Expert teachers' reasoning about the problem of innovation : microcomputers in schools

Previous research about teachers and the problem of innovation in schools has focused on teachers' attitudes, not on their thinking. This study addresses the following questions: (a) Does teachers' thinking about the problems associated with innovation differ from their thinking about other issues related to their jobs? (b) Does the thinking of expert teachers differ from that of a comparable group of non-experts? (c) If experts and others reason differently, are there corresponding differences in their attitudes toward the introduction of an innovation?

The method used was the analysis of verbal accounts to discover rules. Social behavior is guided by prepositional rules that define a situation (if conditions) and specify a consequential set of actions (then statements). Teachers' verbal reports could be formulated into if-then propositions such as those used to program rule-based expert systems which have successfully emulated the thinking of professionals in fields other than education. This study, like others of expertise, used peer nomination to identify experts.

The subjects of teachers' "if" and "then" statements were used to categorize their rules. The type of rules teachers used depended upon the problem. Experts defined problems (if statements) either in terms of the "teacher" or "other" factors. Comparison teachers defined all problems in terms of factors other than "teacher."

Experts perceive "teacher" as the major influence in job-related problems of current concern to them. Experts see innovation in schools as someone else's problem not their own.

Measures of attitudes toward computers do not differentiate expert and other teachers. This may be due to the high proportion of computer "users" in the comparison group or the limited time computers have been in schools.

This study indicates that expert teachers can be differentiated from non-experts by the way they define situations. Experts describe the "teacher" as the major determinant of some circumstances but non-experts perceive the "teacher" as affected by, but not determining, any circumstances. Teachers' rules could indicate teachers' sense of efficacy, the only teacher factor significantly related to successful change efforts in schools. The relation between rules and other measures of efficacy is an area for further research.