Shaping Future Educators: Attitudes toward Augmented Reality Adoption in Teaching

Abstract

The study aims to explore the attitudes of pre service teachers towards applying augmented reality in education. The sample in this mixed-method study includes 30 teachers in pre-service education who participated in a workshop explaining the topic of augmented reality and its use in teaching. Following the workshop, participants answered a questionnaire consisting of 27 questions divided into eight determinants, namely: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitation conditions, hedonic motivation, price value, habit, and behavioral intention. Four of the participants also took part in an in-depth interview. The results show that participants’ inclination towards using augmented reality in education was positive, regardless of their specialization or training received. Specifically, several determinants scored high, such as performance and effort expectancy, hedonic motivation, habit and behavioral intention, that positively affected participants’ attitude. These results are also consistent with the cognitive load theory, which states that the educational environment enhanced with augmented reality helps learners in retrieving and remembering information, consequently resulting in reducing the cognitive burden on them. The study, however, also uncovered obstacles that may hinder the process of implementing augmented reality in teaching, such as the lack of facilities and high cost. Furthermore, the study recommends providing training courses to help teachers with the initial efforts in understanding how to implement augmented reality technology in the classroom.