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.

TAC Internal Consistency Reliability

Internal consistency reliability estimates for the 9 parts of the TAC, based on data from 550 teachers in a large metropolitan, is provided in Table 10. All 9 TAC scales appear to be "very good" according to the guidelines provided by DeVellis (1991).

 

TAC - Recommended Administration Procedures

This questionnaire is composed of well-validated portions of several attitudinal surveys that have been used with teachers in the past. Administration normally requires 10-15 minutes. Each part can be administered as a stand-alone module if desired.

The Teachers' Attitudes Toward Computers (TAC)