Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Programs for Higher Education
Advisor
Peter K. Mills
Committee Member
Jodi Lamb
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
assessment, change, Coatesville Area School District, Commonwealth Standards, constructivism, curriculum integration, data analysis, development methodologies, elementary teachers, evaluation, faculty, formative and summative committee, leadership, media specialists, performance gap, remediation, staff development, students, technology, Technology Needs Assessment Survey for Elementary Faculty, Technology Plan, technology skills, triangulation of data, validity
Abstract
This applied dissertation was designed to assess elementary teachers’ current skills and abilities in technology. The problem was that there was no evidence, hard data, or documentation of any evaluation of the technology skills of the elementary teachers of the Coatesville Area School District. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the technological skills and abilities of the elementary teachers to determine whether and to what extent it hindered the desired outcomes and to facilitate planning more effective staff development to address the technology skill levels of the faculty in order to enhance curriculum integration.
This study combined the evaluation and development methodologies--evaluation to assess and development to design the remediation. A triangulation of data was used in order to give breadth and credibility, validity, and reliability to the results. A review of the literature was conducted to include topics on assessment of teachers’ technology skills, change, leadership, curriculum integration, and staff development. Interviews with elementary principals and selected media specialists were conducted, a sampling of primary and intermediate students were observed using a predetermined checklist, a Technology Needs Assessment Survey for Elementary Faculty was given to teachers, and a Formative and Summative Committee of internal and external experts were used to establish validity. The school district’s mission statement and Technology Plan and the Commonwealth Standards (Chapter 4) were reviewed.
Analysis of the data revealed that there was an existing technology performance gap in skills and abilities of the teachers and an effective development model of staff development would be the proper remediation for the problem. A model of staff development was designed based upon the data received and interpreted by the researcher.