Psihološka Obzorja (Jan 2010)
Students', teachers', and parents' attitudes towards electronic grade book
Abstract
Electronic grade book is a new way for teachers to inform parents about their child's grades and absences. The aim of our study was to examine, whether there are any differences in students', teachers' and parents' attitude towards electronic grade book. We were especially interested if there will be an effect between the use of electronic grade book and the level of schooling on attitudes towards electronic grade book. We constructed a questionnaire for each group of participants to asses the differences among those who already use the electronic grade book and those who do not. The questionnaire was filled in by 170 primary school students, 177 secondary school students, 166 primary and secondary school teachers and 181 parents. The results showed important interaction effect between the use of electronic grade book and the educational level on the attitudes towards electronic grade book in the group of students. Secondary school students who attend schools that already use electronic grade book systems are more inclined towards it than those who attend schools that do not use the mentioned system. Important differences in attitudes were found between primary and secondary school teachers. Primary school teachers are more concerned with potential decrease of important personal contacts with parents with the use of electronic grade book. We found out that parents are the most inclined towards electronic grade book and students the least inclined. Nevertheless, the attitudes of most participants are still unformed which is probably because of their insufficient knowledge about electronic grade book.