Exploring technology readiness and practices of kindergarten student-teachers in Saudi Arabia: A mixed-methods study

This study aims to explore kindergarten student teachers’ readiness to integrate technology into their future classrooms and factors affect their integration. A mixed-methods, sequential explanatory design was utilized to achieve the research purposes. There were two phases. The first phase conducted a survey to assess technical and pedagogical readiness levels as well as participants’ pedagogical attitude and opinion toward technology integration. The second phase conducted follow-up interviews to understand how participants intended to transfer their intentions into practice and factors affect their technology integration. The first-phase results showed that participants were ready to implement technologies while having positive attitudes toward technology integration. The second-phase results confirmed all participants were able to transfer their technical skills into professional practice. However, few were ready to practically apply their pedagogies. The results indicate three main factors, including technological resources, the school infrastructure, and the number of students in their classrooms. It is recommended to improve teacher preparation program to develop teacher technology readiness.