Overview of the Determinants Affecting the Educational Innovation Process

Abstract

This paper gives an overview of educational innovation research and classifies the determinants af-fecting educational innovation processes. After collecting 115 pertinent research reports published in foreign countries as well as in Japan, possible determinants are examined under nine main categories : namely, Determinants for Adoption and lmplementation; Teachers (including,teachers'attitudes toward innovation, sex, age and experience, miscellaneous) ; Learners; Schools (school size, levels of schools, or-ganizational stuctures, principals'leadership, miscellaneous) ; Environment Surrounding School ; Edu-cational Administration ; and Innovation Strategies. After examining the determinants, the following are proposed for future research: 1) It is necessary to differentiate between the two phases of the innovation process, adoption and implementation, and in particular to determine better indices for measuring implementation. 2) There is need to identify better measuring indices for organizational changes rather than those for individual change, since schools are institutions. 3) Since educational innovation, in particular innovation, in schools, is always affected by idiosyncratic factors, and the research results are, accordingly, very specific in nature, it is difficult to derive generalized conclusions from the results. There is need to develop a better research methodology so that the results can be more widely generalized, and hence made applicable to other cases.