Fuzzy cognitive map modelling educational software adoption

Educational software adoption across UK secondary schools is seen as unsatisfactory. Based on stakeholders’ perceptions, this paper uses fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) to model this adoption context. It discusses the development of the FCM model, using a mixed-methods approach and drawing on participants from three UK secondary schools. The study presents three phases involved in the development of the model, where individual FCMs were developed in phase one and then the individual FCMs were aggregated in phase two. In phase three, further interrelationships identified from the empirical data were assigned weightings and added, resulting in the final FCM model. Following a static analysis of the model, the resulting FCM offers a visual medium of factors key to the adoption of educational software as perceived by relevant stakeholders. As a holistic model it provides insight into the context of educational software adoption in schools, which can be used to guide both educational decision-makers in where to focus their efforts and software developers in terms of more focused and appropriate software development efforts.