COMPUTER ATTITUDES IN AN ENGLISH SECONDARY-SCHOOL

Recent research has shown that there are consistent differences betwee n males and females and between students and teachers in their attitud es towards computers. Specifically they reveal that there are likely t o be gender differences with male students having more favourable atti tudes towards computers than female students but that those difference s are unlikely to be mirrored in the school teaching staff. Research h as also shown that students are likely to have more favourable attitud es to computers than the staff. The present paper is an attempt to fin d out to what extent these findings apply to the staff and first year students in an English secondary school. Both groups were given;a comp uter attitude questionnaire based on previously published scales [1-3] . The results are in line with the findings of previous research and a re discussed in terms of their likely impact on an ongoing study into the introduction of high access to computers in the school.