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University of Amsterdam / VU University
MSc. Entrepreneurship
Master Thesis
July 1, 2016
TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION AND
ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN DUTCH SECONDARY
SCHOOLS
A thesis that investigates the effect of teachers’ attitude towards tablets,
entrepreneurial teachers and intrapreneurial teachers on the quality of
education in classes that use tablets.
AUTHOR: Y.K. FELD
SUPERVISOR: DR. Y. SONG
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Abstract
This thesis investigates characteristics of teachers that have an effect on the quality of education in classes that use tablets. Factors that are analyzed are the teacher’s attitude towards tablets, how entrepreneurial teachers are, how intrapreneurial teachers are, the teacher’s age and the teacher’s years of educational experience. The first three factors are explored in a broad context and in an educational context. Second, a regression analysis and a regression analysis are performed to investigate the effects within the collected data sample. The analysis shows that the teacher’s attitude towards tablets has a significant positive effect on the quality of education in classes that use tablets and years of experience in education has a significant negative effect on the quality of education in classes that use tablets.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction ... 4 2. Literature Review ... 6 2.1 Technological Innovation ... 6 2.1.1 New Students ... 6 2.1.2 New Technologies ... 62.2 Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship ... 8
2.2.1 Entrepreneurship in Literature ... 8
2.2.2 Intrapreneurship in Literature ... 9
2.2.3 Intrapreneurship in Education... 10
2.3 Performance ... 10
2.3.1 Monetary Performance Indicators ... 11
2.3.2 Non-monetary Performance Indicators ... 11
2.3.3 Performance and Quality of Schools ... 12
2.4 Hypothesis Development ... 13 3. Methodology ... 15 3.1 Sampling ... 15 3.2 Data Collection ... 15 3.3 Measures ... 16 3.4 Data Analysis ... 17 4. Results ... 18 4.1 Descriptive Statistics... 18
4.2 Regression Analysis and Correlation ... 21
5. Discussion and Conclusion ... 23
5.1 Discussion ... 23
5.2 Theoretical and Practical Implications ... 26
5.3 Limitations and Future Research ... 27
5.4 Conclusion ... 28
6. References ... 29
7. Appendices ... 36
Appendix A: Educational developments in the Netherlands ... 36
Appendix B: Survey Teachers ... 36
Appendix C: Original Survey Students ... 40
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1. Introduction
In today’s Information Age, networks form the basis for society (Castells, 2011). In 2015, 3.3 billion people had access to internet worldwide. Previously one could only use a computer to gain access to these networks. In this way computers have become essential parts of the Information Age (Kucukaydin, Bozdogan & Ozturk, 2014). However, currently one can also use laptops, smartphones and tablets to gain access to these networks. It is estimated that in 2016 the number of tablet users will rise to 1.15 billion (Tablet users worldwide 2013-2019, n.d.). Although tablets are thus widely used in society, schools have not widely implemented tablets into their educational systems yet. This thesis will investigate how tablets have been implemented in educational systems and whether the attitude of teachers towards tablets, entrepreneurial teachers and intrapreneurial teachers affect the quality of education in classes that use tablets.
Successful organizations are constantly changing (Keil, 2004). A survey by the Center for Creative Leadership asked leaders what they believed were emerging trends. According to this survey, the need for innovation was one of the vital factors that determines the viability of a business (Friedrich, Mumford, Vessey, Beeler & Eubanks, 2010). Innovation and performance go hand in hand, forming a vital economic relationship that has been researched by many authors (Blind & Georghiou, 2010). One driver of innovations, innovativeness, is part of the Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO). According to Rauch, Wiklund, Lumpkin and Frese (2009) EO is “the entrepreneurial strategy-making processes that key decision makers use to enact their firms’ organizational purpose, sustain its vision, and create competitive advantage(s)” (pp. 763). Its dimensions are risk taking, proactiveness, and as previously mentioned, innovativeness. EO leads to Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE), also called intrapreneurship. Intrapreneurship has been linked to innovation (Antoncic & Hisrich, 2003) and growth (Thornberry, 2001). Rauch et al. (2009) state that a firm’s entrepreneurial activity has a positive effect on its performance. Firms with a good EO are better able to identify and exploit new business opportunities (Lumpkin & Dess, 1996), because business environments are becoming more dynamic and complex (Hayton, 2005). Up to now intrapreneurship is described as an organizational process at the organizational level. However, intrapreneurship can also be studied at the individual level and the macro level (Bosma, Stam & Wennekers, 2010). If intrapreneurship is studied at an individual level instead of an organizational level, as this study does, it is not the company that has entrepreneurial characteristics, but the individual. In this case it is the individual who is risk-taking, innovative and proactive.
Besides the environment of private firms, the environment of public organizations can also change. Although innovation in the public sector is more constrained than in the private sector (Manimala, Jose
5 & Thomas, 2006), public organizations might also benefit of the presence of intrapreneurs. As educational systems are constantly evolving and schools have to handle these changes well, intrapreneurs could help schools to overcome these changes. In the 20th and 21st century the Dutch
government alone already introduced 44 new laws and initiatives to change the Dutch educational system (Appendix A). Public organizations, such as schools, are also innovating and adapting to stay successful. In an attempt to get ahead of the status quo and the directions of the government, schools also try to innovate individually. Modern initiatives include the use of smartboards instead of blackboards (Gokulan, 2016) and the use of iPads as a supplement to books and notebooks (De iPad op Werenfridus, n.d.).
The aim of this study is to investigate whether the attitude of teachers towards tablets, entrepreneurial teachers and intrapreneurial teachers affect the quality of education in classes that use tablets. As with private organizations, firms have to innovate to deliver the desired quality of education. For schools it is very interesting to know if they can overcome the constraints to innovate and learn how they can implement new technologies in the most effective manner. To obtain this knowledge, the following research question has been developed:
- What characteristics of teachers affect the quality of education in classes that use tablets? The supporting sub-questions are:
- What is the effect of entrepreneurial teachers on the quality of education in classes that use tablets?
- What is the effect of intrapreneurial teachers on the quality of education in classes that use tablets?
- What is the effect of the attitude of teachers towards tablets on the quality of education in classes that use tablets?
First, the literature review will show the current state of the literature about entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, technological innovations on secondary schools and quality of education. Based on this literature review, the hypotheses will be established. For the next part, the quantitative data analysis, teachers will be asked to fill out a survey to investigate whether they have a positive attitude towards tablets, are entrepreneurial and are intrapreneurial. Moreover, students will be asked to fill out a survey about their teacher and how innovative technologies affect the lessons. This will show the quality of education. The quantitative data analysis will show whether the attitude of teachers towards tablets and being an entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial teacher affects the quality of education in classes that use tablets.
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2. Literature Review
2.1 Technological Innovation
The first chapter of the literature review discusses technological innovations in education. It will explain the demand for technological innovations and what technological innovations are currently implemented. The effect on the results of students will also be discussed.
2.1.1 New Students
During the last thirty years, a new type of student has evolved. New generations of students are different than older generations of students, because new students have constantly been exposed to new technologies, such as gadgets, games and mobile devices (Cobcroft, Towers, Smith & Bruns, 2006). Other researchers call these students ‘millennial students’ and state that this concerns the students born after 1982 (Howe & Straus, 2000; Jonas-Dwyer & Pospisil, 2004). These ‘natives’, referring to the fact that they grew up with technology, are different than the ‘immigrants’, who did not grew up with these technologies (Cobcroft et al. 2006). The ‘millennial students’, or ‘natives’, score higher on multi-tasking. Chatting, playing video games, listening to music and watching television can all happen simultaneously (Frand, 2000). New students want to “work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want” (Johnson, Smith, Willis, Levine & Haywood, 2011, pg. 3). According to McKenzie (2001), it is very important to match the curriculum to the preferences of the students and also to merge technology with education. Naimie et al. (2010) confirm that it is of vital importance that it is evaluated whether the technologies used meet the demand of the students. Technology can be related to technology infusion, the context and the classroom quality. To be successful, learning settings have to be in line with 21st century and information age standards. These learning settings will yield the best
results.
2.1.2 New Technologies
As students want to be flexible and learn and study whenever they feel like it, the means of education has to become more flexible as well. Mobile learning has the potential to fulfil this demand. Mobile learning is defined by El-Hussein & Cronje (2010) as “any type of learning that takes place in learning environments and spaces that take account of the mobility of technology, mobility of learners, and mobility of learning” (p. 20). In addition, Cobcroft et al. (2006) state that “mobile technologies are able to support learners’ engagement in creative, collaborative, critical, and communicative learning activities”. This is in line with the fact that ‘millennial students’ have a strong need for social interaction and have a “preference for group-based activities in study and social occasions” (Cobcroft et al., 2006, pp. 2-3). Mobile learning offers students the flexibility to take part in the educational process wherever
7 and whenever they want (Dew, 2010). The possibility to download resources is one of the means that addresses this need (Fallaize, 2010). Tablets, for example, can be used to download learning resources at all times, as long as one is connected to the internet. Moreover, students can use a tablet “to simply read from a textbook, do their online homework, and in the meantime, use multiple different applications to help them understand anything that is being talked about in lecture” (Geary, 2015). Thus, as new technologies, such as tablets, are integrated in the educational curriculum, various learning activities can be used, which address different learning styles of students (Naimie et al., 2010). Intersecting these learning styles by using a combination of information and communication technologies and face-to-face interaction, increases the students’ engagement.
This is supported by empirical research. Empirical research showed that education indeed yields the best results when the way of learnings matches the needs of students (Lovelace, 2005; Ogden, 2003), e.g. using 21st century technologies, such as tablets for the ‘millennial students’. A study by Roschelle
et al. (2007) shows that students using and interactive, digital version of a mathematics textbook on an iPad on a school in California scored 20% higher on standardized tests, compared to students with printed textbooks. Third, Enqiquez (2010) also performed a study on the use of tablets in classrooms. His study showed that for courses that implemented technology, students score higher grades on “homework, quizzes, and tests compared with courses that do not use the technology” (Geary, 2015). As other innovations, tablets and other ICT tools can only be used when they have been implemented successfully. One of the factors that influences the implementation of ICT tools is teachers’ attitudes (Al-Zaidiyeen, Mei & Fook, 2010). The fact that the attitude of teachers plays a considerate role in the implementation of ICT tools is confirmed by other researchers, such as Huang (2003) and Teo (2008). Albirini (2006) considers teachers’ attitudes as a major predictor of the success of implementation of ICT tools. Additionally, the successful in-class use of technology also depends on the attitude of the teachers towards technology (Kluever et al., 1994).
In conclusion, new students are different than older students. These students, also called ‘millennials’, are native users of modern technologies, such as internet, computers and tablets. The new students want to be very flexible and study whenever and wherever they want. As education yields the best results when the learning method matches the student, schools have to change the learning methods. A current development is that schools use tablets in the classroom. Empirical research shows that students score higher on courses that use tablets. Previous researchers concluded that successful implementation of tablets and the in-class use of tablets partially depend on the attitude of teachers towards tablets.
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2.2 Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship
This chapter will discuss entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship. First, the general concepts of entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship will be investigated. Second, intrapreneurship in an educational context will be investigated.
2.2.1 Entrepreneurship in Literature
Entrepreneurship is seen as a very positive construct. In industrialized countries entrepreneurship is linked to innovation and technological advancement, enhanced competition, increased employment and economic growth and national prosperity (Holmgren & From, 2005). The governments of less developed countries regard entrepreneurship as a way to enhance the economic development and to overcome economic and social problems (Ozaralli & Rivenburgh, 2016). As entrepreneurship has a substantial influence on the economic situation of a country and thus on the entire society, extensive research has been done on entrepreneurship. This has led to many different definitions.
A number of elements are continuously present in the definitions, such as opportunity, innovation, organizing, creating and risk taking (Ozarelli & Rivenburgh, 2016). A number of these elements, namely innovation and risk taking have been proved to enhance a firm’s performance (Wiklund & Shepherd, 2003). Cole (1949) defines entrepreneurship as a meaningful activity to start, maintain and grow a profit oriented business. This meaning emphasizes the terms organizing and creating. According to Schumpeter (1934), the newness of a product or service or innovation is the key part of entrepreneurship. Bull and Willard (1993) and Drucker (1985) also follow this approach, emphasizing the innovation aspect. They define entrepreneurship as innovative and change oriented behavior. Hisrich and Peters (2002) use a more specific definition of entrepreneurship that combines innovation and risk, namely “entrepreneurship is the process of creating something new with value by devoting the necessary time and effort, assuming the accompanying financial, psychic, and social risks, and receiving the resulting rewards of monetary and personal satisfaction and independence.” (pp. 10). The tendency to engage in entrepreneurship, and thus in innovative behavior, has been linked to numerous factors. According to Lindquist, Sol and Van Praag (2015) 40% of the tendency to engage in entrepreneurship is caused by genes. They also found that the tendency to engage in entrepreneurship is 60% higher for people who have an entrepreneur as parent. Personality has also been linked to entrepreneurial behavior (De Vries, 1977). However, studies fail to identify the true determinants of entrepreneurship. Studies investigating genes are often twin studies and these are not able to pinpoint the genes that lead to entrepreneurship (Nicolaou et al., 2008). Second, not all individuals with entrepreneurial personality traits will become and entrepreneur (Thompson, 2009).
9 To overcome this problem, another construct has been developed, namely entrepreneurial intent. Entrepreneurial intent is used a proxy to measure entrepreneurial activity (Thompson, 2009). It is used to investigate how individuals see business opportunities and whether they would exploit these opportunities (Palich & Bagby, 1995). Fini et al. (2009) characterize entrepreneurial intention as the “willingness to create new value within an existing organization” (pp. 19). It includes innovative, proactive and risky actions. Innovativeness is related to one’s intention to be engaged in creative and experimental processes that can lead to new products, services and/or processes. Proactiveness refers to one’s ability to look forward. This leads to the following definition of entrepreneurial behavior: “the creation of new value through the engagement in innovative, proactive and risky activities” (Fini et al, 2009, pp. 19).
2.2.2 Intrapreneurship in Literature
The term intrapreneurship was first mentioned by Pinchot (1985). Pinchot described intrapreneurship as exploiting new opportunities and creating economic value by initiating new ventures within an existing organization. As many previous researchers (Lessem, 1988; Jones & Butlet, 1992), this thesis will take the individual intrapreneur as the unit of investigation. Intrapreneurship is also described as entrepreneurship within existing organizations (Antoncic & Hisrich, 2003). In contrast with Pinchot (1985), Antatonic and Hirsch (2003) state that intrapreneurship does not only include new venture creation, but it can also refer to other value creating activities, such as the development of new products and innovating processes.
Intrapreneurs have an entrepreneurial mindset, which deviates from what is institutionalized (Westerberg, Nilsson & Fältholm, 2011). A regular manager will ensure that the company or his department complies with the company’s norms and conditions of the environment (Rosenfeld, Winger-Bearskin, Marcic & Braun, 1993). However, an intrapreneur will change his environment (Kirby, 1997). Entrepreneurs are known for the new products, services and services they create (Schmitt-Rodermund, 2004). This also holds for intrapreneurs. As intrapreneurship is very closely related to entrepreneurship and much entrepreneurship literature can also be applied to intrapreneurship. Aaltio, Menzel and Ulijn (2006) describe the process of intrapreneurship. The first part of the process if idea/opportunity recognition. Within organizations, it are often the intrapreneurs that are the ones that come up with new ideas. Moreover, they are the ones that are able to turn good ideas profitable. Next come the preparation for exploitation and exploitation phase. The latter is the phase that creates the true value.
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2.2.3 Intrapreneurship in Education
According to Busnov (2014), innovativeness involves creativity and experimenting with new ways of doing business. For schools this could include creating new products, services and technologies (Bostjan et al., 2001). Intrapreneurs are often the drivers these innovations, because they are capable of identifying the needs of the customer and translate these into valuable innovations (Cohen, 2002). In addition, Aaltio et al. (2006) state that technological entrepreneurship within organization is driven by people that both have enough market knowledge to judge demand and also have knowledge of critical technologies. For schools this would mean that to be successful with the implementation of tablet in classes, the teachers should both have market knowledge and knowledge of the technology. In line with Antoncic and Hirsch (2003) and Aaltio, Menzel and Ulijn (2006), intrapreneurial teachers do not have to start a new venture project, but running a new project passionately is also considered intrapreneurial (Ssekamwa, 2000). Additionally, not every new project can be considered intrapreneurial. Time, energy and money must be at risk when creating the new activity, product or service (Lavaroni et al., 2014).
To conclude, entrepreneurship is change-oriented behavior. It has a positive effect on firms’ performance. Elements that are continuously part of the definition of entrepreneurship are proactiveness, risk-taking and innovativeness. Genes and personality have been found to be predictors of the tendency to engage in entrepreneurship, but no true determinants have been found up to now. Intrapreneurship is explained as entrepreneurship within existing organizations. Intrapreneurship is not only initiating new venture projects, but can also be developing and implementing new services or processes. Intrapreneurs have a capability to identify the needs of consumers and develop and market a new service or product to satisfy this need.
2.3 Performance
The third chapter of this literature review will investigate various performance indicators. First, success will be defined. Second, monetary performance indicators will be discussed. Third, non-monetary performance indicators will be discussed. Last, it will be discussed how the performance of education can be examined.
The Business Dictionary defines success as the “achievement of an action within a specified period of time or within a specified parameter” (def. 1). Another meaning is “completing an objective or reaching a goal” (def. 1). This implies that a firm is successful if it is able to achieve a certain action or reaches a certain goal. The most vital goal of a firm and easiest measurement of success is survival (Cowling,
11 2007). Whether a firm is successful besides survival depends on the goals that are set. Measuring what a firm achieved can be measured with monetary and non-monetary performance indicators.
2.3.1 Monetary Performance Indicators
Monetary or financial performance indicators are viewed as an objective way of representing performance. The numerical values tend to be objective, because they have a fixed meaning, e.g. a profit is good, a loss is bad. Financial performance is often measures with ratios. These rations include for example the current ratio (liquidity) and the net income margin (profitability). These ratios are derived from accounting and are generally easy to measure and easy to interpret (Franceschini, Galetto and Maisano, 2007). As with profit and loss, the ratios have fixed meanings, e.g. a ratio of 0-1 could be bad and a ratio of 1+ could be good. This causes the financial performance indicators to be easy and objective to interpret.
However, the financial performance indicators also have numerous disadvantages. Financial performance indicators have an historical nature and report on past actions (Kaplan & Norton, 2001; Ghalayini & Noble, 1996). Neely (1999) criticized financial performance indicators because they lack strategic focus, encourage managers to do business as usual, instead of improving on a continuous basis and do not “provide information on what customers want and how competitors are performing” (pp. 206). Financial performance indicators only show the performance of a firm was, but not how it came to this performance (Kagioglou, Cooper & Aouad, 2001). As business environments are constantly changing at an increasing speed, it is important that firms move from the lagging financial performance indicators to other, non-financial, performance indicators that have the potential to add value on the long term (Barsky and Bremser, 1999).
2.3.2 Non-monetary Performance Indicators
Up to the 1990’s, non-financial performance indicators were barely used. However, from then on more and more organizations started using both financial and non-financial performance indicators to cover all dimensions of performance (Neely, 1999). Stivers, Covin and Smalt (1998) divide non-financial performance indicators into five categories, namely customer service (e.g. customer satisfaction), market performance (e.g. market effectiveness), goal achievement (e.g. productivity), innovation (e.g. new product development) and employee involvement (e.g. employee satisfaction). Firms that are able to balance these non-financial performance indicators with the financial performance indicators, implemented measures that are understandable for managers and link strategic measures with operational measures are industry leaders (Lingle & Schiemann, 1996).
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2.3.3 Performance and Quality of Schools
Various researchers explained quality in different ways. Literature showed various meanings for quality, such as excellence (Peters and Waterman, 1982), value (Feigenbaum, 1951), fitness for use (Juran and Gryna, 1988), meeting and/or exceeding customers’ expectations (Parasuraman et al., 1985). These terms have some overlap, but also cover different grounds. For education quality this is not different. According to Cheong Cheng and Ming Tam (1997), quality is a subjective construct and thus the indicators that researchers use to evaluate educational quality are different. Similarly, education quality is a rather vague and controversial concept in research and policy discussion. The emphasis of different researchers also varies. Some emphasize the processes and outcomes, but other emphasize the inputs (Cheong Cheng & Ming Tam, 1997). The overall quality of education is determined by inputs, processes and outputs. This is in line with Astin (1970), who presented a conceptual model consisting of student inputs, the college environment and student outputs. In his model, the college environment consists of “administrative policies and practices, curriculum, physical plant and facilities, teaching practices, peer associations, and other characteristics of the college environment” (Astin, 1970, pp. 3). In this case, the research is mainly about the teaching practices, namely teaching with tablets.
Research by Cameron and Whetten (1983) and Cheng (1990, 1996) resulted in seven models of education quality. The first model that is can be used to evaluate the quality of the educational use of tablets is the ‘Process Model’. The process converts inputs into outputs. The tablet is a mean to do this. The better the process, the more effective the staff can teach (Cheng & Tam, 1997). The process includes management process, teaching process, and learning process. The process can be evaluated using “management quality indicators (e.g. leadership, decision making), teaching quality indicators (e.g. teaching efficacy, teaching methods), and learning quality indicators (e.g. learning attitudes, attendance rate)” (Cheng & Tam, 1997, pp. 26).
The second model that can be used to evaluate the quality of the educational use of tablets is the ‘Satisfaction Model’. In the ‘Satisfaction Model’, the extent to which the educational institution is able to fulfil the need of the customer determines the quality. Quality of education can be achieved by successfully identifying and meeting the needs and expectations of students (Elliot & Shin, 2002). Satisfaction is often used as a performance indicator, because objective measurement of quality is difficult and controversial (Cheng & Tam, 1997). Satisfaction of students is often used to evaluate the quality of schools with this model. Measuring satisfaction provides schools with information to adapt to the needs of students and provides them with information whether they meet these needs (Elliot & Shin, 2002).
13 In conclusion, performance of organizations can be measured with financial and non-financial performance indicators. Financial performance indicators are very straight forward and easy to interpret, but they focus on past performance and lack strategic focus. Non-financial performance indicators include customer satisfaction and productivity. Firms that want to be industry leaders have to balance the use of financial and non-financial performance indicators. Educational quality and performance are a great source for discussion among researchers. Quality of education is determined by input, processes and output. As educational quality is hard to measure, satisfaction of students is often used as a proxy for this variable.
2.4 Hypothesis Development
This thesis investigates the characteristics of teachers that affect the quality of education in classes that use tablets. Literature suggests that the implementation of tablets is necessary because new students need different means to learn. Students born after 1982 are different from students who were born before 1982. The younger students grew up with technology and are so-called natives (Howe & Straus, 2000; Jonas-Dwyer & Pospisil, 2004). These new students demand a more flexible way of learning. They want to learn wherever and whenever they feel like it Johnson et al., 2011) Education yields the best results when the teaching style matches the learning style of the student McKenzie (2001). The teaching methods have to comply with the 21st century standards (Naimie et al.,2010).
Thus, the teaching methods have to be changed to become more flexible so students can learn wherever and whenever they want. Research shows that tablets are not only flexible, but also lead to better results (Roschelle et al., 2007; Enqiquez, 2010). Based on the literature review, three factors have been identified that affect the quality of education in classes that use tablets.
The first factor that is expected to affect quality of education in classes that use tablets is the attitude of teachers towards tablets. According to Al-Zaidiyeen, Mei and Fook (2010), the teachers’ attitude influences the implementation of ICT tools. ICT tools can be used in the process of teaching and learning and the teachers’ attitude can be a predictors of the extent to which it is used. Other researchers agree with this and state that teachers plays a considerate role in the implementation of ICT tools (Huang, 2003; Teo, 2008). Albirini (2006) even considers the teacher’s attitude as one of the major predictors of the successful implementation of ICT tools. Moreover, Kluever et al. (1994) state that the in-class use of technology partly depends on the attitude of teachers towards technology. Although much research is done on ICT tools in general and not specifically on tablets, a certain trend is visible that shows that positive attitudes towards a new technology will lead to a more successful implementation. Additionally, tablets fall under ICT tools, so it is expected that prior research on ICT tools can also be applied on tablets alone. This leads to hypothesis 1:
14 Hypothesis 1: Teachers’ Attitude towards Tablets has a positive effect on the quality of education in classes that use tablets.
The second factor that is expected to affect quality of education in classes that use tablets is how entrepreneurial a teacher is. Research shows that entrepreneurship has a positive effect on firms’ performance (Wiklund & Shepherd, 2003). Entrepreneurship is change-oriented behavior (Bull & Willard, 1993; Drucker, 1985). Personal characteristics that are a part of entrepreneurship are innovativeness, proactiveness, risk-taking (Fini et al., 2009). Entrepreneurial individuals are likely to engage in creative and experimental processes that can lead to new products, services and/or processes, take risks and have the ability to look forward. Using tablets in classrooms is a true innovation, as it changes the dynamics in the classroom (Tutty, White &Pascoe, 2005). Teachers that are entrepreneurial are more likely to have a higher openness to change and a higher tendency to engage in innovative behavior. This results in the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 2: Entrepreneurial teachers have a positive effect on the quality of education in classes that use tablets.
The third factor that is expected to affect quality of education in classes that use tablets is how intrapreneurial a teacher is. In current literature intrapreneurship is explained as entrepreneurship within existing organizations (Antoncic & Hisrich, 2003). It includes initiating new venture projects, but also developing and implementing new services or processes, such as the implementation of tablets. Moreover, intrapreneurs are able to identify the needs of consumers (Cohen, 2002). New students that are native to new technologies require new teaching methods, such as tablets. This means that the needs of students are changing. As intrapreneurs are able to identify these needs, it is likely that intrapreneurial teachers are better able to introduce this innovation to students, because they know which needs to address. This makes intrapreneurs better at implementing and working with new innovations. This is confirmed by previous research, which found that intrapreneurs are often drivers of innovation within companies (Cohen, 2002). This leads to the third hypothesis:
Hypothesis 3: Intrapreneurial teachers have a positive effect on the quality of education in classes that use tablets.
15 The three hypotheses result in the following conceptual model.
Figure 1: Conceptual Model
3. Methodology
The aim of this thesis is to investigate three factors (independent variables) that could influence the quality of education in classes that use tablets (dependent variable). These factors are teachers’ attitudes towards tablets, entrepreneurial teachers and intrapreneurial teachers. A quantitative study is performed to investigate these variables.
3.1 Sampling
Two Dutch cities have been selected to do research in. These cities are Hoorn and Amsterdam and were selected for convenience, being the hometown and the current residence of the researcher. Hoorn is a small city in Noord-Holland with approximately 71.000 inhabitants. Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands and has approximately 780.000 inhabitants. In Hoorn there are two schools that use tablets and in Amsterdam there are eight. All schools have been contacted and one school was willing to participate in the research.
3.2 Data Collection
The school that was willing to participate was visited by the researcher. In a meeting with two school officials, they acknowledged that response rates among teachers are generally very low. Therefore, it was agreed upon that the school officials would inform the teachers about the research during a
Students' Satisfaction of
the Use of Tablets
(DV)
Teachers' Attitude
towards Tablets
(IV)
Teachers'
Intrapreneurial Mindset
(IV)
Teachers'
Entrepreneurial Intent
(IV)
16 general meeting and also spread the surveys. In this meeting the teachers were asked to fill out the surveys with one of their classes. In this way it was hoped that the teachers would be more cooperative, as it would seem more like a school initiative.
The data collection consisted of two parts. First, the teachers had to fill in a survey (Appendix B) to find out their attitude towards tablets and whether they are entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial (the independent variables). This survey measured the independent variables. Second, one class of students of this teacher had to fill out another survey (Appendix D), which investigated the quality of education in a class that uses tablets (dependent variable).
Both surveys were spread via Google Forms. This application was used because it is easy to use and the researches instantly sees when a person filled out a survey. After all data was collected, the data can be exported in an Excel file, which can then be imported into SPSS to analyze the data.
3.3 Measures
The survey for the teachers had to be filled out via Google Forms and consisted of three parts. The first part investigates whether the teacher is intrapreneurial. The scale used for this variable is the Intrapreneurial Employee Index. It consists of ten items that have to be rated on a 5-point Likert scale. This scale has been developed by Elizabeth Hill (2003). Originally this scale has been developed to test whether an organization consists of individuals that are innovative, courageous and willing to change. A high score on this measure “suggests that the organization consists of many individuals who demonstrate innovative vision, courage and willingness to embrace new opportunities and demonstrate creative change” (pp. 143). In this thesis this scale is applied to individuals to test how intrapreneurial they are. The value for the intrapreneurial employee index was calculated by adding up all individual answers.
The second part of this survey investigates attitude towards tablets. This scale has been developed by Al-Zaidiyeen, Mei and Fook (2010), who adjusted a scale of Albirini (2006). The original scale was developed to test the attitude towards computers. To make it suitable to test the attitude towards tablets, the word computer and computers have been replaced with tablet and tablets, respectively. It consists of fifteen items that have to be rated on a 5-point Likert scale. Additionally, the future tense of some statements has been replaced with the present tense, as teachers that are surveyed are already using tablets. The value for this variable was also calculated by adding up all individual answers. The third part of the survey investigates how entrepreneurial individuals are. The literature review showed that personality and genes increase the tendency to engage in entrepreneurship. However, it is not yet found why some individuals with a certain personality engage in entrepreneurship and some
17 do not. Additionally, the exact genes that lead to entrepreneurship have not been identified yet. Therefore the researcher has chosen do measure entrepreneurship with a more direct scale, namely a scale for Entrepreneurial Intention. This scale has been developed by Thompson (2009) and consists of ten items that have to be rated on a 6-point Likert scale. This scale includes negatively worded and reverse coded items to overcome common method bias (Fini et al., 2009). It also includes distractor items (items 2, 3, 5 & 8). This distractor items will decrease socially desirable responding and lead to a better measurement of the desired construct (Robinson, Shaver & Wrightsman, 1991). The value for this index was calculated by adding up all individual answers, after correcting the reversely coded items and excluding the distractor items from the scale. Additionally, the survey included the questions ‘How old are you?’ and ‘How many years of teaching experience do you have?’. These questions were asked to obtain two control variables.
The second survey (Appendix D) had to be filled out by students and investigates the quality of education in classes that use tablets. The survey starts with general questions about their age and level of education. The literature showed that student satisfaction is often used to measure education quality in the educational sector. Therefore, a scale that was originally developed by Miller (2012) is used. This scale measures the student satisfaction of in-class use of tablets. The scale consists of twelve items that have to be rated on a 6-point Likert scale. The first six items review the perceived learning experience and the second six items review the perceived experience. The original scale (Appendix C) has been translated from English to Dutch by translator to make sure that all students understand the statements. Question 3 has been removed from the translation, because it was too hard to translate this statement in such a way that young students would understand it. The rating for the in-class tablet use was calculated by taking the average of all answers a student gave. The students receive a link to fill out the survey on Google Forms via their tablet.
3.4 Data Analysis
Before the gathered data could be analyzed, it had to be prepared for analysis. The data preparation was done in Microsoft Excel The original dataset consisted of twelve teachers and 125 students. Only classes of which both the students and the teachers filled out the surveys could be used, so first classes of which either the students or teachers did not fill out the survey were deleted from the dataset. Then an outlier was found. One student stated he was 25 years old, whereas all other students were between 13 and 17. This student was deleted from the dataset. This resulted in a data set that consisted of six teachers and 91 students. After that, spelling mistakes were corrected. The survey of the students included some categorical variables, such as the course they were following and the school they attended. The spelling mistakes were corrected so every student would be part of the
18 correct category. The full name of the class a student belongs to is denoted with a number and letters. The number shows in which year the student is in and the letters show to which level the class belongs (VMBO, HAVO or VWO). The survey for students included a question that asked for their class and one questions that asked for the level of education the student was following. The researcher could therefore delete the letters that were included in the answer that was given to the question in which class they were, because this question was only asked to find out in which year the student was in. Then names of the teachers were replaced with numbers to ensure that the teachers would remain anonymous. Last, one dataset had to be created that included both the survey results of the students and the survey results of the teachers. As the quality of education is expressed in terms of the teachers’ attitude towards tablets and how entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial they are, the data of the teachers was matched to the data of his students and pasted on the row of that student.
The data was analyzed using SPSS 20. The tests that were performed are a Pearson Correlation Test and a Multiple Linear Regression Analysis. For both tests a significance level of 0.05 is chosen. The regression analysis resulted in the following regression model:
Y = β0 + β1X1 + β2X2 + β3X3 + β4X4 + β5X5 + E
Where Y = students‘ satisfaction of in-class use of tablets X1 = employee intrapreneurship index
X2 = teachers’ attitude towards tablets X3 = teachers’ entrepreneurial intent X4 = teachers’ age
X5 = teachers’ experience E = error
4. Results
This chapter shows the results of the data analysis. First the descriptive statistics will be given, followed by the regression analysis.
4.1 Descriptive Statistics
The descriptive statistics are used to describe the sample. The first part of the sample consists of the students. Table 1 shows that 91 students filled out the survey. The students’ ages range from thirteen
19 year old up to seventeen years old. This corresponds with the year of secondary school they are currently in, namely years two up to four. The average satisfaction of in-class use of tablets is 3.05 out of 5. In the survey a score of 3 corresponds to neutral. The satisfaction has a high standard deviation (0.85) and this is also shown with the low minimum value (1.18) and high maximum value (5). Table 2 shows for which course the students filled out the survey.
N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
Age 91 13 17 14,75 ,914
Year 91 2 4 2,87 ,687
Satisfaction 91 1,1818 5,0000 3,050949 ,8531483
Valid N (listwise) 91
Table 1: Students’ Descriptive Statistics
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Valid Engels 17 18,7 18,7 18,7 Geschiedenis 16 17,6 17,6 36,3 Nederlands 17 18,7 18,7 54,9 Rekenen 14 15,4 15,4 70,3 Wiskunde 27 29,7 29,7 100,0 Total 91 100,0 100,0
Table 2: Students’ Frequency Table ‘Course’
The students were also asked for the type of class they were in, to indicate which level of secondary education they were following. The results of this question showed a high level of inconsistency. Student who answered that they were in the same class and followed the same course from the same teacher, indicated that they were in another type of class, e.g. some students from the same class indicated that the class was a HAVO class, whereas others indicated it was a HAVO/VWO class. It is likely that some students indicated what type of class they were in, whereas other indicated what level of education they were following. Due to the inconsistent answers, the information in Table 2 will not be used for analysis.
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Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Valid HAVO 73 80,2 80,2 80,2 HAVO/VWO 5 5,5 5,5 85,7 VMBO 2 2,2 2,2 87,9 VMBO/HAVO 5 5,5 5,5 93,4 VMBO/HAVO/VW O 4 4,4 4,4 97,8 VWO 2 2,2 2,2 100,0 Total 91 100,0 100,0
Table 3: Students’ Frequency Table ‘Type of Class’
The second part of the sample consists of the teachers that teach a certain course to the students in the first part of the sample. Table 4 shows that six teachers filled out the survey. The average age of the teachers 40 with a standard deviation of 12.58. The average years of experience of the sample is almost 9 years, with a very high standard deviation of 12.58. This is due to the fact that the sample is rather small and two teachers in the sample have been teaching for many years, whereas the other teachers are younger and have only been teaching for a few years.
The three following variable are the independent variables for the regression analysis. The first is the intrapreneurial employee index, indicating how intrapreneurial a teacher is. The maximum possible score for this variable is 50. The mean score for the sample is 41.17, with a standard deviation of 3.15. According to Elizabeth Hill (2009) a score between 36-45 is considered high. The score of 41.17 among these teacher indicates that these teachers are indeed intrapreneurial.
The second independent variable is the attitude towards tablets. The maximum possible score for this variable is 75. The mean score for this variable is 49.50 with a standard deviation of 11.98. This indicates that these values are more widely spread than the values of the previous variable.
The third independent variable investigated with the survey for teachers in their entrepreneurial intent. The highest possible score for this variable is 36. The mean score of the teachers is 19.17. This score is almost in the middle of the scale, indicating that the teachers as a group cannot be called entrepreneurial or non-entrepreneurial.
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N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
Age 6 27 57 40,17 12,576 Years_Experience 6 1 34 8,67 12,580 Intrapreneurial_Employee_ Index 6 37 45 41,17 3,125 Attitude_Towards_Tablets 6 34 70 49,50 11,979 Entrepreneurial_Intent 6 16 24 19,17 3,710 Valid N (listwise) 6
Table 4: Teachers’ Descriptive Statistics
4.2 Regression Analysis and Correlation
The data described in the previous section is first analyzed with a multiple linear regression analysis. The dependent variable in the test is the students’ satisfaction. As shown in the literature, this variable can be used as a proxy for the quality of education. The dependent variable is predicted by the independent variables, also called predictors. These variables are age, years of experience, intrapreneurial employee index, attitude towards tablets and entrepreneurial intent. Table 5 shows that the Adjusted R Square of the model is 0.122. This means that 12.2% of the variability in students’ satisfaction is determined by the predictors.
Model R R Square Adjusted R
Square
Std. Error of the Estimate
1 ,413a ,170 ,122 ,7977273
Table 5: Model Summary
The null hypothesis of a regression analysis is always β1 = β2 = β3 = β4 = β5 = 0. The null hypothesis thus means that none of the independent variables can be used to predict the dependent variable. Subsequently, the alternative hypothesis of a regression analysis is always βj ≠ 0 and where j = 1, 2 etc. Table 6 shows that the significance of the model is 0.006, which is much less than 0.05. Therefore the null hypothesis is rejected, meaning that the model includes independent variables that can be used to predict the dependent variable.
The null hypothesis of a regression analysis is always β1 = β2 = β3 = β4 = β5 = 0. The null hypothesis thus means that none of the independent variables can be used to predict the dependent variable. Subsequently, the alternative hypothesis of a regression analysis is always βj ≠ 0 and where j = 1, 2 etc. Table 6 shows that the significance of the model is 0.006, which is much less than 0.05. Therefore the null hypothesis is rejected, meaning that the model includes independent variables that can be used to predict the dependent variable.
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Model Sum of
Squares
df Mean Square F Sig.
1
Regression 11,247 5 2,249 3,535 ,006b
Residual 54,728 86 ,636
Total 65,975 91
Table 6: Anova
The previous table shows that the model includes variables that can be used to predict the dependent variable, but does not identify these variables. The following table, table 7, does not only identify the variables that can be used to predict the dependent variable, but also state show large the effect of a certain variable is on the dependent variable. Thee variables are significant with an alpha of 0.05, namely years of experience, age, and attitude towards tablets. Years of experience has a negative effect on the students’ satisfaction. The coefficient for this variable is -0.100 and the value of the variable ranges from 1 to 34 in the sample. This means that this variable negatively affects the students’ satisfaction with -.10 to -3.4. On the other hand, age and attitude towards tablets have a positive effect on the students’ satisfaction. The intrapreneurial employee index suggest that it has a positive effect on the student’s satisfaction as well, but this effect is not significant. The entrepreneurial intent suggests that it has a negative effect on the students’ satisfaction, but this is not significant either.
Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized
Coefficients t Sig. B Std. Error Beta 1 (Constant) -,994 2,898 -,343 ,733 Years_Experience -,100 ,030 -1,386 -3,298 ,001 Age ,046 ,022 ,619 2,124 ,037 Intrapreneurial_Employee_I ndex ,059 ,053 ,205 1,106 ,272 Attitude_Towards_Tablets ,052 ,021 ,687 2,481 ,015 Entrepreneurial_Intent -,100 ,060 -,400 -1,665 ,100 Table 7: Coefficients
In addition to the regression analysis, a Pearson correlation analysis has been performed. This analysis is shown in table 8. The column that contains the most valuable information is the first column, which shows the correlation of all investigated variables with the students’ satisfaction. Teachers’ age and teachers’ attitude towards tablets have a weak positive, non-significant, correlation with the satisfaction of students. Teacher’s experience has a weak negative, non-significant, correlation with the satisfaction of students. The intrapreneurial employee index correlates negatively and significantly
23 with the satisfaction of students and entrepreneurial intent correlates positively and significantly with the satisfaction of students.
Table 8 shows that more variables have a significant correlation. A very logical and strong correlation is the correlation between years of experience and age. Attitude towards tablets strongly correlates with both age and years of experience. Years of experience also shows a moderate negative correlation with entrepreneurial intentions, suggesting that more experience teachers have lower entrepreneurial intentions. A contradicting correlation is the strong negative correlation between the intrapreneurial employee index and entrepreneurial intent, indicating that intrapreneurial teachers are less entrepreneurial.
Table 8: Correlations
5. Discussion and Conclusion
Chapter 5 first discusses and interprets the results. Second, the theoretical and practical implications of this thesis will be described. Third, the limitations and suggestions for future research will be explained.
5.1 Discussion
The dependent variable of this thesis is quality of education in classes that use tablets, which is measured with the students’ satisfaction. A variable that positively affects the students’ satisfaction thus leads to a higher quality of education. The three main independent variables that have been
24 investigated in this thesis are the teacher’s attitude towards tablets, how entrepreneurial a teacher is and how intrapreneurial a teacher is.
The regression analysis shows that the attitude towards tablets has a significant positive effect on the students’ satisfaction of in-class use of tablets. This positive effect is in line with the literature review and previous research. First, previous research shows that the attitude of teachers towards technology positively affects the implementation of ICT tools (Al-Zaidiyeen, Mei & Fook, 2010; Huang, 2003; Teo, 2008). Second, Kluever et al. (1994) found that the successful in-class use of technology depends on the attitude of the teachers towards technology. This thesis shows that the quality of education in classes that use tablets is higher in classes that are taught by a teacher with a positive attitude towards tablets. The scale to measure the attitude towards tablets consisted of statements such as ‘tablets save time and effort’, ‘using tablets is enjoyable’ and ‘teaching with tablets offers real advantages’. Teachers that gave high ratings to these statements, so agree with the statements, show that they believe in the usefulness of tablets within an educational context. As teachers gain new knowledge and new experiences, their beliefs may also change, as well as their attitude. Although this thesis is not able to identify a causal effect, it could be that making a teacher’s attitude more positive also leads to a higher quality of education.
The regression analysis also suggests that entrepreneurial intent, thus how entrepreneurial a teacher is, negatively affect the students’ satisfaction of in-class use of tablets. This effect is not significant, but this does not have to mean that there is no effect. This result is in contradiction with existing literature. Entrepreneurship and being entrepreneurial is linked with being innovative, risk-taking and proactive (Fini et al, 2009). This could have led to a positive effect on the students’ satisfaction of the in-class use of tablets, as the teacher would likely be more engaged with the innovation. The teachers scored relatively low on entrepreneurial intent, meaning that they do not have intentions to become an entrepreneur. It could be that the measurement used, entrepreneurial intent, focused too much on the true intention to become an entrepreneur, and not so much on the personality, which would maybe be a better predictor. This outcome could also be a result of the small sample, as this makes it easier for one extreme value to affect the results. Another explanation, assuming that previous research cannot be applied in this case, could be that teachers with strong entrepreneurial intentions focus too much on starting a new business and are not able to focus on both starting a business and their current job, namely teaching.
The third variable that was expected to have a positive effect on the students’ satisfaction of in-class use of tablets is how intrapreneurial a teacher is. This was measured with the intrapreneurial employee index. Prior research states that intrapreneurship is exploiting new opportunities and creating
25 economic value by initiating new ventures within an existing organization (Pinchot, 1985). According to Antoncic and Hirsch (2003), intrapreneurship is also the development of new products and innovating processes. Intrapreneurs are seen as drivers of innovation. Although this thesis is not able to identify a significant relationship between being intrapreneurial and the satisfaction of students, it does suggest that there is a positive relationship. Assuming that there is a real relationship, this thesis yields similar results as previous research, namely that intrapreneurs positively affect innovation. In the educational sector, as investigated in this thesis, this would mean that teachers are better able to implement and work with tablets, resulting in a higher quality of education.
It could be argued that the two previously mentioned variables, entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship, are very closely related. However, the sample scores very different on both variables. The teachers scored much higher on intrapreneurship than on entrepreneurship. This implies that the variables do measure something else. The results also show that being entrepreneurial has a negative effect on the students’ satisfaction, whereas being intrapreneurial has a positive effect. The different answers could be due the different type of questions. The questions on entrepreneurship focused on the intention to start an enterprise. The questions on intrapreneurship focused more on the personal characteristics and attitude of teachers.
Besides the previously discussed main variables, the test also included two control variables, namely age and years of experience. Years of experience has a significant negative effect on the students’ satisfaction of in-class use of tablets. Successful innovation is likely to require a certain amount of freedom. One must be able to test the innovation to see what works well and what does not work well. It could be that teachers who have more experience become more embedded in the current way of teaching, whereas teachers with less experience have a higher willingness to change. Other researchers confirm that experience has a negative effect on the performance of an organization. Daveri and Parisi (2010) found that their measure of experience had a strong negative correlation with productivity growth in innovative firms.
For two reasons it seems then contradicting that the age of the teacher has a significant positive effect on the students’ satisfaction of in-class use of tablets. First, it is assumed that younger teachers are more into technology and thus are more likely to implement tablets into the classroom successfully. Individuals born after 1982 are seen as native technology users (Howe & Straus, 2000; Jonas-Dwyer & Pospisil, 2004). It is likely that teachers born before 1982 understand the needs of students better and are better able to work with new technologies. This could increase their ability to implement and work with new technologies. Second, old teachers are likely to have more experience with teaching, which has a negative effect on the students’ satisfaction, as shown in this thesis. The dataset of teachers is
26 very small and consisted of six teachers. The oldest teacher of the dataset had a very positive attitude towards tablets, so it is possible that this one teacher highly influenced the results.
Next to the regression analysis, a Pearson correlation analysis has been performed. The correlation analysis comes to very different outcomes than the regression analysis. Neither age, years of experience, nor attitude towards tablets correlate significantly with the students’ satisfaction. Moreover, the correlation of these variables is also weak. The correlation analysis also shows that the intrapreneurial employee index correlates negatively and significantly with the satisfaction of students and entrepreneurial intent correlates positively and significantly with the satisfaction of students. The correlation analysis thus suggests that intrapreneurial teachers negatively affect the students’ satisfaction and entrepreneurial teachers positively affect the students’ satisfaction. A possible explanation for this discrepancy in results is that the correlation analysis is a bivariate test, whereas the regression analysis is a multivariate test.
The correlation analysis also shows strong correlations between experience and attitude towards tablets and experience and entrepreneurial intent. Experience and entrepreneurial intent have a significant moderate negative correlation, meaning that experienced teachers are less likely to have entrepreneurial intentions. Experience and attitude towards tablets have a significant positive correlation, meaning that more experienced teacher have a more positive attitude towards tablets. This is probably because the oldest and most experienced teacher also had a very positive attitude towards tablets. As the sample used is very small, one extreme value can change the entire outcome.
5.2 Theoretical and Practical Implications
Extensive research has been done on entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship. Widely accepted conclusions of prior research are that entrepreneurship leads to economic prosperity and entrepreneurship within organizations, also called intrapreneurship, leads to new and innovative ventures, products, services and processes. Additionally, the attitude an individual has towards technology has an effect on the implementation of new technologies. This thesis tries to contribute to existing literature by applying general theories on entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and attitudes on education. Every sector has certain characteristics, so this could lead to different results. However, this thesis fails to find conclusive results that show there is a relationship between entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial teachers and the students’ satisfaction of in-class use of tablets. On the other hand, it is able to show that the teachers’ attitude towards tablets does have a positive effect on the students’ satisfaction, thus on the implementation. This implies that attitudes also affect the implementation of new technologies in the educational sector in a positive way. Experience in the educational sector affects the students’ satisfaction of in-class use of tablets as well, but then in a negative way.
27 For schools this thesis also has some implications. Previous research (Manimala, Jose & Thomas, 2006) showed that innovation in the public sector is more constrained than innovation in the private sector. One of the constraints might be that, due to the rise in the ageing population, the age of the teachers increases and also the years of experience a teacher has increases. This thesis shows that the experience in education has a negative effect on the students’ satisfaction of in-class use of tablets, which implies a lower quality of education. Hiring younger and less experienced teachers could result in higher students’ satisfaction of in-class use of tablets, because the less experienced teachers are less embedded in the educational system and have thus a higher openness to change. This creates a dilemma for schools. On one hand, schools will want to hire experienced teachers, because probably they are better teachers. On the other hand, less experienced teachers are more likely to lead to a higher quality of education in classes that use tablets. There is no real answer to this dilemma. However, schools with tablet classes could hire less experienced teachers for these classes and assign them a more experienced mentor, who could help them with common problems related to teaching. This thesis also shows that the attitude towards tablets positively affects the students’ satisfaction of in-class use of tablets. During the hiring process, schools could let potential candidates fill out a survey to test their attitude towards tablets, to increase the chance of hiring the right teacher for the job. Schools could also try to change the attitude of teachers towards tablets. It is important that teachers know how to use the tablets and are convinced of the advantages. Adequate training can help to change the attitude of teachers.
5.3 Limitations and Future Research
This thesis does not come without limitations. Only six teachers filled out the survey. Due to this fact there are only a few different values for the independent variables. This leads to a low power, which makes it hard to find small effects. The low amount of teachers is mainly due to the fact that schools were reluctant to take part in the research. Only one schools was willing to cooperate, so all teachers in the sample are employed by the same school. As this schools has certain requirements for teachers before they are hired, it is likely that the sample is rather homogeneous and is not a good representation of the total population. This reduces the external validity.
Second, the regression analysis is based on variables measured with a Likert scale. The interval between answers, e.g. from seldomly to sometimes might vary from person to person. This could reduce the accuracy of the regression analysis, especially when the sample is small.
The first suggestion for future research is that a larger sample could be used. Research tries to make predictions that are valid for the entire population. However, it is too expensive and time-consuming to conduct research on the entire population. Therefore research draws a sample from the total
28 population. The better the sample represents the population, the better the research is able to make predictions that are valid for the entire population. If future research manages to use a sample that is a better representation of the population, external validity will increase. A large sample will also increase the power so that small effects can also be proved.
Second, future research could try to obtain a more diverse dataset. This can be done in two ways. First, longitudinal data could be obtained by following a certain group of students for a longer period of time. It could be possible that the students’ perception of the in-class use of tablets changes of time. Second, students could be asked to fill out the survey for more than one course. This could show whether the students’ satisfaction of in-class use of tablets truly depends on the teacher, or that other factors are the true determinants.
Third, future studies could also take the relationship between the use of tablets and educational quality as main area investigation, with the role of the teacher as a moderator. When schools were contacted and visited to ask if they were interested to be a part of this investigation, it came forward that many schools were still doubtful about the effect of tablets on education. This research did not investigate the effect of tablets on education and that is why many schools decided not be take part. Future research could investigate the effect of tablets on education to ensure that many schools take part in the investigation and then also investigate the moderating effect of teachers between the use of tablets and the quality of education. This type of research will take more time, but it will result in more complete answers.
Fourth, a longitudinal study could also follow teachers. This thesis shows that the quality of education in classes that use tablets is higher in classes that are taught by a teacher with a positive attitude towards tablets. However, it is not able to show a causation. A longitudinal study could follow teachers and investigate how their attitude towards tablets changes and if the quality of education in classes that use tablets changes accordingly. This could lead to the discovery of a causal relationship.
5.4 Conclusion
The research question of this thesis is ‘What characteristics of teachers affect the quality of education in classes that use tablets?’ Based on the literature review, it was hypothesized that the teacher’s attitude towards tablets, entrepreneurial teachers and intrapreneurial teacher all had a positive effect on the quality of education in classes that use tablets. This thesis builds upon existing knowledge on entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship and tries to apply this knowledge on education. The analysis shows that the teacher’s attitude towards tablets has a significant positive effect on the quality of education in classes that use tablets and years of experience in education has a significant negative effect on the quality of education in classes that use tablets. For schools these results are useful,
