Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

5-1993

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Major Professor

Carroll B. Coakley

Committee Members

Bill Radcliff, Carol Kasworm, Charles Thompson

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate and describe academic and vocational teachers' concerns about Tech Prep as an educational innovation. The Stages of Concerns Questionnaire (SoC), a questionnaire used in the Concerns Based Adoption Model or CBAM was used to determine if there were significant differences in the concerns of academic and vocational teachers about Tech Prep. The population for the study consisted of academic and vocational teachers in the southeast region of the United States who were currently participating in Tech Prep programs at the secondary level and attended one of two conferences surveyed. Sample one was collected at a Tech Prep workshop at Pellissippi State Technical Community College in Knoxville, TN. Sample two was collected at the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Conference in Atlanta, GA. Three hundred and four teachers responded to the CBAM questionnaire. The data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to determine if there was a significant difference in academic and vocational teachers' concerns about Tech Prep as an educational innovation. The main effects were analyzed as well as the interactive effects, which included type of teacher (academic or vocational) with length of time in Tech Prep, and type of teacher (academic or vocational) with location (state) of employment. An overall level of significance was set at .05. Bonferroni pairwise comparison tests were calculated to determine which differences were significant. Major conclusions, based on the findings were the following: There were no significant differences for any of the five hypotheses addressed in the study. This fact calls into question a historical assumption that there are differences in academic and vocational teachers. Historically there have been significant differences in philosophies, teaching techniques and learning theories of academic and vocational educators. Therefore, it was assumed that there would be significant differences in the concerns of academic and vocational teachers at each Stage of the SoC about Tech Prep as an innovation. In terms of implementation, the fact that the study indicated there were no significant differences between academic and vocational teachers' concerns at the three stages of the SoC questionnaire about Tech Prep seems significant for the success of the innovation. Possibly the two groups are more homogeneous than had been previously thought. As no differences appeared in the Task Stage for any of the variables, it would seem that once teachers understood their individual roles in Tech Prep, there would be no differences in how they addressed the tasks ahead of them. When all teachers were placed into one group, regardless of classification as academic or vocational, a significant difference in teachers' concerns about Tech Prep based on the length of time they had been involved with the innovation was established. This supports the premise of the Concerns Based Adoption Model that the longer an individual is involved with an innovation, his/her concerns progress from one level to another.

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