Pre-Service Teachers’ Attitude & Extent of Social Media Utilization for Educational Purposes in Tertiary Institutions in Minna Metropolis, Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

Students’ learning can only be promoted when teachers employ technological innovations such as social media in disseminating instructional contents. Correct disposition and present usage of such innovations for academic purposes by pre-service teachers will go a long way to determine whether such would be integrated into teaching and learning when they eventually become teachers. This study was therefore carried out to investigate pre-service teachers’ attitude and extent of social media utilization for educational purposes in tertiary institutions in Minna, Metropolis Niger State, Nigeria. The influence of gender on per-service teachers’ attitude towards utilization of social media was also examined. Cross-sectional survey design was adopted. Four research questions and two hypotheses were answered and tested respectively. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 1,200 pre-service teachers from two tertiary institutions. Researchers-developed questionnaire was used to elicit responses from respondents and was validated by two educational technology specialists and two test and measurement experts. The reliability of the questionnaire was computed and 0.89 using Cronbach alpha index was obtained in a single administration during pilot study. Data gathered were analyzed using percentage, mean, standard deviation and Mann-Whitney U test. Findings revealed that pre-service teachers have positive attitude towards the use of social media and that they do not use the platforms majorly for academic activities while gender has no influence on their attitude and usage. It was therefore recommended among others that pre-service teachers should be made aware and sensitized on benefits of using social media for educational activities and also that the use of social media should be integrated into the curriculum of teachers in training.