Master of Arts (Educational Management)

Since the implementation of computer Applications to the Normal Technical Stream students' in secondary schools by the Ministry of Education in 1994, Yio Chu Kang has introduced computer Education to the Express and Normal Academic students as Enrichment Programmes. Furthermore, the school is in the Second Phase of the Ministry of Education Masterplan for IT in Education. No study was conducted to find out students' attitudes toward computers. At the organisational level, knowledge of how students respond to computers in relation to their importance as tools for learning, life, entertainment and communication, and students' confidence in their ability to use computers would therefore be useful information for planning and organising future computer education programmes.Thus the general purpose of this research was to investigate how students cope with the computer courses offered by the school, and measure their attitudes and confidence toward computers.

The research design developed for this study was a modified version of the casual model proposed by Levine and Donitsa-Schmidt (1997). The investigation explored the relationship of computer experience (independent variable) with computer confidence and computer attitudes (dependent variables). First it examined how factors affecting students' computer experience, such as computer ownership, exposure to computers in school, at home, and overall computer usage, and students' academic background influence students' computer attitudes. Second, the study examined how students' perceptions of computers as tools for learning, life, entertainment and communication influence their attitudes toward computers. Finally the study explored students' computer anxiety as an independent variable affecting students computer confidence. The subjects were a random sample of 238 students selected from all classes in the four levels (Secondary one to Secondary Four), of the three streams (Express, Normal Academic and Normal Technical) in the school. The questionnaire used comprised two sections. Section was designed to gather students' demographic data and Section B investigated students attitudes toward computers.

Result showed that the computer experience of students correlated with computer attitudes and computer confidence, the effect being greatest for the variable overall computer usage of students. This was consistent with research findings done in the past. although there was no significant different between computer attitudes of students who had home computers and those who did not, there was a significant difference in computer anxiety of these two groups. Students with home computers had a lower level of computer anxiety, indicating their confidence in using computers. The same was reflected when students from different academic background were compared. There was no significant difference in computer attitudes of students in the three streams, but students from the express stream had greatest confidence in using computers. Surprisingly, there was no significant gender difference in computer attitudes of students. However females registered a higher computer anxiety level. These findings have important implications for the school administrators and teachers as students' overall computer usage, attitudes and confidence depend in the training courses, programmes and opportunities students have in school.