Push-pull Relationships between Concerns and Personal Engagement: Exploring the Adoption of edTPA as an Innovation

Abstract

This study utilized the concerns-based adoption model (CBAM) to understand faculty's responses to the implementation of edTPA as a requirement for initial teacher certification. Two instruments were used to examine faculty's behavioral and motivational response to the policy change. Faculty representing private and public institutions across the state (N = 56) responded to both instruments. Questionnaire items were analyzed by converting raw scores to percentiles, while open-ended responses were coded by stage of concern. Positive correlations between stages of concern and levels of integration indicated that engaging in a collaborative process of analyzing candidates' scores possibly leads to a deeper understanding of edTPA as a construct and may help faculty make informed decisions about their emphasis on different aspects of edTPA in their courses. Faculty who were unconcerned or focused on personal issues were less likely to be involved in activities such as analyzing and making informed decisions utilizing student data from local and national scores. Faculty who integrated edTPA-like content into their courses were more focused on finding ways to manage time and resources related to edTPA and were more involved in collaboration with other faculty members. Opportunities for collective data analysis within institutions may have played an important role in faculty's involvement in assessing personal strengths and areas of improvement in preparing candidates to pass edTPA in the consequential year.