Running head: RESEARCH PROSPECTUS

Research Prospectus: Barriers to Change

Katherine Hoy, Andrew Snyder, and Gary Aldrich
EDUC 639
Liberty University

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Abstract
This research proposal aims at identifying and evaluating the barriers to change in
education and educational technology. Using a quantitative descriptive survey, the research
attempts to evaluate popular opinion regarding barriers to change in the classroom through the
advancement of 21st century learning by both faculty and administration from various grades
throughout the K-12 level. The research is aimed to support hypotheses that there exists
continuity within opinions at all grade levels regarding barriers to progress and change in
education.

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Background/ Brief Review of the Literature

From the formation of the Department of Education as a significant department and
cabinet position under the Carter Administration in 1979, the United States has seen educational
development, reform, blunders, and success. Trying to compete in an ever-growing and
technologically progressive world, the United States has been behind the curve in the realm of
education. While the intent exists to try to continually progress educational policy, technology,
and pedagogy well into modern, 21st century learning, the United States has fallen short of this
goal. These failures are defined in this review as barriers to change. Barriers to change affect the
future development of education in the digital age, specifically cognitive student growth and
professional development for educators. While the intent to reform and change existing
ineffective policy and curriculum has been attempted, roadblocks remain. Within this attempt,
there are numerous stumbling blocks to change and development. Previous literature identifies
six major barriers to change which are the basis for investigating possible solutions to overcome
barriers to change in education. These barriers include a restrictive National Curriculum based
on acquisition of content versus cognitive skills, lack of 21st century learning skills by
administration and staff, insufficient equipment and bandwidth, overly restrictive access to
Internet media, lack of incentives for administration and teachers to change lack of competition
in the educational system, and the challenges of inclusion in 21st century learning special
education professional development.
Problem Statement
Barriers to change in education and 21st century skills exist in the United States that
hinder the advancement of education in the digital age. With these barriers in place, students are
prevented from attaining their full cognitive potential and educators are prevented from obtaining

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professional development and pedagogical refinement required to advance and compete in the
ever-evolving digital age.
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this is study is to identify elements that act as barriers to change in 21st
century education and propose solutions that can be used to overcome these barriers and advance
students and educators into the future of education in the digital age. The significance of this
study is to provide solutions to allow students and educators to reach their full potential and
allows for technological advancement for the education system in the United States.
Research Questions
Do administration and faculty perceive each of the defined barriers to change in
education as being significant and have an effect on student, teacher, or school growth in 21st
century learning? Are the views of different grade levels being primary, middle school and
secondary education consistent across the district for each individual grade level? Are the views
of all personnel in all grade levels similar across the school district?

Research Hypotheses
This quantitative descriptive research will attempt to provide a view of the extent to
which various populations of education personnel in the district perceive barriers to change in the
implementation of 21st century learning. The separate populations of administration and faculty
are being analyzed. The separate grade level schools are also identified, with those being K4 -

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fifth grade, grade six through grade nine, and grade ten through grade twelve. The following are
our hypotheses.
H1: Within the separate populations of administration or faculty in a similar grade level
school, that there is no statistical difference between the views of those within the given
population.
H2: There is no statistical difference between the views of administration and faculty for
the same grade level schools.
H3: Statistically similar views are held by all personnel in all grade levels as a barrier
consistent with the conditions present throughout education within the district.
Identification of Variables
Those surveyed within the district will be asked to identify themselves as either
administration or faculty and what grade level school they serve in, whether primary, middle
school or high school. The following variables will be surveyed on a five-point Likert scale from
strongly disagree to strongly agree as they pertain to student growth, teacher growth, and
school growth areas. The variables consist of:
(1) Restrictive National Curriculum - Based on acquisition of content versus cognitive
skills, Fu (2013) describes restrictive curriculum as pressure to complete all the content
for high-stakes testing so that little or no time can be spent on higher order learning skills.
(2) Lack of 21st century learning skills by administration and faculty, Pilgrim and
Martinez (2015) found that the participants in their survey could not define the term new

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literacy but could show examples indicating that they did not understand the underlying
basis (p. 11).
(3) Insufficient equipment and bandwidth, Haggans (2016) describes the 21st century
campus where ample equipment and bandwidth are available to support all manner of
mobile devices while providing the sufficient bandwidth for all educational and research
endeavors.
(4) Overly restrictive access to Internet media, Bond, Courter, Helgeson, and Roycroft.
(2016) suggest that implementation of an Acceptable-Use-Policy (AUP) which is
accepted and signed on to by students, families, educators, and staff can open the door to
greater utilization of Internet resources for education while holding those accountable
who do not abide by its terms.
(5) Lack of incentives for administration and teachers to change - lack of competition in
the educational system. Goodwin (2015) states that to change behavior it is necessary to
point out the advantages of doing something new and providing the necessary support
structure to make the change achievable.
(6) Challenges to inclusion in 21st century learning - special education professional
development. Anastasiou, and Kauffman (2011) state that students with disabilities will
need teachers who are trained in how to apply 21st century individualized and
collaborative education principles to their individual capacities.
A further requirement of each question will be to enter a comment regarding the answer
given to examine the basis for the perception given.
Research Design

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This study will consist of a descriptive research design with a quantitative method in a
survey that will measure the perceived impact of barriers to change in education have on
students, teachers, and schools. The survey will examine the perceptions of administration
versus faculty for various groups of K-12 schools within the given school district. The survey
will be completed by all administration and faculty as part of an in-service professional
development day towards the end of the first semester of the next school year. The results will
be quantified and together with a synopsis of comments to be given to the district school board
as part of their review of current conditions and planning for the next school year. The
quantified results will also be given to the Commissioner of Education for the State to be used to
determine needs for future state education standards and funding.
Participants and Sampling
Participants in the survey include faculty and administration members from K-12 grade
levels. The breakdown of sampling within data collection is K4 - fifth grade, grade six through
grade nine, and grade ten through grade twelve.
Setting
This survey will take place throughout all public schools within the local school district.
The school district serves approximately 12,000 students, of those 54% qualify for free and
reduced lunch. There are 12 elementary schools, 4 middle schools, and 5 high schools, one of
which is a magnet school that focuses on math, science, and technology. The local community is
made up of a declining industrial base, but now employs many through a technology company,
financial institutions, and service sectors. The community serves families of diverse

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socioeconomic status and ethnic backgrounds. In addition, there are two Head Start programs
and a skills center for 18 to 22-year olds special needs students.
Instrumentation
The data will be collected using a survey completed by administration and faculty as
found in figures 1-7.
Figure 1

Figure 2

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Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 7
Figure 5

Procedures/Data
Collection

Figure 6

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10

At the beginning of the school year, the researchers will reach out to the local school
district board to obtain permission to conduct the research. The researchers will seek permission
from administrators and faculty to use the data anonymously. The survey will be completed by
all administration and faculty as part of an in-service professional development day towards the
end of the first semester of the next school year. They will be asked to complete the survey via
the Google Form link through school district email. Upon receipt of the forms into the
Google Forms database, the studys researchers will gather the individual results and sort them
by grade level, school, and administration versus faculty. The comments collected will then be
sorted into positive and negative feedback for all group distributions. A synopsis of the varying
comments will be prepared in a manner to protect the identity of all the participants with no
direct quotations being used. The ANOVA statistical data will be gathered for each of the
hypotheses and summarized in a report together with the synopsis of comments. This report will
be given to the district school board with a copy forwarded to the State Commissioner of

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Education for review and planning purposes. None of the original submission data will be
available to anyone but the researchers of the study and after completion, the original data will
be deleted from the database to ensure anonymity of the participants.
Methods
The method used for the surveys will consist of a link to a Google Form entitled
Barriers to Change in Education. The survey content consists of two questions regarding position
and setting, 18 questions in the 5-point Likert scale format. Each Likert type question is
accompanied by one comment response for each of the 18 questions. The survey will consist of
a total of 38 questions and comments.
Data Analysis
The data will be analyzed in aggregate for each category and individually by position of
administration or faculty and within each grade level of school consisting of K4 through fifth

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grade, grades six through grade nine, and grades ten through twelve. A breakdown of each of the
six barriers into the three-subgroups effect on students, teachers and overall school will point out
varying impacts on the subgroups within the individually defined barrier. An analysis of
variance (ANOVA) will be used since more than two sample means will be involved in the
analysis (Gall, Gall, and Borg 2015, 177).

Limitations/Considerations/Assumptions
There is the assumption that digital devices are available with internet access to secure
administration of the survey. Limitations within the administration exist within these in-service
days for faculty and administration such as availability of digital administration of the survey or
unforeseen technical outages. A strong possibility of bias exists within the sampling group
between faculty and administration. Both groups possess different experiences within the
educational hierarchical structure and may respond within their bias towards the system.

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References

Anastasiou, D. & Kauffman, J.M. (2011). A social constructionist approach to disability:

Implications for special education, Exceptional Children, 77(3), 367-384.
Bond, M. C., Courter, C., Helgeson, J., & Roycroft, A. (2016). ISSUE NO. 3: TECHNOLOGY
AND LEARNING. Retrieved from
https://www.kdp.org/initiatives/pdf/kdpreasonedvoice/Technology.pdf
Fu, J. S. (2013). ICT in education: A critical literature review and its implications. International
Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication
Technology, 9(1), 112-125. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?
url=http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/docview/1353086729?
accountid=12085
Gall, M. D., Gall, J. P., & Borg, W. R. (2015), Applying Educational Research: How to read, do,
and use research to solve problems of practice (7th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson Education,
Inc.
Goodwin, B. (2015). The Road Less Traveled: Changing Schools from the Inside Out. McREL
International. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED568894
Haggans, M. (2016). The 21st-century campus. Planning for Higher Education, 44(3), 1-8.
Retrieved from http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?
url=http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/docview/1805468886?
accountid=12085
Pilgrim, J., & Martinez, E. (2015). Literacy Terminology and Technology Integration for 21st
Century Teaching: A Survey of Educators. Journal of Reading Education, 40(3).
Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

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