Validating UTAUT2 model of in-service kindergarten teachers’ acceptance and use of mobile learning in teaching practice for science education in China / Chen Lin

To accelerate the modernization of education and build a powerful country in education, the Ministry of Education of China formulated the “Education Informatization 2.0 Action Plan”, and the education informatization industry has achieved unprecedented rapid development. The development of information technology has promoted the arrival of the mobile network era, and mobile learning has received more and more attention in the education field. However, whether in- service kindergarten teachers intend to apply mobile learning to the teaching practice of science education and the influencing factors remain to be explored, and relevant studies are relatively lacking. Through the theoretical construction of an extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model, this study explores the key determinants of acceptance and use of mobile learning and model fitting thresholds. This study adopted quantitative research methods and conducted a questionnaire survey on 272 in-service kindergarten teachers in two public kindergartens in Wuyishan through the cluster random sampling method. Based on the data collection, SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 22.0 were used for statistical analysis. The results showed that in-service kindergarten teachers intend to actively accept and use mobile learning. Performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation, and habit were identified as the factors affecting in-service kindergarten teachers’ intention to accept and use mobile learning. Teaching experience has a moderating effect on learning value and behavioral intention. In addition, a good goodness-of-fit indicator threshold indicates the suitability of the model construction. The findings provide theoretical advancements, practical implications, and future research directions that can inform policies and initiatives aimed at promoting the integration of mobile learning in early science education. It would be a significant step in the right direction to respond to the current request for a more focused and tangible integration of technology into the science curriculum.