What Are the Developmental Stages of Concern that Teachers Encounter When Adopting a New Instructional or Classroom Management Innovation?

In this section of the blog we are focusing on a body of knowledge about learning to teach that a mentor needs to understand in order to provide constructive assistance to their mentees.

In this post we will examine the developmental stages and categories of concern that many teachers experience during the process of adopting a new instructional, classroom management, or supervisory innovation.

After studying the behavior of teachers when presented with an innovation, *G. E. Hall & S. Locks (1979), two researchers from the University of Texas, created the Concerns-Based Adoption Model. Their model identifies six stages of concern that many teachers experience when confronted with change. In the chart above, you will find the name of the developmental stage, the six levels of interest in the innovation (i.e. awareness, informational, personal, management, consequence, collaboration, and refocusing), and typical expressions and underlying feelings regarding the need for the change.

* Hall. G. E. & Locks, S. (1979). Implementing Innovations in Schools. A Concerns-Based Approach. Austin, TX: University of Texas.

On the next post we will describe Hall and Locks’ construct on the six ways that teachers implement an innovation.