Adoption of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) in Saudi Arabian EFL Classrooms

This study aimed to examine EFL teachers' concerns about the adoption of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) in Saudi Arabia. The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) was used to analyze the participants' stages of concern (SoC) about MALL. The study also investigated whether some specific demographic and technographic variables (gender, age, teaching experience, and professional development) had any statistically significant effect on EFL teachers’ stages of concern about MALL. The participants in this study were (130) Saudi EFL public school teachers. The results revealed that the participants had high concerns at the Informational, Personal, and Management stages and minimal concerns at the Awareness, Refocusing, Collaboration, and Consequence stages. The MANOVA analysis revealed no significant difference among EFL teachers in terms of their MALL stages of concerns in relation to their gender, age, and teaching experience. Such findings indicate that Saudi EFL teachers' gender, age, and teaching experience have no effect on their concerns about using and implementing MALL. However, The MANOVA analysis yielded a significant difference among EFL teachers in terms of their MALL stages of concerns in relation to their professional development. These results entail that Saudi EFL teachers' professional development has a significant effect on their concerns about MALL. The study concluded that technology-related professional development could help decrease teachers’ self-concerns and increase their impact-concerns. The study recommended providing EFL teachers with technology-related professional development to ensure successful MALL adoption.

The case of middle and high school chemistry teachers implementing technology: using the concerns-based adoption model to assess change processes

An ongoing process of reforming chemical education in middle and high schools in our country introduced the technology-enhanced learning environment (TELE) to chemistry classes. Teachers are encouraged to integrate technology into pedagogical practices in meaningful ways to promote 21st century skills; however, this effort is often hindered by teacher concerns and resistance to change. We applied the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) to examine whether and how it could be used to identify chemistry teachers' concerns, and to characterize the process of change they experience when integrating TELE. An analysis of two kinds of participants, one of high school chemistry teachers and the other of middle school chemistry teachers, helped us to obtain an in-depth understanding of the way these teachers adopted the innovation. Results revealed that after ten years of implementation, the concerns of high school teachers remained multi-focal, and the impact and personal concerns increased and were predominant. Examining three case studies of middle school teachers showed that one teacher remained in the early stages of concerns during one year of implementation, while the other two exhibited a process of change, moving forward to advances stages of concerns. Our study can shed light on how CBAM might serve as a diagnostic tool for differentiating between teachers with different qualifications, experiences, and concerns in diverse teaching situations in middle school and high school. Such diagnosis can help stakeholders in the education system to develop specific interventions and activities for different groups of teachers based on specific concerns while implementing TELE.