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Staff development participation of Connecticut technology education teachers and receptivity to change and innovation
Abstract
Industrial arts education is changing its curriculum to teach technology education. Teacher education programs in industrial arts have also changed their curriculums to prepare teachers for the new technology education programs. Current industrial arts teachers are in great need of staff development opportunities to help them deal with technological change, update their skills, and enable them to develop a curriculum to teach technology education. The purpose of this study was to survey Connecticut technology education teachers to determine their participation in specific staff development activities. The study also allowed responding teachers to identify how beneficial they perceived the staff development activities to be. In addition, the study was designed to identity significant correlations between staff development activities, attitude toward change, flexibility, and innovativeness. The substantive findings after a survey was administered are: (a) Connecticut teachers participated in a variety of staff development activities, with activities required as conditions of employment and activities related to state certification requirements receiving the greatest percentage of participation; (b) the staff development activities perceived as most beneficial by Connecticut technology teachers were those activities that were not required and in which the teachers voluntarily choose to participate; (c) a correlation was found between attitude toward innovation and participation in graduate degree programs, independent study, the technology teacher enhancement center, research projects, and curriculum development projects; (d) a correlation was found between flexibility and participation in teacher networks, and interdisciplinary teams; and (e) a correlation was found between innovativeness and participation in regional conferences, state conferences, state association meetings, student group advising, interdisciplinary teams, school committee meetings, and parent teacher groups. Lastly, recommendations were made for additional research and suggestions were made to modify the methodology.
Subject Area
Teacher education|Industrial arts education
Recommended Citation
Tracey, William Edgar, "Staff development participation of Connecticut technology education teachers and receptivity to change and innovation" (1993). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9329678.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9329678