JOURNAL ARTICLE REVIEW TEMPLATE

North American University

Education Department
M.Ed. in Educational Leadership / M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction
EDUC 5324 Integrating Technology into Education

Name:My Bui_________________ Date: _09/22/2017__________________

Cite the reviewed article in APA format:

Waxman, H., Boriack, A., Yuan-Hsuan, L., & MacNeil, A. (2013). Principals'
Perceptions of the Importance of Technology in Schools. Contemporary Educational
Technology, 4(3), 187-196.
INTRODUCTION
Research Questions:
Many researches agreed that school principals play a key role in determining whether
or not technology is integrated in their schools. Moreover, teachers and principals with
high attitude toward technology tend to work together, bringing improved teaching
effectiveness and students’ content acquisition. However, there are many studies finding
that technology is not being integrated in schools, especially into the teaching and
learning process. They also stated that several principals do not perceive that his or her
expertise in technology and attitude toward technology affects computer integration in
schools. In fact, many principals are not ready to take technology leadership role
because of several ethical, legal and moral issues.

This article was written based on two research questions:

1. What are principals’ perceptions of the importance of technology?

2. Do principals’ perceptions of technology differ by years of experience and gender?

Purpose of the research:
This research is to build on prior researches, but to better focus on principals’
perspectives and orientations toward technology. Also, this study focuses on principal
characteristics such as years of experience and gender.
METHODOLOGY
Participants:
1. Career: principal
2. Geographic: participants came from a large metropolitan area in the southwest
region of the United States
3. Gender: 126 males and 184 females

4. Number of participants in ranges of years of experiences:

• 104 participants having 0-3 years of experience

• 82 participants having 4-7 years of experience

• 55 participants having 8-11 years of experience

• 32 participants having 12-15 years of experience

• 31 participants having greater than 15 years of experience

Procedures:
-The graduate students in the Educational Leadership program who interacted directly
with the research’s participants were trained to administer the instrument.
-The research instrument was used is the survey including both qualitative and
quantitative questions. Questions are:
“Has technology had impact in your school?”
“ If so, in what specific way has it made a difference?”
-Researchers then collected and analyzed the data through the following process.
Data Collection Methods/Data Source:

1. Researchers started by reducing the data.

2. The participants’ responses were read several times to become familiar with the data.

3. The data was then coded into meaningful categories.

4. Once the categories were established, another researcher independently coded a 10%
sample of responses to determine the consistency of the coding. The inter-coder
reliability results revealed a high level of agreement (Cohen’s kappa = .94).
 RESULTS

A. Principals’ perceptions of technology use in general:

• Most principals indicated technology’s use as main communication tool with

34%

• Second highest percentage is instruction with 27.7%

• Student learning has lowest percentage with 9.7%.

B. Principals’ perceptions of major functions of technology are different based on

genders:

• The highest percentage of males and females discussed using technology for
communication (32.5% and 35.9%, respectively).

• The next highest percentage of males and females felt that technology was used
for instruction (32.6% and 24.6%, respectively).

• Lowest percentage in males is student learning with 7.2%, while in females is

administrative tasks with 8.7%.

C. Principals’ perceptions of major functions of technology are also different by

years of experience:

• The highest percentages for principals with 0-3, 4-7, and 8-11 years of experience
were in communication with 38.5%, 32.9%, and 30.9%, respectively.

• The second highest percentages for principals with 0-3, 4-7, and 8-11 years of
experience were in instruction with 24.1%, 30.4%, and 23.6%, respectively.

• Principals with 12-15 and more than 15 years of experience had the highest
percentage in instruction (31.3% and 38.7%, respectively) followed by
communication (28.1% and 35.5%, respectively).
 DISCUSSIONS
1. Teachers should be aware of major functions of technology, so that they can
maximize uses of technology, helping them save time on tedious tasks such as
keeping record of attendance, grades, having students doing homework by using
appropriate educational software etc. Therefore, teachers can have more time for
other tasks and their personal lives. Technology is also very helpful in making
lessons satisfactory to more intelligences, learning preferences and learning styles.

2. Teachers and principals should always attend workshops and professional

developments in order to be aware of new available resources and technology in
order to increase teaching efficiency in classroom and also in school wide practice of
technology.

3. Teachers and principals, as well as with other personnels at school and district levels,
such as department chairs, administrators, subject coaches, superintendants etc,
should always collaborate, so that each one will be a resource of how to apply
technology to maximize teaching and learning efficiency and self-efficacy.

4. This research concluded that male and female principals, as well as principals with
different ranges of years of experience have different perceptions of major functions
of technology. It denotes that male and females, less or more years of experienced
principals apply technology at different tasks with dissimilar rates. Since genders and
years of experience do influence how technology is used, this should be discussed at
meetings, workshops, professional developments, so that principals can share and
learn how others use technology. As a result, principals can be better technology
leaders.
 REFLECTIONS
1. Being a teacher, this research helps me understand the importance and available
functions of technology in carrying out my career to be more productively. It helps
me identify different categories of technology functions that I have been applying
without noticing. For example, I had been using database to take attendance and
record grades without realizing that I had applied technology to save time on several
administrative tasks. For another instance, I usually used school database to record
and analyze students’ performance on tests without knowing that it would take me
forever completing this data sharing and management task without technology.

2. This research also helps me recognize the principal’s technology leader role in
integrating technology into instruction and other functions. Specifically, I now can
reflect on my first year of teaching, and I started to appreciate principal’s comments
regarding to technology use after his observations of my classrooms. It also helps me
realize the supports I can get from the principal such as asking for advice on teacher
daily tasks since most of principals are aware of technology’s major functions.

3. Acknowledging that genders and years of experience do affect the ways technology
is used, I had a quick looking back to the conversations, advices, and meetings that I
had with my coworkers. I actualized that they had shared with me so many helpful
lessons and quick tips on using technology on different tasks. This again emphasizes
the importance of collaboration among teachers, mentor and mentee, and personnels
in the educational system.

4. More significantly, this study also makes me reflect on my teaching with lots of
questions happening in my mind:
• “How much did I apply technology?“
• “How did I apply it?”
• “ How can I better apply it?”
• “I have not adequately clarified or conditioned the use of technology or how to
use it ethically for my students, then how can I prepare my students for that?”
• “Is there any other available technology helps me do task A or B better?”