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:___Odalys Ramirez__________ 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 (if research questions are not specifically mentioned, what
is the theoretical background or overarching theme):
(a) What are principals perceptions of the
importance of technology?

(b) Do principals perceptions of technology differ by years of

experience and gender?

Purpose of the research:

The purpose of this research was to determine how important do principles view
technology and to determine if their perception of technology differs by years of
experience and by gender.

METHODOLOGY
What is the methodology for the research or approach used to understand the
issue? Provide information regarding the following:

Participants:
A convenience sample of 310 principals from a large metropolitan area in the
southwest region of the United States responded to a cognitive interview questionnaire
that asked principals about their perceptions regarding the importance of technology
for their schools. The sample consisted of 126 males and 184 females. A range of years
of experience was present with 104 participants having 0-3 years of experience, 82
participants having 4-7 years, 55 participants having 8-11 years,
32 participants having 12-15 years, and 31 participants having greater than 15 years of
experience.

Procedures:
A questionnaire was administrated to the principles. The questionnaire was
administered by graduate students in the Educational Leadership program at a major,
urban doctoral-granting university located in the south-central region of the U.S. As
part of the principals certification course requirements, students were trained on how
to administer the instrument and required to interview a specific number of current
public-school principals. The survey instrument was designed specifically for this
purpose and included both qualitative and quantitative questions.

Data Collection Methods/Data Source:

An interview with a questionnaire was administrated.

Data Analysis:
Analysis of the interview data began with a process of data reduction. The participants
responses were read several times to become familiar with the data. The data was then
coded into meaningful categories. 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 (Cohens kappa = .94).

RESULTS

Findings or Results (or main points of the article):

The results from the present study suggest that principals view technology as important
for carrying out communication and instruction. They also see the importance of using
technology for data sharing and management, as a resource, for administrative tasks
and for student learning. This indicates that principals have a positive view of
technology and are using technology themselves. Additionally, principals perceptions
of the major functions of technology differed by sex and years of experience.

DISCUSSIONS
Conclusions/Implications (for your profession):
This research concludes that principles have a positive perception of technology.
Principles view technology as a tool that helps things like communicating,
teaching, data sharing, and managing the school, run efficiently. Even though
principles view technology in a positive way, they view the major functions of
technology in different ways depending on their gender and years of experience.
REFLECTIONS

Students Reflections (changes to your understanding; implications for your

school/work):
This research made me realize how important technology is in a school setting. I use to
think that technology was majorly used so that administrators and teachers could
communicate but this research made me realize that it is also majorly used to teach as
well. Since principles are the ones in charge of the school and the atmosphere that the
school has, they need to support and rely on technology in order to run an efficient
school. Our future students are growing up in a technology based world so we as
teachers need to be up to date and learn how to use different technologies. By doing so,
teaching will be more efficient for our students. Overall, technology is used more and
more each year and everyone in a school setting should be up for it because students
now a day rely heavily on technology.