The Impact of a Federally Funded Grant on a Professional Development Program: Teachers’ Stages of Concern Toward Technology Integration

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of a teacher professional development program funded by a No Child Left Behind (NCLB) grant on program participants’ (teachers’) stages of concern toward instructional technology integration into curriculum. The study also explored potential differences in the concern levels among the participants from different age groups, school levels and gender. The data analyses of the pre-/post-/follow-up survey responses submitted by 377 participants revealed that the program was quite successful in reducing participants’ self based concerns while increasing their impact-based concerns about technology integration. This was a very encouraging profile, according to the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM). Participants’ ages reflected differential concern levels at some stages, whereas the school level they taught had no influence on this issue.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Richard Overbaugh

Richard C. Overbaugh, associate professor of instructional design and technology, has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in the Darden College of Education at Old Dominion University since 1993. His research interests are technology-based/ enhanced instructional design and strategies; the value of academic community from the perspectives of learning preferences, perceived learning, and metacognition; and the effect of professional development on teachers’ implementation of instructional technology in the classroom, including environmental enhancements or deterrents.

Ruiling Lu

Ruiling Lu obtained her PhD in education from Old Dominion University in 2005 and completed her postdoctorate at the same institute in 2008. She has 6 years of secondary school teaching experience and more than 10 years of college teaching experience. She has served as a grant evaluator for a federally funded program (NCLB) since 2003. Currently she manages the administration of the ALTS test in China, which was developed collaboratively by ETS and Beijing Assess Huikai Educational Science & Technology Development Co., Ltd. (EduAssess).