Concerns-Based Adoption Model: change is a process with diagnosable dimensions¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 3 claims (2 for, 1 mixed) · 2 studies (1 review, 1 qualitative), q2 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) is the article's conceptual framework for understanding innovation adoption in education. Its key assumption is that "change is a process, rather than an event", and that change facilitators should work diagnostically, "constantly assessing the present state of the individual users" and adapting interventions accordingly. The PAEI project verified three diagnostic dimensions: Stages of Concern, Levels of Use, and Innovation Configurations.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Change facilitators must have diagnostic tools to determine where nonusers and users are located along developmental dimensions before selecting interventions

Constraints¶

• The diagnostic dimensions had been refined and initially verified, but hypothesized intervention matches had "yet to be put to the 'empirical test.'"

Target Learners¶

• Teachers and college professors as front-line users of educational innovations

Target Learning Objectives¶

• Successful implementation and institutionalization of educational innovations

Claims¶

• Follow-up or post-implementation contact by change agents relates most strongly to adoption success; without it adoption falters [+W]
• Two independent research efforts identified the same three pre-use phases of the adoption process [+W]
• Early self- and task-related concerns are maintained alongside later impact concerns as adoption of complex technologies advances, modifying the sequential CBAM conception [~W]

Related Theories¶

• Levels of Use of the Innovation: eight developmental levels with decision points
• Stages of Concern About the Innovation: a seven-stage developmental taxonomy of individuals' concerns
• Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) stages of concern
• Ellsworth's Framework of Educational Change
• Seven Stages of Concern About an Innovation
• Five-stage TPACK development trajectory from recognizing to advancing

Examples¶

• Match the form and content of staff development interventions to clients' assessed Stages of Concern
• Use individual and group Stages of Concern data to tailor inservice and training decisions

Key Sources¶

• Hall, Gene E. (1978). Implications for Planned Dissemination, Implementation, and Evaluation Revealed in the SRI/NDN Evaluation and Levels of Use of the Innovation Studies. Procedures for Adopting Educational Innovations Project. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED190626