Research Design for a Case Study of Technology Implementation in a Mid-Sized,

Suburban, Public School District’s Spanish Department.

Julie Leaton
Oklahoma State University
December 7, 2019
 JULIE LEATON
12/7/19
Research Design for a Case Study of Technology Implementation in a Mid-Sized,
Suburban, Public School District’s Spanish Department.

Background

In the fall of 2015, the local school district passed a bond election, part of which was to

go toward making the district one-to-one Chromebooks for 3 rd-12th grades. The integration plan

was to be done incrementally by grade, taking three years. In the spring of 2016, the then

superintendent changed the plan: roll out the Chromebooks to all 3 rd through 12th grade the next

fall. He planned an August “clearing out all books” in which all physical textbooks would be

removed from all schools and all curriculum would be 100% digital. In addition, the Spanish

department adopted a new, all digital curriculum for the fall of 2016. That summer, the

superintendent was fired for matters unrelated to the technology integration. When the teachers

returned in August, the district had all new leadership, had contracts signed by the previous

administration for the new technology, and had no plan. As the new (and current) superintendent

told the faculty on the first day of school, “We are building the ship while we’re sailing and we

have no idea where we are going” (Armstrong, 2016).

Statement of the Problem

Several studies has shown that this method of quick implementation causes teachers

stress, causing them to resist change (Al Salami, Makela, & de Miranda, 2017; Pynoo et al.,

2011; Zyad, 2016). The case study three years ago observed the attitude changes of the three

Spanish teachers about the implementation throughout the first semester. Now, three years later,

the same teachers have adapted and changed to use the new technology. Because of the many

changes the teachers have experienced, a new case study is needed to analyze how the teachers’

attitudes have changed and whether they have accepted or rejected the technology

implementation.

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Research Design for a Case Study of Technology Implementation in a Mid-Sized,
Suburban, Public School District’s Spanish Department.

Purpose of Study

The purpose of this research is to describe the changes in the district’s Spanish teachers’ attitudes

toward technology integration, how they have changed in their technology use in the past three

years.

Definition of Terms

 Technology integration- How much a teacher uses technology in his/her regular

curriculum (Cullen & Greene, 2011).

 Attitudes- Positive or negative judgments a person makes (Cullen & Greene, 2011).

 Technostress- Negative effects caused by technology (Joo, Lim, & Kim, 2016).

 Mentor- A knowledgeable technology with the time and ability to give help to other

teacher in technology integration (Machado & Chung, 2015).

 Meaningful PD-Continuous professional development in technology that helps teachers

develop confidence and technological fluency (Machado & Chung, 2015).

 Meaningful technology-Using technology for student-centered activities (Machado &

Chung, 2015).

 One-to-one devices- A piece of technology that is used by provided to each student

(Machado & Chung, 2015).

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Research Design for a Case Study of Technology Implementation in a Mid-Sized,
Suburban, Public School District’s Spanish Department.

 Perceived usefulness- A teacher’s belief on the how technology will help in their

curriculum (Pynoo et al., 2011; Sánchez-Prieto, Olmos-Migueláñez, & García-Peñalvo,

2016).

Significance of the Study

This study can be used by the district to evaluate the success of the technology

implementation. Administrators can observe the change in the district’s teachers’ attitudes over

the previous 3 years. They can use this information to assess the positive and negative aspects of

the Chromebooks. By studying the Spanish department’s attitude change toward technology

implantation, administrators can personalize the technology training given in the district’s

professional development.

Assumptions

For this study I am assuming the following:

1. All of the teachers in the current study participated in the study three years ago.

2. All of the teachers attended the basic professional development offered by the district for

the new technology.

3. All of the teachers are utilizing the Chromebooks, the electronic textbook, and

technology activities to some extent in the classroom.

4. All of the teachers in the current study will be able to use basic technology to access their

email and complete the Google Form.

5. All of the teachers will be able to understand the questions on the Google Form.

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Research Design for a Case Study of Technology Implementation in a Mid-Sized,
Suburban, Public School District’s Spanish Department.

Limitations

The researcher has little to no control over the following:

1. How quickly the participants answer the emailed survey questions.

2. How thoroughly the participants answer the questions in the survey or follow up

interview.

3. How seriously the participants will take the survey.

Organization of the Study

This research design paper will begin with a literature review, which will discuss the

current research and journal articles discussing the teacher’s and the administration’s role in

successful technology implementation. This will be followed by the research questions and a

discussion of how Bandera’s Self-Efficacy theory (1977) relates to successful implantation.

Finally, this paper will describe the research design, participants, how the data will be collected

and how the data will be analyzed to endure reflexivity and credibility.

Literature Review

Introduction

Several factors can decide whether teachers will accept new teaching methods or not.

One of the most important determining factors is the teacher’s attitude toward the new method.

This is especially true when the new method includes the use of technology. The first part of this

literature review will examine what affects a teacher’s attitude, what can motivate a teacher, and

environments most conductive to teachers accepting the change. The second part of the

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Research Design for a Case Study of Technology Implementation in a Mid-Sized,
Suburban, Public School District’s Spanish Department.

literature review will examine how administrators affect a teacher’s attitude, how they can

change the teaching environment, and what teachers needs must be met to have a greater chance

of success.

What Affects Teachers’ Attitude Toward Technology Integration

Whether a teacher integrates technology into his/her classroom, depends on his/her attitude

toward the technology. If a teacher has a positive attitude, (s)he is more likely to accept the new

technology (Al Salami et al., 2017; Aslan & Zhu, 2017; Cullen & Greene, 2011). Intrinsic

motivators such as personal beliefs toward technology, self-perception of abilities, amount of

technostress, and job satisfaction largely affect a teacher’s attitude toward using technology (Al

Salami et al., 2017; Aslan & Zhu, 2017; Cullen & Greene, 2011; Joo et al., 2016; Mirzajani,

Mahmud, Fauzi Mohd Ayub, & Wong, 2016). If a teacher is not happy in his/her job, does not

believe (s)he can use the technology, or does not believe in using technology, no amount of

external pressure will cause the teacher to complete the integration. To a lesser extent, a

teacher’s attitude can be swayed by external motivators, such as peer pressure, administrative

pressure, and school environment. If a teacher finds that (s)he is being judged by his/her

administrator, other teachers, or by his/her students’ parents, (s)he is more likely to use the

technology than a teacher who is not judged (Al Salami et al., 2017; Aslan & Zhu, 2017; Cullen

& Greene, 2011; Mirzajani et al., 2016).

Although the teacher is the only one who can change his/her own attitude, there are several

ways to help improve his/her attitude. One way is to lower the teacher’s technostress: the

amount of stress that using technology places on a teacher (Joo et al., 2016). This can be done

by allowing teachers time to learn the new technology, give relevant, continuing training on the

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Research Design for a Case Study of Technology Implementation in a Mid-Sized,
Suburban, Public School District’s Spanish Department.

technology, give teachers time to lesson plan using the new technology, and give teachers time to

integrate the technology slowly, not all at once (Aslan & Zhu, 2017; Cullen & Greene, 2011; Joo

et al., 2016; Kimmons, Miller, Amador, Desjardins, & Hall, 2015; Mirzajani et al., 2016;

Scherer, Tondeur, Siddiq, & Baran, 2018). Another way to help is to create a positive work

environment. Teachers in a supportive, positive environment with high job satisfaction are

typically more willing to try new things than a teacher that is not in such an environment (Aslan

& Zhu, 2017; Cullen & Greene, 2011; Joo et al., 2016; Kim, Kim, Lee, Spector, & DeMeester,

2013; Machado & Chung, 2015; Mirzajani et al., 2016; Zyad, 2016).

How Administration can Aide in Technology Integration

How administrators integrate technology into the classroom is an important indicator on

how successful the integration will be. As with teachers, administrators’ attitude is a major

indicator on technology acceptance (Machado & Chung, 2015). Administrators must be trained

as well as teachers in the new technology, be comfortable using the new technology, and lead the

teaching staff in the technology use (Aslan & Zhu, 2017; Machado & Chung, 2015; Mirzajani et

al., 2016). If an administrator is willing to use the new technology in their jobs, teachers are

more likely to follow suit (Mirzajani et al., 2016).

Administrators must create a positive environment for the technology integration.

Administration must provide effective, continuing professional development, show teachers that

the new curriculum will work better, and encourage, not demand that teachers use the new

technology in their lessons (Aslan & Zhu, 2017; Machado & Chung, 2015; Mirzajani et al.,

2016). They also need to remove as many external barriers as possible in the integration process.

This includes having adequate IT support, have adequate technology infrastructure, and finding

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Research Design for a Case Study of Technology Implementation in a Mid-Sized,
Suburban, Public School District’s Spanish Department.

time away from teaching duties for teachers to learn the new technology (Aslan & Zhu, 2017;

Kim et al., 2013; Machado & Chung, 2015; Mirzajani et al., 2016; Zyad, 2016).

Finally, Administrators need to make sure they have adequate funding for proper

technology integration. Administrators need to fund adequate technology infrastructure, pay

qualified IT staff, and be able to purchase the equipment for the technology (Aslan & Zhu, 2017;

Kim et al., 2013; Machado & Chung, 2015; Mirzajani et al., 2016; Zyad, 2016). Administrators

also need to have paid mentors that can help teachers with questions they have, fund continuing,

relevant, cooperative professional development in using the technology and in using it with their

lessons, and fund time for teachers to work cooperatively to develop lessons with the technology

to use in their classrooms (Al Salami et al., 2017; Aslan & Zhu, 2017; Machado & Chung, 2015;

Mirzajani et al., 2016).

Research Questions

This Qualitative research project will look at how the Spanish teachers in a midsized

suburban school district have adapted to the integration of one-to-one Chromebooks and new

digital curriculum over the past three years.

Research Questions

This research will attempt to explore the following questions:

 What is the teachers’ attitude toward using technology in class?

 How often are the teachers using the technology for activities in their classes?

 How often do the teachers use the electronic textbook and materials in class?

Theoretical Perspective

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Research Design for a Case Study of Technology Implementation in a Mid-Sized,
Suburban, Public School District’s Spanish Department.

Self-Efficacy theory (Bandura, 1977) proposes that a person’s feeling of self-worth can

affect their achievement. If a person has a higher belief in self-ability, (s)he will show higher

achievement than someone with a lower belief (Pajares, 1997).

The basic assumption of this theory is that self-efficacy is affected by four main sources.

Mastery experience, is how a person feels about his/her past success or failure at doing a task

(Pajares, 1997). Vicarious experience is how a person judges his/her own ability based on the

success of failure of a model (Pajares, 1997). Verbal persuasion is how a person feels after

receiving judgments from another person (Pajares, 1997). Finally, self-efficacy is affected by a

person’s psychological state (Pajares, 1997). These sources of self-efficacy will affect how

much time a person will spend on a task, how much effort (s)he will expend, and how many

times (s)he will try to overcome obstacles (Pajares, 1997).

The relevant proposition of self-efficacy is that a person that has high self-esteem, low

stress, receives good quality positive critiques and has good role models will perform better on

tasks. People who do not receive one or more of these sources will not perform as well (Pajares,

1997). Of the four sources, a person’s psychological state and past success generally have more

influence on success than role models or verbal persuasion (Pajares, 1997).

In the case study three years ago, teachers in the district’s Spanish department were asked

about the amount of training they received on the technology, what classroom activities they had

attempted with the technology, and how proficient they felt they were using the technology. The

researchers were using the questions to determine the teachers’ opinion on their mastery and

their vicarious experience through training. The questions were also designed to see their

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Research Design for a Case Study of Technology Implementation in a Mid-Sized,
Suburban, Public School District’s Spanish Department.

psychological state. The researchers used these beliefs of self-efficacy theory to see if the

teachers were learning what they needed to be successful.

For the current, updated study, the same teachers will be asked similar type questions to

see if their self-efficacy has changed over the past three years. Are they less or more stressed

about using the technology? Was the integration a success or failure in their opinion? How has

past successes/failures affected what they are doing now? Which of the four sources of self-

efficacy most affected their implementation of the technology? In answering these questions, the

researcher hopes to use the lens of self-efficacy theory to see how the teachers have changed and

grown in their profession.

Summary

This review explains how teachers’ attitudes will dictate whether they will accept the new

technology implementation or not. Several factors, including school environment, proper

funding, proper training, and strong leadership are major factors in teacher’s forming their

attitudes. The most vital one, however is the teacher’s sense of self-efficacy. Whether a teacher

views his or herself as having the ability to use the technology is the strongest indicator of

whether (s)he will use it. One of the suggestions from this data is that administration attempt to

raise a teacher’s sense of self efficacy through proper funding, giving time for appropriate

professional development for the technology, and keeping the school environment positive

toward the implantation. While this approach is slow and expensive, it is the most likely way to

reach the teachers that want to use the technology but does not know how to go about learning.

Method

Introduction
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Research Design for a Case Study of Technology Implementation in a Mid-Sized,
Suburban, Public School District’s Spanish Department.

For research to be successful, a research project must be credible, trustworthy, have

willing participants and have strong data. This section will describe the design that will go into

this research. It will describe how the research will be designed, who the participants are, how

the data will be collected, what questions will be asked, the credibility and trustworthiness of the

data, the reflexivity, and how the data will be analyzed.

Research Design

This Qualitative research project will be a follow-up case study, investigating a unique

incident in a mid-sized, suburban, public school district. The research will compare the survey

taken three years ago and an updated survey with follow up questions. The participants will be

the same teachers from three years ago. The original survey was distributed to the teachers by

email on a Google Forms. The questions asked were open ended questions, in which the

participants were able to voice their opinions. The participants also completed a recorded,

follow up interview where they were asked any clarifying questions. The current, follow up

study will be similarly designed. The same participants will be asked similar questions to the

first survey as well as follow up questions. Clarifying questions will be asked in a follow up,

recorded interview. The study will then explore and analyze the changes in how they answer the

questions.

Participants

This qualitative study will use criterion sampling to choose the participants. The three

participants are long-term career Spanish teachers who participated in the study three years ago.

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Research Design for a Case Study of Technology Implementation in a Mid-Sized,
Suburban, Public School District’s Spanish Department.

Ron1 is a white male in his mid-50’s. He has been teaching 30+ years. He has taught in this

district for all but two years of his career. He began his career teaching math then changed to

Spanish. Ron has his master’s degree in ELL and teaches the English language learning as well

as Spanish. Mary2 is a white female in her early 40’s. She has been teaching Spanish for 20

years and has taught in this district for all but one. In addition, she is also the head cross-country

coach and an assistant track coach. She has taught Spanish for the entirety of her career. Mary

has her bachelor’s degree in Spanish Education and will complete her master’s degree in the

spring of 2020. Rose3 is a white female in her late 40’s. She has been teaching Spanish for 24

years. She taught 11 years in another district and moved to this district in 2007. Rose has her

bachelor’s degree in Spanish with an education endorsement and will complete her master’s

degree in the spring of 2020. The three teachers have known each other longer than they have

worked together. Ron did his student teaching in Rose’s eighth grade math class. Mary

completed her student teaching under Rose for high school and Ron for elementary.

Data Collection

This study will first attain verbal consent followed by written consent signed on paper by the

participants. After obtaining written consent from each of the three participants, The Google

Form will be administered to the participants individually through their work email. The

participants will complete the Form individually on their free time. Participants will have

approximately a week to complete the Form. Emails and verbal reminders will be sent to

participants that have not responded twice to remind them. Follow up interviews will be set up

1
Name changed
2
Name changed
3
Name changed

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Research Design for a Case Study of Technology Implementation in a Mid-Sized,
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by email at a time convenient for the participants, if needed. They will occur in either the

participant’s or the researcher’s classroom but may be moved to a location more convenient to

the participant. The interviews will be either video or audio taped and then transcribed.

As this study only includes three participants who work near each other and the researcher, it

is relatively certain that they will participate in the study. Written reminders will be sent twice to

participants that have no responded to the Forms. This may be followed up with a verbal

reminder if needed.

Instruments

The original study included the following survey questions:

 How proficient do you feel you are at navigating Pearson Realize?

 How proficient do you feel your students are in navigating Pearson Realize?

 How has having Chromebooks helped your instruction?

 How has having Chromebooks hindered your instruction?

 What percentage of your instruction is based on the Pearson Realize platform?

 What percentage of your instruction digital (Pearson, Oasis, Google, other websites,

etc.)?

 To what degree do your students use the Chromebooks in class?

 In relation to integrating technology, what more would you like to learn?

The current study will ask the same questions with the following added:

 How has your teaching changed in the past 3 years?

 What are some of the positive instruction you have used with the Chromebooks?

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Research Design for a Case Study of Technology Implementation in a Mid-Sized,
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 What are some failures that you have had with the Chromebooks?

The follow up interview of the original study asked the following questions in person:

 Before you had one-to-one Chromebooks, how did you use technology in the classroom?

 Before the Chromebooks, who used the technology the most you or the students?

 How often did you use the technology?

 What is the most successful activity you have done since we have gone one-to-one?

 How has having your textbook, workbooks, etc. on a digital platform change the way you

are teaching?

The current study will ask similar questions.

Trustworthiness and Credibility

In a Qualitative study, credibility describes the complex problem that cannot be easily

explained in such a way that the reader can identify the setting, participants and what the

problem is (Gay, Mills, & Airasian, 2009). Trustworthy is making sure the study is credible, is

dependable, is confirmable, and is transferable (Gay et al., 2009). The best way for a researcher

to establish credibility and trustworthiness is by establishing the four types of validity (Gay et al.,

2009). This study will show descriptive validity by remaining factual to the information given

by the participants, Interpretive validity by making sure the participants’ information is portrayed

accurately, theoretical validity by tying their experiences to Self-Efficacy theory, and evaluative

validity by showing as little bias as possible in the evaluation of the situation (Gay et al., 2009).

This will be done through using triangulation by collecting data both written and verbal, to tape

and transcribe the data collection, and by using follow up clarifying questions (Gay et al., 2009).

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Research Design for a Case Study of Technology Implementation in a Mid-Sized,
Suburban, Public School District’s Spanish Department.

Reflexivity

Reflexivity is revealing my biases in the questions I am asking or in how I present the

information (Gay et al., 2009). This is an important aspect of this study because I am not only

studying my department, but I am including myself in the study. It is inevitable that I will have

biases. I already have ideas on what issues we were having, I am familiar with my colleagues’

opinions, and I may inadvertently insert my opinions into the study. I will fight these biases

through practicing triangulation, collecting artifacts, such as audio or video, and keeping a

journal throughout the study (Gay et al., 2009).

Data Analysis

In the original study three years ago, the recorded interview was transcribed, and the Google

Form responses were printed. The data was analyzed by coding in the following themes:

a. How often the participants used the technology.

b. What they were satisfied with on the new technology,

c. What they were not satisfied with.

The data was also analyzed to look for all the examples of positive and negative phrases. A

similar approach will be used in the current research. The researcher will then compare the data

from the two studies to look for changes in the teachers’ opinion and attitudes in the past three

years.

Summary

This section described how this research will be conducted, who will participate in the

study, how the data will be obtained and analyzed, and the credibility and trustworthiness of the

research. This research will give the administration an accurate picture of how the Spanish

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Research Design for a Case Study of Technology Implementation in a Mid-Sized,
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department is implementing the technology, how it is being used, and generally how they feel

about the implementation. This data can be then be used to improve the implementation effort,

the teacher’s sense of self-efficacy, which will then improve the district.

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Research Design for a Case Study of Technology Implementation in a Mid-Sized,
Suburban, Public School District’s Spanish Department.

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Suburban, Public School District’s Spanish Department.

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Suburban, Public School District’s Spanish Department.

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