed. student teachers have only medium level of social intelligence. However, it is highly imperative that the future teachers have high level of social intelligence in order to handle the present generation of students who are very sensitive and vulnerable to anxiety and frustration easily and to motivate and inspire them for higher aspirations in life. Therefore, the teacher education institutions must make sure that their students, as future teachers, are well equipped with deep knowledge in their subject, required technical and practical training to efficiently integrate ICT in their future classroom and the essential social skills to handle the present generation of sensitive but highly intellectual students to face the digital world.
References
1. Arul Sekar, M.J and Arul Lawrence, A.S. (2015). Attitude of B.Ed. students towards information and communication technology (ICT). International Journal of Applied Research 2015; 1(8): 785-787.
2. Mahabir Singh and Rajender Kumar (2013). A study of Social Intelligence of trainees of B. Ed. College in Haryana State in relation to Adjustment. Golden Research Thoughts. ISSN 2231-5063. Volume-3, Issue-6, Dec-2013. Available online at www.aygrt.isrj.net
3. Prakash S. and Amaladoss Xavier S. J. (2015). A study on relationship between personality and socio economic status of student teachers. Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278- 2435, Vol. 4, Issue-3, August-2015. Pp:5-16.
4. Sherrelle Walker, M.A. ( 2012 ) [ http://www.scilearn.com/blog/21st-century-learning-preparing-students-today ]
5. Goleman Daniel (2006). Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships. Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-80352-2. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_intelligence
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS
1. Arthi, S., Tamilselvi, B (2016) “A study of the attitude towards ICT among B.Ed. student teachers in Namakkal District” International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development : Vol.3 (8), 81-84. Online ISSN: 2349-4182, Print ISSN: 2349-5979.
2. Arthi, S., Tamilselvi, B (2016) “A study of social intelligence of B.Ed. student teachers in Namakkal District” International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development: Vol.3 (9), 322-326. Online ISSN: 2349-4182, Print ISSN: 2349-5979.
3. Arthi, S., Ramakrishnan, V (2016) “Attitude of B.Ed. Student teachers towards using ICT in relation to Social Intelligence” Global Journal For Research Analysis : Vol.5 (3), 61-62. ISSN: 2277-8160.
4. Arthi, S., Ramakrishnan, V (2015) “Usage of ICT in relation to Socio Economic Status of B.Ed. Student teachers” Annamalai Journal of Educational Endeavours : Vol.4 (3&4), 6-12. ISSN No: 2278-9804.