Abstract:

The technology acceptance model (TAM) that guided many behavioristic investigations during the last three decades has been gradually expanded and even replaced by subsequent explanation models that attempt to predict the uptake of digital technologies in organizations. In the era of postdigital education, where the distinction between digital and non-digital becomes inessential to the design and implementation of learning activities (Fawns 2019), we face the challenge of explaining, predicting, and promoting new school practices that go beyond technology. To this endeavor, a Practice Acceptance Model was outlined as a next step to capture the nature of acceptance in relation to technologies, in which the artifacts themselves were not the object of acceptance or rejection, but rather the practices that a technology class brought about (Fuentes-Martinez 2020). In this paper, we delve further into the ideas of a Practice Acceptance Model in the context of interspersing mathematics and computer programming in education. The discussion takes up the preceding ideas that rebrand computer programming as a practice rather than a technology, along with other pedagogical practices of mathematics teachers. Therefore, the parameters that traditionally characterize TAM evaluations are here reframed to better reflect the nuances of teachers’ everyday practices. The present longitudinal study serves to postulate new variables that mediate between the advantages and disadvantages expected when teaching mathematics with elements of programming and the prevalence of this practice in subsequent teaching ventures. Two external variables stand out from these data. First, the teacher’s perceived programming readiness among their students seems to be a decisive factor in whether or not to include coding activities. Also, the perceived frequency of programming opportunities in the national exams appears to have a decisive impact on a conjoint practice. While these two factors resemble the “perceive Ease of Use” and “perceived Usefulness” from TAM, the data suggest that teachers’ internal beliefs on how to practice their discipline play an important role and should be included in a Practice Acceptance Model. Those variables include how teachers regard the intrinsic connection between programming and mathematics, as well as their understanding of which mathematical knowledge is most valuable.

Keywords:

TAM, PAM, mathematics, coding, interspersed programming.