AN INVESTIGATION OF THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN DIFFERENTIAL PERCEPTION OF INNOVATION ATTRIBUTES AND THE ADOPTION OF EDUCATIONAL INNOVATIONS

This study investigated the association between differential perception of innovation attributes and the adoption of an educational innovation. It was hypothesized that an inverse relationship existed between the disparity in perception between agent and client and the adoption of innovations. Respondents were asked to rank order the five attributes of an innovation (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability) in terms of their influence on the adoption decision. Determinations of similarities in perception were made among three different institutional types (community colleges, area vocational technical schools, and correctional institutions), between adopters and nonadopters, between levels of clients and levels of agents, and between agents, adopters and nonadopters. The findings indicated that (1) institutional types were similar in their perceptions, (2) adopters and nonadopters differed in their perceptions, (3) client levels were more similar in their rank orderings than were agent levels, (4) agents and nonadopters exhibited more similarities in perception than did agents and adopters. The hypothesis that an inverse relationship existed between disparity in perception and innovation adoption was not supported.