Institute for the Integration of Technology
into Teaching and Learning
Instrument - TA - Teachers' Attitudes Toward Computers
The Teachers' Attitudes Toward Computers (TAC) questionnaire was developed
during 1995-97 for a study of the effects of technology integration education
on the attitudes of teachers. The TAC was originally constructed as a 10-part
composite instrument that included 284 items spanning 32 Likert and Semantic
Differential scales (Christensen & Knezek, 1997). Sets of items were selected
from 14 well-validated computer attitude survey instruments during the
construction process (Christensen & Knezek, 1996).
Teachers' Attitudes Toward Computers (TAC) questionnaire is a 95-199
item Likert/Semantic Differential instrument for measuring teachers'
attitudes toward computers on 7-20 subscales. Computer Importance and
Computer Enjoyment are aligned with similar subscales on the Young Children's
Computer Inventory and Computer Attitude Questionnaire. Commonly used versions
of the TAC include:
- TAC 2.22 199 item, 16-factor structure plus Loyd & Gressard's Computer Attitude Survey and CAQ Computer Importance and Enjoyment
- TAC 3.0 198 item, 16-factor structure plus Loyd & Gressard's CAS and CAQ Computer Importance and Enjoyment
- TAC 3.2a 105 item 7-factor structure (Form A)
- TAC 3.2b 109 item 7-factor structure (Form B)
- TAC 5.11 95 item 9-factor structure
The TAC (v5.11) is the version of the TAC instrument provided in this book.
The first five items in each of the parts 1-7 of this version are the strongest
indicators of the 7-factor structure found in the TAC 3.2a and 3.2b.1 Placing
additional related items in each part, plus the addition of parts 8 and 9, has
allowed the authors to retain links (via marker variables and crossover scales)
to several historically significant measurement indices in the field. Thus the
six additional indices of Loyd and Gressard's Confidence (Gressard & Loyd, 1986),
Pelgrum and Plomp's Enjoyment (Pelgrum, Janssen Reinen, & Plomp, 1993), Pelgrum
and Plomp's Relevance (Pelgrum, Janssen Reinen, & Plomp, 1993), Miyashita and
Knezek's Importance (Knezek & Miyashita, 1993), and Knezek and Miyashita's
Anxiety (Knezek & Christensen, 1996), were merged with each other and the
seven TAC foundation scales to produce a nine-part instrument. The nine-factor
structure of these items is listed in Table 10, along with reliability
estimates for each scale. Standard Item Code (SIC) descriptions indicating
the original source of each item can be found at the web site of the
Institute for the Integration of Technology into Teaching and Learning
(www.iittl.unt.edu/sic).
Eight marker items from related U.S. nationwide studies (Soloway, Norris,
Knezek, Becker, Riel, & Means, 1999) were also included on the TAC (v5.11).
Marker items were placed in the part of the survey containing the scale with
which they had the highest content (face value) validity. Future research is
needed to determine if the marker variables contribute to one of the TAC scales.
These items and their sources are listed in Tables 8 and 9.