Global validation of the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS)

The five-item Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS) was found to be a useful and valid mental health screener. Participants in the respective surveys were mostly from single countries such as the US, Turkey, Mexico, or Brazil. However, a cross-cultural re-examination is lacking. This study fills this gap. In several multigroup confirmatory factor analyses with 25 countries from five continents as groups, sex and age as groups, and different stages of concern with COVID-19 infection, CAS was found to be invariant across all groups; this indicates that CAS is appropriate for meaningfully comparing the results across different groups. On a global basis, Coronavirus anxiety did not differ between female and male participants. Regarding age, however, younger individuals suffered more from anxiety of the pandemic. Individualistic cultures and those with low power distance such as in the Western hemisphere had higher COVID-19 anxiety. CAS values were also higher for those individuals who had been infected by COVID-19, those whose relatives had been infected, and those who experienced COVID-19-related death in the family. Overall, CAS is a parsimonious, valid, and reliable mental health screener on a global basis.

Teachers’ concerns about integrating information and communication technologies in the classrooms

Teachers in developing countries are facing increasing social and political pressure to use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to improve the access to and the quality of education available to young people. This is a core part of several government-led initiatives to attain the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4-quality education. While there is no shortage of ICT, the adoption for actual use in the classroom is often a hurdle for teachers, due to various concerns they harbour. This research study used the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) to assess the stages of concern of 340 Nigerian teachers about adopting and integrating ICT in the classroom. The findings indicated that teachers’ concerns were most intense in the awareness, management and information stages respectively, and lowest at the collaborative and consequence levels. Further examination of the results also shows a significant relationship between the stages of concern and teachers’ personal attributes like teaching experience, age and the class level they teach. These findings provide practical insights into how to better create effective teacher professional development interventions, to assist teachers in adopting and integrating ICT, to enhance the learning experience of young people within the classroom.

Adoption of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) in Saudi Arabian EFL Classrooms

This study aimed to examine EFL teachers' concerns about the adoption of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) in Saudi Arabia. The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) was used to analyze the participants' stages of concern (SoC) about MALL. The study also investigated whether some specific demographic and technographic variables (gender, age, teaching experience, and professional development) had any statistically significant effect on EFL teachers’ stages of concern about MALL. The participants in this study were (130) Saudi EFL public school teachers. The results revealed that the participants had high concerns at the Informational, Personal, and Management stages and minimal concerns at the Awareness, Refocusing, Collaboration, and Consequence stages. The MANOVA analysis revealed no significant difference among EFL teachers in terms of their MALL stages of concerns in relation to their gender, age, and teaching experience. Such findings indicate that Saudi EFL teachers' gender, age, and teaching experience have no effect on their concerns about using and implementing MALL. However, The MANOVA analysis yielded a significant difference among EFL teachers in terms of their MALL stages of concerns in relation to their professional development. These results entail that Saudi EFL teachers' professional development has a significant effect on their concerns about MALL. The study concluded that technology-related professional development could help decrease teachers’ self-concerns and increase their impact-concerns. The study recommended providing EFL teachers with technology-related professional development to ensure successful MALL adoption.

Examining inquiry-based learning stages of concern for high school agriscience teachers

There is documented need for improvement of science comprehension amongst high school students in the United States, and inquiry-based learning (IBL) is a recommended teaching strategy to improve science comprehension. Several researchers have focused on examination of learning outcomes for students, but few have researched the concerns of teachers who may wish to adopt IBL methodology. This study used the stages of concern questionnaire to profile ten Midwest high school agriscience teachers’ concerns regarding implementation of IBL, before and after participation in a year-long professional development program where IBL lessons were developed and used in the participants’ high school classrooms. Results indicated that while some participants showed a positive progression in their stage of concern, most professional development program participants did not progress in their concern stage, and some developed increased resistance to IBL as a teaching strategy. This suggests that teachers may need more robust and tailored support when adopting IBL for their classrooms.

SRI LANKAN TEACHERS’ CONCERNS TOWARDS IMPLEMENTATION OF CURRICULUM REFORMS IN THE COMPETENCY BASED CURRICULUM REFORMS

This study was carried out in the period of 2010-2015 when the new changes were implemented in the Sri Lankan school curriculum. The purpose of this study was to evaluate teachers’ concerns over the implementation of 5E model under the modernised the competency-based curriculum reforms for geography in Sri Lanka. The Concern based adoption Model (CBAM) was employed as theoretical and conceptual framework underlying the study. The respondents for quantitative approach on Stages of Concern (SoC) consisted of 311 geography teachers from secondary schools in Kalutara district, Sri Lanka. A total of nine (9) geography teachers who has shown their high concerns in the survey was selected for the qualitative methods on Levels of Use (LoU) and Innovation Configuration (IC). The study used adapted instruments such as Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SoCQ), basic interview protocol and innovation configuration map from the actual instruments of CBAM. The findings from analysis of SoCQ showed teachers remained at the initial SoC over the implementation of the 5E model. The results from the interviews revealed that geography teachers overall use of the innovation ranged from LoU II-preparation to LoU IVA- routine, whilst many remained at LoU II- preparation. The classroom observations showed that many teachers did not reach acceptable level of teaching in using the 5E model. The study suggested several intervening strategies to take geography teachers to the higher SoC and LoU as well as motivate teachers to practice at the ideal level of teaching using the 5E model. The results of the study are significant at a time when there is a greater attention on introducing new curriculum reforms in the country. In an any curricular reforms, teachers should be given greater attention as they are the main agents of implementation. There should be a continuous evaluation on the teachers’ responses to the implementation of curriculum reforms using a good model like CBAM.

Adapting: A Study of Implementing Adaptive Personalized Instruction, Innovation, and Technology From an Instructor’s Perspective

As time transforms education, methodology also needs to adapt to course instruction. However, instructors face a challenge to be effective while meeting each student’s learning needs. One such need for students today is the implementation of technological approaches to learning. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of a new instructor in higher education of implementing adaptive learning into their coursework, curriculum, and instruction. Data were collected quantitatively through the Stages of Concern Questionnaire, which showed the participant’s concerns about the implementation of adaptive learning. Qualitative data were collected via interviews with the participant that followed the Levels of Use protocol. The interviews allowed the participant to provide their views and beliefs about adaptive learning. Results show the participant was curious and interested in learning more about adaptive learning and its benefit in their classroom. Future research should focus on how universities can develop approaches to help faculty effectively learn and implement new instructional strategies.

Implementing a Large-Scale Curriculum: Educators’ Self–Assessments and Beliefs

This study focused on educators’ beliefs about implementing a large-scale curriculum called Common Core State Standards (CCSS), or as they are identified in one state, College- and Career- Readiness Standards. Building–level educators in the state of West Virginia were surveyed using a modified Stages of Concern instrument that measures attitudes toward an innovation at a given point in its implementation (Hall et al, 1977). The research questions for the study were: (1) What is the comfort level of educators with new curriculum standards four years after adoption? and (2) What are the relationships among gender, grade level taught, the highest degree earned, and age on educators’ comfort level and concern toward a new curriculum set of standards? For research question one, the data showed that mathematics and English language arts teachers held a high awareness of the standards and were not overly concerned about the standards regarding time management. For research question two, simple regression results revealed significant relations between five of the seven stages of concern and some demographic variables: awareness with grade level taught and gender, informational with the highest degree obtained, personal with age, management with grade level taught, and collaboration with age. In general, educators who had more years of teaching, higher educational credentials, and were older were more likely to know where and how to obtain additional resources as well as get assistance, possibly as a result of their experiences and sociocultural capital gained over the years on the job. Administrators’ views were in alignment with teachers regarding their awareness of the standards and time management, and administrators were slightly more concerned with the consequences of the new standards and with teacher collaboration.

Piloting of the Concerns-based Adoption Model: Farmer Concerns About the Participatory Guarantee System in Cambodia

While there is a large body of adoption and agricultural extension literature on the process of introducing a new technology, agricultural development projects are often expected to produce immediate results that do not always allow for the integration of these theories into practice. The Concerns-based Adoption Model (CBAM) is a framework that places participants at the center of the change process to identify their concerns and challenges, providing a roadmap for projects to guide individuals with the correct support for their particular stage of adoption. CBAM has typically been used for the introduction of new curriculum in formal education. But this study assessed the potential for CBAM to be applied to agriculture innovations. In this study, we adapted and piloted the CBAM “Stages of Concern” model to assess adoption of an agriculture innovation. The innovation is the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) for Cambodian vegetable farmers. We assessed the potential for CBAM as a tool for agricultural development project management. We found that the adapted survey consistently placed farmers in the anticipated Stage of Concern. Identifying users’ Stages of Concern can inform program designers and practitioners, assisting in tailoring support across the adoption process. CBAM has the potential to inform participatory project design and give project administrators an evidence-based, systematic protocol for assessing the adoption process, adding another tool to the development practitioners’ toolbox. Keywords: Diffusion of Innovations, adoption, project design