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Stages of Concern - CBAM You want me to change to what?

An ongoing study of faculty members different stages of concern with change and the implications for change implementation in higher education Jenelle M.O. Hodges, M.S. Betty Nelson, Ph.D. This ongoing study is examining the Stage of Concern (SoC) of teaching faculty members in a university environment based on the Concerns Based Adoption Model by Hall and Horde. The study is investigating the participants stage of concern through the SoC questionnaire as the population moves to the use of a new learning management system. Participants are completing a web-based or paperbased questionnaire. Based on their responses, each participant is being placed along the continuum of the Stages of Concern. At the completion of this study, we hope to have a better understanding of our population based on their stage of concern. This information can facilitate individualized assistance in the change process and allow universities to better support the implementation of change, increasing the populations level of use of new innovations, and thus increase the innovations overall success in a higher education environment. The implementation of new or different theories, strategies, or learning tools has always seemed to be a struggle for the field of education. Some environments are still teaching the same way that was used over fifty years ago. Often teachers are forced to try something new without having any personal interest or value in the new strategy. They are often not comfortable with something due to lack of exposure to how and why the new idea works. Other environments maybe implementing the new strategies or learning tools but with little success due to the fact the participants are not completely committed to or convinced of the possibility of success of the new tool. Still other environments have unlocked the secret to successful implementation, with a smooth transition, of the utilization of new strategies and learning tools. What is the difference between these situations and their implementation of cutting-edge ideas? What plays a role in effecting the implementation of new strategies and learning tools in educational environments? How do the participants concerns impact the success of the implementation? The idea of concerns based adoption models is not a new one. Most concerns-based models have evolved from the work of Fuller with regard to the concerns of teachers as they develop their pedagogical skills (Newhouse, 2001). Fuller (1969) put forward a classification of teachers concerns consisting of three developmental stages; namely, impact, self, and task concerns, (Christou et al., 2004, p. 157). Many other concern models developed in the 1970s through the 1990s followed this original blueprint while expanding and adding their own unique twists in order to improve on the original idea.

The model commonly known as the CBAM model by Hall and Horde does not stray from this trend. The concerns-based adoption model, or CBAM, was developed from Fullers model in the early 1970s and has since been widely applied to the implementation of educational innovations in general (Newhouse, 2011). The Concerns-Based Adoption Model was first developed at the University of Texas Research and Development Center for Teacher Education (Anderson, 1997). This model (CBAM) is concerned with measuring, describing, and explaining the process of change experienced by teachers involved in attempts to implement new curriculum materials and instructional practices, and with how that process is affected by interventions from persons acting in change-facilitating roles (Anderson, 1997, p.331) The CBAM model identifies the specific requirements of different users and allows the facilitators to provide the right assistance based on these individualized specific needs (Horde et.al., 1987). This model provides a complex framework and methodology for depicting key dimensions of the process, content, and support for teachers and instructors as they implement change. This description is accomplished by applying various schemas for classifying teacher implementation attitudes and behaviors, change management approaches, and change-facilitating interventions and roles, (Anderson, 1997, p. 338). To accomplish this, the CBAM is made up of three key dimensions or stages. The first is the Stages of Concern or SoC, the second is the Levels of Use or LoU, while the third is the Innovation Configuration or IC. Each dimension represents a facet of the change process, with SoC and LoU focusing on the implementor, while the IC considers the nature of the innovation itself (Newhouse, 2001). The first dimension, the SoC, depicts how teachers see an innovation and their feelings about it. It uses a standard set of stages to describe teachers concerns about the innovation. The instrument used is a questionnaire with a set of scales to prepare a numerical and graphical representation of the type and strengths of participants concerns (Newhouse, 2001). This dimension is divided into 7 stages labeled 0-6. The stages: awareness (0), informational (1), personal (2), management (3), consequence (4), collaboration (5), and refocusing (6) are distinctive but not always mutually exclusive. An individual is likely to have some degree of concern at all stages at any given time, yet our studies have documented that the stage or stages where concerns are more or less intense will vary as the implementation of change progresses, (Horde et al., 1987, p.30). Individuals move through the stages at their own pace, showing individual intensity of concern at the different stages. While concerns about a change typically progress through the stages in a developmental manner, the progression is not absolute and certainly does not happen to each person in a like manner. (Horde et al., 1987, p.32). Most of the research which talks about or implements the CBAM looks at the k-12 environment. A few of those studies have raised the question of whether the teachers or instructors stage of concern or level of use might be associated with the grade or level at which they teach. After reading through multiple studies, examining the motivation, experience, self-efficacy, and concerns of educators at different levels, in addition to working with educators from kindergarten through higher education, it appears that they all worry about many of the same issues. Some of these worries which seem to cross the teaching level boundaries include worries about time demand, organization, scheduling, and the best use of resources. Perhaps the most important factor that determines a teachers stage of concern

is his or her confidence and competence in using an innovation, (Overbaugh and Lu, 2008, p.46). Overbaugh and Lus study regarding teachers stages of concern toward technology integration used the CBAM and found participants age reflected differential concern levels at some stages, whereas the school level at which they taught had no influence (Overbaugh and Lu, 2008, p.45). In the SoC aspect of CBAM, there are seven stages or phases that it is believed a person evolves through as they adopt a change. In CBAM, these stages are numbered from 0 to 6. The SoC in CBAM is built on the framework that when people are thinking about change or experiencing something new, their adoption process is ever evolving. By examining the questions or the kinds of questions they ask, one can determine where they are in the process of adopting the change. For example, those in the early stages of concern would ask questions that are more intrinsically motivated or oriented such as: What is this? or How will this affect me? Then, as the persons adoption process evolves, their questions will change. As they move into being task oriented they will be more concerned with how to use the new innovation or how to use the change most efficiently. And finally, as this phase is also resolved, the person will begin to focus more on the impact the change or innovation will have asking questions such as: Is this change working for students? Is this the best option for all of my learners? In this study we focus solely on the SoC dimension of CBAM in relation to the implementation of a new learning management system at our university. The population from which the participants are being drawn includes 400 faculty members from one college within a Research University with very higher research activity (RU/VH). This classification was formally known as a research 1 university. The university is located in a medium-sized city in the Southeast. This population pool includes the 349 fulltime faculty and 51 adjunct instructors. The population consists of approximately 41% females and 58% males. The approximate racial and ethnic breakdown of the population includes 81.7% White or Caucasian, 7.7% Asian, 6.6% African American, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, and 0.3% listed as two or more races. The age range of the population is approximately 25-85 years of age. The data for our study is being collected on a secure site in cooperation with the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL). SEDL is a private, nonprofit, educational research, development and dissemination (RD&D) corporation based in Austin, Texas. Participants are being asked to complete the 40 question survey either online or on a paper-based PDF version. Questionnaires are then being submitted back to the primary investigator and data results are being summarized. The web-based surveys are automatically scored, determining where on the SoC continuum each participant falls. Paper-based surveys are being entered manually and added to the data collection. By exploring stages of concern in our faculty, we are better able to understand the concerns our teaching faculty are having with the implementation of a new learning management system, Blackboard Learn 9.1. With this information, we will be better equipped to facilitate a smoother execution and implementation of this innovation and others in the future. References

Anderson, S. (1997). Understanding teacher change: Revisiting the concerns based adoption model. Curriculum Inquiry , 27 (3), 331-367. Christou, C., Eliophotou-Menson, M., & Philippou, G. (2004). Teachers' concerns regarding the adoption of a new mathematics curriculum: An application of CBAM. Edcuational Studies in Mathematics , 57, 157-176. Horde, S. M., Rutherford, W. L., Huling-Austin, L., & Hall, G. E. (1987). Taking Charge of Change. Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervison and Curriculum Development. Newhouse, C. (2001). Applying the concerns-based adoption model to research on computers in classrooms.Journal of Research on Computing in Education , 33 (5). Overbaugh, R., & Lu, R. (2008-2009). The impact of a federally funded grant on a professional development program: Teachers' stages of concern toward technology integration. Journal of Computing in Teacher Education , 45-55.

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