Types of "teachers in training": the reactions of primary school science teachers when confronted with the task of implementing an innovation

The purpose of this study was to assess the reaction of a group of Israeli primary school science teachers when confronted with the task of implementing an innovation. The innovation was introduced by means of a computer-mediated-communication in-service training program. The main tools of evaluation of the changes in the adoption of the innovation were a questionnaire, based on Hall and his co-workers "Stages of concern", and audiotaped individual interviews. The idea was that the extent of adoption an innovation could be expressed in terms of the teacher's personal "concerns". Five types of participating teachers could be identified, expressing the patterns of teachers' concerns about their personal and actual involvement in the implementation of the innovation. The purpose of this study was to assess the reactions of a group of Israeli primary school science teachers to the introduction of an innovation into the science curriculum. The teachers were involved in an in-service training program aimed at the implementation of the innovation. The innovation was: The integration of inquiry skills into the teaching of scientific subjects. These skills have been assigned an important place in the new Israeli "Science and Technology for Elementary Schools" curriculum. The main features of the training program were that: (1) the teachers studied a subject matter which was new to them, and were actually involved in the implementation of the innovation, so that there was no time span between theoretical learning and practical implementation in the classroom, and (2) while doing so, the teachers were in continuous interaction with a mentor (personal scaffolding according to the needs of the teacher). A computer-mediated-communication (CMC) technology-actually e-mail-was used because it made the training strategy possible. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.