AAC technology learning Part 3: Regular AAC team members

The specific purposes of this article were (a) to study the computer technology interest levels, achievement goal orientation, self-efficacy, and learning mode preferences regarding AAC technology in AAC team members; and (b) to study the relationships among these variables to understand factors related to, and predictive of, learning mode preference. The companion articles focused on AAC intervention specialists and on pre-professional students. AAC team members reported relatively low interest in computer technology per se. They reported high mastery achievement goal orientation with a somewhat lower performance orientation and a relatively low social orientation. As a group the AAC specialists and regular AAC team members who participated in this investigation did not report strong learning mode patterns. However, the correlation analysis revealed some interesting trends. Self-efficacy was highly correlated with technology learning mode preference. Those with relatively high self-efficacy preferred to learn technology alone and did not prefer direct, step-by-step instruction. Those with relatively low self-efficacy preferred learning via step-by-step instruction over learning alone.