Abstract:
In this research, it is aimed to reveal safety expectations of pre-service teachers in the design of smartphones and to examine them in terms of 8 variables as follows: gender, generation (Y-Z), department/branch group, main purpose of smartphone use, operating system, number of smartphones used, smartphone replacement frequency and smartphone segment preference. Quantitative research method was adopted, and the relational survey model was used. For the collection of data, Safety Expectations in the Design of Smartphones Scale (SEitDoSS) -which was developed as part of the first author’s Ph.D. thesis- consisting of 21 items and 5 factors (user-specific expectations, device-specific expectations, integration expectations, health-specific expectations and support expectations) and a Personal Information Form created to collect participants’ information about the variables. Anadolu and Osmangazi Universities (universities in Eskişehir province of Türkiye) were selected to obtain data. The application was carried out online in the spring semester of the 2020-2021 Academic Year, and a total of 252 participants were reached during the 8-week application. According to the results, pre-service teachers’ safety expectations in the design of smartphones are generally high. There was a significant difference in at least one dimension in terms of 7 variables: gender, generation, department/branch group, main purpose of smartphone use, operating system, smartphone replacement frequency and smartphone segment preference. According to the “number of smartphones used”, there was no significant difference in terms of safety expectations of smartphones in design. The implications of the results are discussed with the support of the studies in the literature.