Award Date

12-2011

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership

Department

Educational Leadership

First Committee Member

Edith Rusch, Chair

Second Committee Member

Gene Hall

Third Committee Member

James Crawford

Graduate Faculty Representative

Kendall Hartley

Number of Pages

176

Abstract

"We are living in a time of change. Rather than viewing change as a painful course of action, let's develop an understanding of how it works, how to facilitate the process, and how to learn from our experiences" (Hall & Hord, 2011, p. 18).

This study used a snapshot of a private Kindergarten-12th grade school during the third year of the implementation of a technological innovation (RenWeb) to investigate teacher concerns during the process of change and gain insights into individuals' use of metacognition to resolve those concerns. Two primary research instruments were used, the Stages of Concern Questionnaire (George, Hall, & Stiegelbauer, 2006) and the Learning Combination Inventory (Johnston, 1996). Although both instruments have been used extensively for research studies, they have not been used together in the same study.

The researcher used Johnston's (2010) description of "metacognition [which] is the internal talk that goes on in your mind among your team of Learning Processes" (p. 60). The interaction of these four Learning Processes; Sequence, Precision, Technical Reasoning, and Confluence combine to create an individual's learning combination.

Research data were collected through the self-administered Web-based Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SoCQ) and Learning Combination Inventory (LCI). After grouping SoCQ profiles based on their relative distance across the Implementation Bridge (Hall & Hord, 2011), and the LCI reports based on similarity of patterns, 11 randomly selected interviewees were chosen to provide more in-depth data.

One part of the research provided teachers with information about their learning patterns by completing the LCI online, which included a personal report and a website to obtain more information. The researcher thought this would stimulate conversations about how people learn, however that was not the case. The data revealed in this research suggest that people need more time and support to use knowledge of their learning patterns in order to increase communication about learning. Even though teachers did not engage in any further research about Let Me Learn © or participate in conversations about the process many people thought knowledge of learning patterns might influence the way they approach learning about RenWeb in the future.

The second part of the research explored the SoCQ and LCI groups in a variety of ways to search for a relationship between an individual's Stages of Concern profile and learning pattern. Although the data comparing individuals' Stages of Concern and approach to learning provided a rich description of both research instruments, there was no clear relationship between them. However, there were some similarities between them in the larger SoCQ and LCI groups. Based on the data, using the SoCQ along with knowledge of learning patterns and how they interact (metacognition) may provide a change facilitator with adequate information to address the concerns of participants with appropriate support and training to increase the effectiveness of implementing an innovation.

Finally, Friedman (2005) challenges "being adaptable in a flat world, knowing how to 'learn how to learn', will be one of the most important assets any worker can have, because job churn will come faster, because innovation will happen faster" (p. 239). Johnston (2010) believes metacognition answers the challenge because "the mind remains the most vital technology for communication with others and ... navigating the world of the 21 st century requires high-speed learning and communicating" (p.134).

Keywords

Change (Psychology); Adult learning; Education; Education — Effect of technological innovations on; Educational change; Educational technology; Metacognition; Technological innovations

Disciplines

Curriculum and Instruction | Educational Psychology | Elementary Education and Teaching | Junior High, Intermediate, Middle School Education and Teaching | Secondary Education and Teaching

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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