The influence of professional use of computers, concerns, and computer self-efficacy on technology integration beliefs of teachers in India

India has carved an indelible niche in the information technology world. According to the Task Force on Human Resource Development in Information Technology (2000), India already has a very large pool of scientific and engineering manpower. There is, however, a concern that unless the education and training system continues to supply high quality manpower, this advantage could be lost. One of the major strategies must be to promote technology-enhanced education.; Recognizing that there would be a significant demand for teachers having technology skills at elementary and secondary levels, the purpose of this study was to investigate the beliefs that teachers in India have about technology integration, and how they might be influenced by professional use of computers, concerns, and computer self-efficacy.; A survey was conducted using the Technology Survey Instrument. The final sample consisted of 267 school teachers teaching regular school subjects in grades 1 through 10.; The results of ordinary least squares multiple regression procedure indicated that the block of variables professional use of computers, concerns, and computer self-efficacy explained almost half of the variance in teacher technology beliefs with two of the three independent variables, concerns, and computer self-efficacy having significant positive effects.; The non-significant relationship of professional use of computers with teacher technology beliefs discarded a basic premise of this study that teachers who used computers more frequently for their own tasks would also be more willing to integrate technology. This led to the assumption that despite positive beliefs about technology integration, there were other intervening factors that prevented teachers from using computers. A plausible explanation could be that although computers were present in laboratories in every school teachers did not have sufficient access, or lacked sufficient time to plan and evaluate integration lessons.; Recommendations for further research were based on a sound technology plan for schools in India, professional development courses for inservice teachers, and longitudinal studies on stages of concerns and interventions dealing with them.