Unveiling Hype Cycle Patterns: Examining 3D Modeling and Printing Adoption Among Secondary School Teachers

Abstract

Despite numerous studies indicating the positive contribution of 3D modeling and printing (3DMP) in learning settings, its current educational use is still rather limited. For the adoption of 3DMP in classrooms, it is critical to understand the views and perceptions of teachers on such new technology. To better understand how teachers perceive 3DMP, a longitudinal study was conducted with 73 Montenegrin secondary school teachers. The study used the Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies approach to examine changes in teachers' views and perceptions of 3DMP over four time periods: before a workshop on using 3DMP in teaching, immediately after the workshop, three months later, and one year later. Results showed that teachers were motivated to use 3DMP to keep up with new technological trends, create classroom materials, promote inclusion, and STEM learning, and improve students' learning outcomes. The peak of inflated expectations (immediately after the workshop) is characterized by excessively high teacher expectations of 3DMP in terms of perceived pedagogical impact (PPI), perceived usefulness (PU), and barriers (BAR), while teachers' anxiety (ANX) is low; trough of disillusionment (3 months after the workshop) leads to a significant decrease in teachers' positive views and perceptions of PPI, PU, BAR, but an increase in ANX; the slope of enlightenment (one year after the workshop) leads to a recovery in teachers' positive views and perceptions of 3DMP's contribution to PPI, PU, but also BAR, while ANX significantly decreases. These findings provide recommendations for teacher educators, policymakers, 3DMP developers, and future researchers to better support the use of 3DMP in education.