Exploring the impact of introducing iPads to EFL classrooms in primary schools in Saudi Arabia

The use of educational technology has become an increasingly important element for improving teaching and learning in and out of the classroom. This study investigated the implementation of iPads in English as a Foreign Language classrooms in Saudi Arabian primary schools. It aimed to investigate the attitudes and perceptions of teachers and students towards implementing iPads into their teaching and learning settings. This study involved 31 female primary EFL teachers and 350 students in grades five and six (aged 10-11 years old). A concurrent mixed methods research design was employed to obtain quantitative and qualitative data from teachers and students. Firstly, closed-ended surveys, individual interviews and focus groups were conducted to determine teachers' attitudes and perspectives towards introducing iPads in their EFL classrooms. Secondly, closed-ended surveys and focus groups were conducted with students to examine their attitudes and perspectives towards using iPads when learning EFL. Thirdly, findings were triangulated with classroom observations to capture the actual teaching and learning activities occurring and to try to see the perceived impacts of teachers and students using iPads in EFL settings. Although findings suggested that by using iPads teachers’ pedagogy and content knowledge (Technological Pedagogical Knowledge [TPK] and Technological Content Knowledge [TCK]) were enhanced, they experienced some barriers related to their Technological Knowledge (TK) (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). The study examined the teaching and learning roles in classrooms when using iPads and found three roles: a shared role of teachers and students, a student-led role, and a teacher-led role. The most common role in the study was the Shared Role: where the teacher led the lesson initially, but it then became student driven. This was an important finding as 21st century learning requires students to have more autonomy in the classroom (Papanastasiou et al., 2019). These roles were examined in 6 relation to Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (Anderson et al., 2001) to determine how they impacted on the levels of thinking occurring in these classrooms. Findings showed there was no link between this Shared (joint) role and higher order thinking (HOT) activities with the predominant teaching and learning activities observed involved students in lower order thinking activities. The Student led role however did show students were likely to be involved in HOT for over 50% of the time when being observed. This is a promising outcome for developing 21st century skills in the EFL classroom in which students are able to achieve better learning outcomes with integration of technology (Khalaf & Mohammed Zin, 2018). The emphasises on a student-centred approach to develop 21st century learning skills and engaging learners in HOT increases the ability for them to be able to develop their analytical, questioning, synthesising and critical thinking skills which also enhances students' English language skills (Pardede, 2020). Student-centred learning and learning autonomy are key aspects of 21st century learning (Bremner et al., 2022) and are fundamental to success in foreign language learning (Alrashidi, 2022), and this study has demonstrated this by revealing three key roles of language learners who accessed, practised and constructed language when using iPads. Such results allow for a clearer idea and better understanding about best practices in ensuring a student-centred approach using tablet devices in the EFL context.