Missouri secondary vocational education teachers' concerns regarding Internet adoption.

摘要

The purpose of this study was to identify concerns of Missouri vocational teachers regarding the instructional use of the Internet. Based on the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (C-BAM) of change theory, this study compared the concerns of teachers from six vocational education program areas and two school settings. The program areas were agriculture, business, marketing, health, industrial technology, and family and consumer sciences. The two school settings were area vocational schools and comprehensive high schools. The study also identified (a) ways in which Missouri vocational education teachers used the Internet and (b) teacher perceptions of factors that influenced Internet adoption.;A stratified random sample of 360 teachers was selected to participate in the study. Self-reported data were collected using a mailed survey instrument comprised of researcher-created items and the C-BAM Stages of Concern Questionnaire. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA), and least significant difference post hoc comparisons.;The findings revealed that e-mail was the most frequently used instructional application of the Internet among Missouri vocational education teachers. Findings of the study also indicated that the availability of computer hardware was the factor with the greatest influence on the instructional use of the Internet. Responses to the C-BAM Stages of Concern Questionnaire revealed that Missouri vocational teacher concerns were highest at the first three stages of concern indicating that respondents, in general, were nonusers of Internet technology.;Results of hypothesis testing revealed significant differences in the concerns of teachers among the six vocational education program areas; however, program area explained very little of the variance in the stages of concern. Significant differences in concerns were not revealed between area vocational school teachers and comprehensive high school teachers.;It was concluded that adoption of Internet technology among Missouri vocational education teachers hinges on adequate equipment, teacher inservice, technical support, and integration of Internet technology into existing program curricula.