JOURNAL ARTICLE REVIEW TEMPLATE

North American University

Education Department
M.Ed. in Educational Leadership / M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction
EDUC 5324 Integrating Technology into Education

Name: HUMEYRA ALTUNKOPRU Date: 9/24/2017

Cite the reviewed article in APA format:

Waxman, H. C., Boriack, A. W., Lee, Y. H., & MacNeil, A. (2013). Principals'
Perceptions of the Importance of Technology in Schools. Contemporary Educational
Technology, 4(3), 187-196.
INTRODUCTION
Research Questions (if research questions are not specifically mentioned, what
is the theoretical background or overarching theme):
a) What are principals perceptions of the importance of technology?
b) Do principals perceptions of technology differ by years of experience
and gender?

Purpose of the research:

The purpose of this study was to determine what principals perceptions of the
importance of technology are and the influence of experience and gender on
principals use of technology.

METHODOLOGY

What is the methodology for the research or approach used to understand the
issue? Provide information regarding the following:

Participants:
A convenience sample of 310 principals from a large metropolitan area in
the southwest region of the United States responded to a cognitive
interview questionnaire.
The sample consisted of 126 males and 184 females. A range of years of
experience was present with 104 participants having 0-3 years of
experience, 82 participants having 4-7 years, 55 participants having 8-11
years, 32 participants having 12-15 years, and 31 participants having
greater than 15 years of experience.

Procedures:
The questionnaire was administered by graduate students in the
Educational Leadership program at a major, urban doctoral-granting
university located in the south central region of the U.S. As part of the
principals certification course requirements, students were trained on
how to administer the instrument and required t interview a specific
number of current public school principals. The survey instrument was
designed specifically for this purpose and included both qualitative and
quantitative questions. For this study, only the data from the interviews
was used.

Data Collection Methods/Data Source:

A cognitive interview questionnaire

Data Analysis:
Analysis of the interview data began with a process of data reduction.
The participants responses were read several times to become familiar
with the data. The data was then coded into meaningful categories. Once
the categories were established, another researcher independently coded
a 10% sample of responses to determine the consistency of the coding.
The inter-coder reliability results revealed a high level of agreement.
(Cohens kappa = .94).

RESULTS

Findings or Results (or main points of the article):

The principals responses for the major functions of technology were grouped
into six categories.

Communication
Instruction
Data sharing and management
Resource
Administrative tasks
Student learning
Furthermore, the principals perceptions of the major functions of technology
were examined by gender and years of experience for those categories.

DISCUSSIONS

Conclusions/Implications (for your profession):

As society increases as a technology-rich environment, school leaders are
faced with how to support the integration of technology into meaningful
learning activities and how to evaluate the use of technology within their
schools (Yu & Durrington, 2006). Yet many school administrators are novice
technology users and have little experience or training in the knowledge and
skills required to be effective technology leaders (Ertmer, Bai, Dong, Khalil,
Park, & Wang, 2002).

REFLECTIONS

Students Reflections (changes to your understanding; implications for your

school/work):
School principals have many duties in different areas including hiring staff
members, communicating with parents and faculty, planning academic
calendar, creating policies etc. A good school principal has to manage time
effectively to provide better service to students, parents and staff. In my point of
view, the principals who are knowledgeable and effective users of technology
more likely promote usage of technology in their schools.