TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE READVOLUTION APPLICATION: USABILITY, USEFULNESS, AND INTENTION TO USE IN PRIMARY READING INSTRUCTION

Abstract

The integration of digital tools into primary reading instruction has gained significant momentum in Malaysia, driven by national educational policies that prioritise technology-enhanced learning. However, the effectiveness of such tools depends critically on teacher acceptance, making the evaluation of teachers’ perceptions an essential undertaking. This study examined primary school teachers’ perceptions of the READvolution application, a web-based reading platform developed to support literacy instruction in Malaysian primary schools across three constructs: Perceived Ease of Use, Perceived Usefulness, and Behavioural Intention to Use. Grounded in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) proposed by Davis (1989), the study adopted a quantitative descriptive research design, with data collected from 30 primary school teachers in Penang, Malaysia, through a validated 15-item Likert-scale questionnaire. Descriptive analysis revealed very high mean scores across all three constructs: Perceived Ease of Use (M = 4.49, SD = 0.86), Perceived Usefulness (M = 4.51, SD = 0.88), and Behavioural Intention to Use (M = 4.50, SD = 0.85), yielding an overall mean of M = 4.50 (SD = 0.86). The highest-rated item across the study was teachers’ willingness to recommend READvolution to colleagues (M = 4.70, SD = 0.75), indicating strong peer advocacy and collective endorsement of the application. These findings suggest that READvolution effectively addresses the key determinants of technology acceptance as conceptualised in TAM, namely that teachers perceived the application as both easy to use and useful for enhancing reading instruction, which in turn drove strong intentions to continue its use. The study affirms READvolution’s potential as a pedagogically sound and teacher-accepted tool for primary reading instruction and offers evidence-based insights for educators, school administrators, curriculum developers, and educational technology designers seeking to advance technology-integrated literacy education in Malaysia.