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Adoption and diffusion of a university /school collaborative educational reform

Gary Allen Neist, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Abstract

In 1997 a comprehensive physical education curriculum reform, initiated and supported by a team of university and school personnel, was introduced into a medium sized school district. The objectives of the reform were to increase teacher job satisfaction and professional development, increase the length and depth of teaching units, increase teacher accountability, and increase student accountability. At the end of one year evidence suggested that each of these objectives had been met. This study describes the outcomes of this reform five years later. The original reform called Saber-Tooth (ST) was still present in one school. A modified version of the reform called the Quality Educational Incentive Program for Physical Education (QEIP-PE) was introduced in three schools. Teachers in non-participating schools served as a comparison group (DNP). Teacher interviews and a survey were used to assess the program effects. Three forms of data (interviews, a survey, and field notes) were collected from the three groups, ST, QEIP-PE, and DNP teachers. After five years, interview data and field notes, supported by survey results, showed that the ST teachers maintained positive changes in job satisfaction and professional development, the length and depth of their teaching units, and student accountability. The QEIP-PE teachers showed positive change in job satisfaction and professional development and their teaching units, but not to the extent of the ST teachers. Measures of teacher accountability were not different between and among the three groups. The original intent was that the reform would spread throughout the school district. A number of accepted principles of adoption and diffusion of reforms was used to analyze the course of this reform effort (Rogers, 1995). It was concluded that had the reform introduction been based on the principles of adoption and diffusion it may have been more successful than it was in spreading through the school district.

Subject Area

Physical education|Teacher education|School administration

Recommended Citation

Neist, Gary Allen, "Adoption and diffusion of a university /school collaborative educational reform" (2003). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI3107893.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI3107893

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