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:Sibel ACAR Date: 02.11.2019

Cite the reviewed article in APA format:

Waxman, H. C., Boriack, A.W., Lee, Y. H., & MacNeil, A. (2013). Principals’
Perceptions of the Importance of Technology in Schools. Contemporary Educational
Technology, 187-196.

INTRODUCTION
Research Questions (if research questions are not specifically mentioned, what
is the theoretical background or overarching theme):

What is the public-school principal’s perceptions regarding the importance of

technology and how is the effect of their experience and gender on it within the
perspective of National Education Technology Standards for Administrators (NETS-
A)?

Purpose of the research:

The purpose of the study was to detect principals’ perspectives about the importance of
technology in school and to focus on principal characteristics such as years of
experience and gender effecting their perspective.

METHODOLOGY

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

Participants:
A relatively large number of principles (310) were enrolled to the study from a large
metropolitan area in the southwest region of the United States. They were 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 (Waxman, Boriack, Lee, & MacNeil, 2013).
.
Procedures:
The survey questions were managed by graduate university students in an educational
program. Students were trained on how to interview with a number of public-school
leaders.
The questionnaire was administered by graduate students in the Educational
Leadership program at a major, urban doctoral-granting university located in the
southcentral region of the U.S (Waxman, Boriack, Lee, & MacNeil, 2013).

Data Collection Methods/Data Source:

Collecting the data from the interviews were used only for the study result analyses.
The research used a cognitive interview questionnaire that included both qualitative
and quantitative questions.

Data Analysis:
First collecting interview data was coded to analyze. Analysis of interview data begin
with a process of data reduction. The data was coded into different categories. Then the
categories were established, and researcher coded a 10%sample of responses to
determine the consistency of the coding. The inter-coder reliability results revealed a
high level of agreement. (Waxman, Boriack, Lee, & MacNeil, 2013).

RESULTS

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

Collecting responses were categorized into 6 groups; Most of them pointed out
technology as a primary communication tool (35%). The other responses for
technology usage were for teachers’ classroom instruction (28%), data sharing and
management (14%), as a resource to find information (15%), administrative tasks
(10%) and lastly for student learning (10%).

The years of experience and gender were effective on technology usage of principals.
Results showed that both experienced and male principals tend to use more effectively
technology than the others.

Two major function of technology with the highest percentage were communication
and instruction. The highest percentage for principals with 0-3, 4-7 and 8-11 years of
experience was in communication ( 39%, 33%, 31%) followed by instruction( 24%,
30%, 24%) and the principals with 12-15 and more than 15 year experience had the
highest percentage in instruction (31%, 39%) followed by communication(28%, 36%)
(Waxman, Boriack, Lee, & MacNeil, 2013).

DISCUSSIONS

Conclusions/Implications (for your profession):

This study underlined the importance of technology in education process. The
research showed that technology is used for communication, instruction, data sharing,
student learning, administrative tasks and management. Also, the value that principals
gives technology affect the education. In addition, principals’ perceptions of the major
functions of technology in their schools are varied by gender and years of experience
(Waxman, Boriack, Lee, & MacNeil, 2013).

REFLECTIONS
Student’s Reflections (changes to your understanding; implications for your
school/work):
This research demonstrates that the principals realize the importance of
technology in the education which is about teaching and learning. In addition,
the principals who are educational leaders of schools have an important, key
and supportive role to integrate technology into education such as, smart
boards, computers and internet.