The ICT use in school education has undergone a rapid change in recent years. The number of computers, interactive whiteboards and other digital technologies is growing in schools. Yet still many Czech pupils have not had an opportunity to use an electronic textbook, a podcast or an educational game (Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, 2014). This situation is reflected also in present research because there is lack of research evidence on the transition between the traditional instruction with printed textbooks and electronic textbooks use in the Czech Republic and other European countries.

The main aim of our research is to investigate the acceptance of electronic textbooks by lower secondary school pupils. As the research is in its initial phase after conducting a pilot survey on pupils’ perceptions of electronic textbooks, we would like to get a deeper insight into the issue by using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in the next phase. The aim of this phase, which will be presented on the poster, is to introduce the adaptation of a research instrument for investigating pupils’ acceptance of electronic textbooks.  The research question which we would like to answer is following: How do lower secondary pupils accept electronic textbooks in relation to the TAM model? The research instrument will be based on the TAM model which is frequently used in research relating to integration of new technologies in everyday life (Chutter, 2009; Lee et al., 2003).   

The TAM model is in a close connection with the Theory of Reasoned Action  (TRA), which is often applied in social psychology, mainly investigating the relation of people and information technology (Mathieson, 1991).  The TAM model reflects two processes of perception which significantly influence acceptance of technologies: (1) perceived usefulness; (2) perceived ease of use (Davis, 1989, Subramanian, 1994, Swanson, 1982).  Perceived usefulness is defined as the degree to which an individual believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance (Mathieson, 1991).  When applying this statement to the school environment with electronic textbooks we can draw this assumption: If a pupil perceives the electronic textbook as a useful technology, the electronic textbook can enhance his/her learning performance. The second mentioned process, perceived ease of use, refers to the expectation of an user that the use of the particular technology will be easy and user friendly. In this context, the predictions of behaviour in the TAM model are based on intentions of the user, which is considered a dependant variable in the research.

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