GBOMITA, VICTOR KWASI AMEDOME; EDD

                         TEMPLE UNIVERSITY, 1994
 
                         EDUCATION, BUSINESS (0688); EDUCATION, TECHNOLOGY (0710); EDUCATION, VOCATIONAL (0747)
 

                         The phenomenon of perpetual change in the human society requires a constant responsive modification
                         of human behavior to restore the state of equilibrium. In the search efforts for a means to facilitate the
                         return to the status quo Everett M. Rogers suggested the diffusion model of the theory of adoption of
                         innovations. Primarily, the diffusion model suggests that innovations, including technological ideas and
                         practices perceived as new, must be communicated to be adopted. Implied in the theory is that the
                         adoption of innovations fulfills a felt need to redress some inadequacy. Hence, there is a need to adopt.
                         Today, the pervasive influence of advancing technology in the society frequently creates that sense of
                         insufficiency and demands that the society adopts the new technologies and, thus, the new methods of
                         performing human activities. Education and educators, as part of the larger society, must decide to make
                         the requisite changes in their behavior, including the way instruction is delivered, in order to achieve the
                         mission of education efficiently and effectively. The present study attempted to identify how business
                         education teachers, as a subset of all educators, have fulfilled this responsibility by adopting the most
                         innovative technology in education, the microcomputer, for delivering instruction. The findings indicate
                         that Pennsylvania business education teachers are currently using the microcomputer for delivering
                         instruction and also have a positive attitude towards its use in the classroom. It is apparent that, in terms of
                         Rogers' adoption model, Pennsylvania business education teachers are at the last stage of the decision
                         making process; hence, they seek information to enable them to internalize the adoption decision they
                         have previously made to use the microcomputer routinely for delivering instruction. Three social system
                         variables, compatibility, number of students in school, and school characteristics, indicated a weak
                         relationship with adoption behavior, each providing a low measure for predicting adoption behavior and
                         explaining only a small portion of the variance in the adoption behavior. It was concluded that business
                         education teachers have a favorable attitude towards the microcomputer innovation and are well
                         advanced on the adoption scale. Furthermore, it appears the selected social system variables are not
                         good predictors of adoption and little in the variance in adoption behavior can be explained by the
                         selected external and internal social system factors.
 

Social Systems Simulation Group P.O. Box 6904 San Diego, CA  92166-0904 Roland Werner, Principal Phone/FAX  (619) 660-1603