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Teacher Receptivity to System‐wide Change in the Implementation Stage
Author(s) -
Waugh Russell,
Godfrey John
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1080/0141192930190509
Subject(s) - receptivity , curriculum , feeling , unit (ring theory) , affect (linguistics) , psychology , mathematics education , attitude change , variance (accounting) , pedagogy , social psychology , medicine , business , accounting , communication
This study is concerned with the receptivity of Western Australian secondary school teachers towards a system‐wide educational change, the Unit Curriculum system. In any system‐wide educational change that involves the classroom, teachers' receptivity towards the change is an important determinant of its successful implementation. It is important for educational decision‐makers to know what variables affect receptivity so that new proposals can be tailored to achieve the best chance of successful implementation. It is proposed that there are fundamental variables common to all system‐wide changes and these are included in a model of receptivity developed from previous research. This paper reports the results of an empirical study using data from 480 teachers where 56% of the variance in attitudes towards the Unit Curriculum system is predicted from four fundamental variables, when they are adapted to apply to the Unit Curriculum. These variables are non‐monetary cost benefit to the teachers, perceived participation in the change decisions relating to the school and the classroom, perceived support for the change from principals and senior teachers, and feelings towards the previous educational system.