AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY FOR TEACHING BY SAUDI TEACHERS IN SAUDI PUBLIC SCHOOLS

This study was conducted to investigate the actual use of technology by Saudi teachers for teaching their subjects in Saudi Arabia's public schools. The study was conducted in Gassim City, Saudi Arabia, by randomly selecting four schools from different educational stages. The participants were 39 Saudi teachers (14 males and 25 females) who teach various subjects. The study used a quantitative data collection method for gathering the required information via questionnaires. In addition, qualitative data were collected from open-ended questions in the questionnaire. The results showed that technology has been used by most of the teachers for teaching their subjects, though a few of them reported that they had not used it before. The findings showed that there were some barriers to using technology for teaching, such as lack of training on the proper use of computers in education, classrooms are not fitted to use technology and a lack of e-sources in schools which forces the teacher to bring them him/herself. However, the findings showed that female teachers used technology more frequently than male teachers. Furthermore, the findings showed that both male and female teachers have positive attitudes towards technology for teaching and they reported that their students share the same attitude.