Date of Award

2007-05-01

Degree Name

EdD Doctor of Education

Dissertation Committee

Fred J. Galloway, EdD; Robert Donmoyer, PhD; C. Bobbi Hansen, EdD; Cheryl L. Mason, PhD

Keywords

adolescents, Concerns-Based Adoption Model--CBAM, education, free/reduced lunches, gender, middle school students, mixed methods study, poverty, qualitative, quantitative, stages of concern, thin client computers

Abstract

Although stages of change and adoption of innovation dynamics have been examined for adult populations, comparable research for adolescents is limited. Applying a change instrument grounded in Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) to an adolescent population, this study investigates perceptions of 45 middle school students who used thin client portable computers in a one-to-one program at home and at school for 3 years. A mixed methodology design identified which of the 7 stages of concern students passed through and why some students adopted the innovation more readily than others. The Change Facilitator Stages of Concern Questionnaire, a modified version of CBAM, was used to collect quantitative data from students at the beginning and at the end of 6th grade. Qualitative interviews from 8 purposively selected students, their parents, and their teachers supplemented the survey data in the final year of the program. To guide this study, three questions were investigated: (1) What stages of concern were evident? (2) To what extent can variation in these stages of concern be explained by select demographic measures? (3) Based on the qualitative interviews, how do select students describe their adoption? Three distinct adoption pathways emerged in both the population and the sample. In Pathway 1, progressions occurred from lower to higher stages; in Pathway 2, no change between Pre- and Posttests; and in Pathway 3, backwards movement occurred through the stages. Unexpectedly, only 5 of the 7 stages of change were high stage scores. Regression analysis also revealed two significant findings: first, in the posttest analysis, the dependent variable (free lunch) suggested that poverty levels may influence a slower progression through CBAM stages; and second, there was a significant difference in pre- and posttest second high stage scores for the dependent variable (gender), suggesting that adolescent males gained nearly two more stages of change than did females. This study appears to be the first adaptation of the Change Facilitator Stages of Concern for adolescents. Both quantitative and qualitative evidence explained that adolescent pathways differ fundamentally from those of adults.

Document Type

Dissertation: Open Access

Department

Education

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