What Makes Teachers Change? Factors that Influence Post-secondary Teachers’ Adoption of New Computing Curricula
Author(s)
Ni, Lijun
Guzdial, Mark
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Abstract
This study explores factors that influence teachers’ adoption of curriculum
innovations in the context of one specific innovation—Contextualized Computing Curricula.
From a teacher-oriented perspective, we propose a theoretical model to represent hypotheses
regarding potential adoption factors with an emphasis on the knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes
that teachers hold about curriculum, students and themselves. We conducted a pilot study to
examine those proposed factors through three summer workshops in 2007. We use the results
of the pilot study to extend and refine the proposed model. Our findings indicate that teacher
excitement in the new course drives adoption, while systemic issues inhibit adoption. This
model might potentially provide a basis for researchers to devise effective strategies for
removing barriers that prevent teachers’ adoption, and thereby foster the dissemination of
innovations emerging from the learning sciences community.
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Date
2008
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Text
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Technical Report