The Influence of Schooling Environment: A Review of Instruments Used to Evaluate Students' Attitudes toward Technology

There are two difficulties associated with many previous evaluations of students' attitudes toward technology. First, most questionnaires focus on social and family environments, neglecting the schooling environment. Second, although some studies have considered the schooling environment, there has been no systematic review of these studies. To address this research gap, this study systematically identified articles from major education journals that have described students' attitudes toward technology. We reviewed these articles, evaluated the influence of the schooling environment, and created a valuable resource for future studies. Our review indicates that technological activities and advanced preparation by teachers can be beneficial in alleviating "boredom" as a key negative affective component of school environment. Equally important, our research indicates that technology classes, those that use modern technology as a basis for instruction, and those that stimulate higher-level thinking processes, can reduce the "difficulty" (a cognitive component of the schooling environment) of learning and improve students' conceptualizations of technology.