Despite massive expenditures in research and development, quality instructional products often have less than optimal impact upon student achievement. Many educators have concluded that traditional modes of product dissemination into schools contribute substantially to this problem. Traditional dissemination practices display a retail orientation, failing to consider the difficulty experienced by school practitioners in making decisions about product adoption. / Recognition of the limited decision making capability in schools resulted in the development of the Linkage Model of Dissemination. Linkage trains school faculties to employ a systematic, problem-solving approach to making decisions about product adoption. The model encourages widespread teacher participation in decision making, coordinated by change agents known as linkers. / This study investigated participatory decision making and systematic problem solving, within the Linkage Model, and their relationship to product acceptance. Data were collected from faculty members in elementary schools participating in the Florida Linkage System. The following major findings emerged from investigation of five research questions: (1) The correlation between teacher participation in decision making and acceptance of an instructional product was relatively low. (2) The extent of teacher participation in decision making was moderately related to the leadership style of the principal. The principal's leadership style bore no significant relationship to product acceptance. (3) The implementation of systematic problem solving displayed a moderate correlation with acceptance of an instructional product. (4) School practitioners (facilitators) trained in systematic problem solving perceived the following: (a) Systematic problem solving was useful and practical. (b) Linkers were most helpful with the tasks of problem identification and planning for implementation. (c) Linkers were second in helpfulness within and across all problem-solving tasks, exceeded by school-based curriculum coordinators. District personnel and external consultants, due to lack of proximity to schools, were less helpful. This perception was in accordance with the design of the Florida Linkage System. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-11, Section: A, page: 3260. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75199 |
| Contributors | BECKER, MARC STEPHEN., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 126 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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