| Summary: | The purpose of this study was to describe factors affecting the use of instructional ideas by secondary teachers in the academic year following a series of staff development sessions designed to present information on effective teaching practices. The research questions addressed the characteristics of information selected for use in classroom practice and the characteristics and relative degree of influence of salient factors affecting the use of ideas. Ten teachers from a large suburban school district in North Texas were selected for this study. Qualitative techniques were used to collect data. Each teacher was interviewed three times and observed in the classroom setting. Documents such as lesson plans were analyzed as a third source of data. Several factors evolved from the data. In varying degrees, these factors predicted teacher use of new instructional practices. Some factors dealt with the teacher's level of understanding and internalization of the information. These factors were labeled as instrumentality, congruence, and analytical thinking. Two other factors which were fairly strong predictors were labeled cost and intrinsic motivation. Cost concerned the amount of time or effort required to implement new ideas versus the perceived benefit to either teacher or student. Intrinsic motivation concerned the personal desire a teacher felt to try new ideas which might improve student learning. Another factor, professionalism, or teacher commitment to the teaching profession, was found to be a less powerful predictor. Two factors were found to be inconclusive predictors of implementation. They were the support felt by the teacher and external pressures, such as legislative mandates and district evaluations and career ladder. The cluster of factors developed in this study offer some possible guidelines for persons concerned with patterns of knowledge utilization among teachers. It is recommended that further studies be conducted to determine if the categories used in this study are consistent predictors of implementation and to verify the research implications in this study.
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