Organizational factors which discriminate between users and nonusers of an educational innovation /

Abstract

The study was designed to determine the extent to which a self report instrument of teachers' attitudes toward seven organizational factors which impact school climate could be used by program planners to identify schools with a climate conducive to successful implementation of new programs, and to identify teachers who would be expected to successfully adopt a new program.

Research related to school climate factors which promote or inhibit change and which contribute to student achievement and research related to teachers' concerns about innovative programs was the basis for the study. The identification of teachers with potential to effectively implement new programs is a useful tool which may be used to ensure more effective school programs.

This study was concerned with the identification of school climate factors which can be used to identify individual teachers as either users or nonusers of an educational innovation. The study compared the responses of teachers to a school climate survey and to a questionnaire of stages of concern about an innovation to identify factors which were indicative of users and nonusers of an innovation.

The results of this study indicate that there are school climate factors which differentiate between users and nonusers of an educational innovation. This study provides an instrument with the potential for improving schools and for further research in the area of teacher attitudes and their effect on program implementation and student achievement.