Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand early childhood student teachers' self-reported acceptance and use of interactive whiteboard (IWB), by employing the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) as the research framework. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 112 student teachers enrolled in science-related papers from Bachelor of Early Childhood Education completed the questionnaire, measuring their responses to performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating condition and behavioural intention. Structural equation modelling was used as the main technique for data analysis. Findings: The results of this study showed that performance expectancy and effort expectancy were found to have a direct and statistically significant positive effect on behavioural intention. Of the four variables in the UTAUT model, the model accounted for 41 per cent of the variance in behavioural intention to use IWB among student teachers. The findings obtained in this study fail to verify the predictions about IWBs experiences having moderating effects towards the relationships. Originality/value: This is the first paper that investigated the acceptance and use of IWB among early childhood science student teachers based on the UTAUT model. The findings have uncovered the important distinction of performance expectancy and effort expectancy in IWB acceptance and use. Hence, it provides several prominent implications for the research and practice. (Contains 6 tables and 1 figure.)