Primary teachers’ attitudes towards using new technology and stimulating higher-order thinking in students: A profile analysis

Critical thinking, creative thinking, problem solving and other so-called higher-order thinking skills are regarded as crucial for students to develop. Research shows that technology can be used as a tool to stimulate students’ higher-order thinking skills. However, most teachers rarely use new technology to stimulate students to engage in higher-order thinking. To help teachers in this, we need to gain an understanding of teachers’ attitudes towards using new technology and towards stimulating higher-order thinking. In this study, we explore these teacher attitudes by identifying teacher profiles based on primary school teachers’ attitudes (N = 659) towards (a) using new technology and (b) stimulating higher-order thinking. Results of the cluster-analysis revealed three teacher profiles. In follow-up focus group interviews with 21 participants, we found that teachers recognized the identified profiles and that the results of the cluster-analysis matched teachers’ self-chosen profiles in almost all cases. These results indicate that we can suitably characterize teachers based on their attitudes towards using new technology and stimulating higher-order thinking. Identification of these profiles may help us understand why certain groups of teachers may use new technology to stimulate students’ higher-order thinking, while other teachers might not. This might provide starting points for tailored teacher professionalization for different groups of teachers.