Browsing by Subject "Professional learning community"
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Item The context of a rural professional learning community(2015-05) De Zeeuw, Audrey R.; Barufaldi, James P.; Marshall, Jill; Hughes, Joan; Marder, Michael; Stroup, WalterThis dissertation is concerned with exploring the context of a rural professional learning community and the interactions between the context and participants, both teachers and facilitators. An interpretive, qualitative, instrumental case study, the format of data collection and analysis used an instrumental case study approach and interviews, classroom observations, field notes, and artifacts. Participants included four teachers across three different rural locales and two facilitators. Data on the six study participants was collected over the 2013-2014 school year. Findings from this study add to research on the understudied rural context as well as work of in-service educators and teacher educators working within and across these communities. First, this study elucidates nine components of the rural context: students, standards, and student learning needs; teachers and teacher learning needs; practices, curriculum instruction, assessment, and the learning environment; organizational culture; organizational structures and leadership; national, state, and local policies; resources; history of professional development; and parents and community. Additionally, this study identifies new roles for professional development facilitators and explores classroom the teaching practices in rural science classrooms. Finally, this dissertation highlights the importance of rural communities on the interactions of facilitators and participants who work in a rural context. Attention to the roles and interactions between facilitators, teachers and the rural context is of utmost importance towards understanding and ultimately improving professional development experiences for these predominantly isolated educators. This work has the potential to directly impact current and future STEM students and ultimately the STEM workforce by improving professional development for science educators and ultimately science students. Therefore, attention to who is working in and around these communities as well as what is happening within the context of the professional development of rural educations is of particular interest for all those working to improve science education.Item Distributive Leadership and Student Achievement: A Case Study(2011-12) Baiza, Randy D.; Klinker, JoAnn F.; Duemer, Lee S.; Valle, FernandoThe purpose of this case study was to investigate the interactions between leaders who practice distributive leadership and followers within a school which leads to the development of routines and tools that reinforce student achievement. Education is widely held to be essential for the survival and success of individuals and countries in the emerging global market. National leaders of all stripes place education at the center of their policy agendas. Agreement is also evident about the contributions of leadership in the implementation of virtually all initiatives aimed at improving student learning and school quality. It is therefore difficult to imagine a focus for research with greater social justification than educational leadership. Although distributive leadership is widely thought to be a powerful force for school effectiveness, this belief needs to be justified by empirical evidence. This qualitative study focused on one Texas public secondary school with a majority minority student composition,which received a Blue Ribbon designation. Principal leadership behaviors, campus improvement team perceptions with regard to distributed leadership ideals served as a primary focus. More specifically, the purpose of this case study was to explore in depth relationships exhibited in an exemplary, Blue Ribbon school as identified by the Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS), that enable or constrain distributed leadership ideals central to this study. Capturing essential features such as the character of the leader, leadership styles,followers and values that define curricular goals and the contextual rituals or processes used to communicate continuous improvement towards student success provided additional understanding. Multiple sources of information provided a detailed in-depth picture, including observations, interviews, documents and reports which served as criteria for data collection. The implications of this study's findings are significant. This case study adds further evidence to support research on distributive leadership and its relationship to student achievement. The research participants in particular the school district superintendent, and the school principal did not simply delegate tasks but practiced governance over the school's social and situational contexts. Through the sharing of intellect and opinion, acknowledging and maximizing expertise, teachers were called on to share their expertise in instruction as well as utilize opportunities or time, to dialogue, to share insights regarding students and the curriculum. Working together to improve instruction created shared roles pulling their expertise and initiative directed toward increasing student achievement.Item The structural analysis of the effects of distributed leadership on teacher professionalism(2011-12) Joo, Young Hyeo; Reyes, Pedro, 1954-; Heilig, Julian V.; Holme, Jennifer J.; Borich, Gary D.; Hersh, Matthew A.The purpose of this study was to analyze the direct effects of distributed leadership on teacher professionalism and the mediating effects of collective teacher efficacy, professional learning community, and teacher job satisfaction by using teacher data from the Korea Educational Longitudinal Study (KELS) of 2007, conducted by the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI). After scrutinizing theoretical foundations and reported evidence on the relationships between research factors, the research constructed a structural equation model. The research questions that guided this analysis are as follows: 1) Does the model of this research fit the observed data?; 2) Does distributed leadership practice directly influence teacher professionalism?; and 3) Does distributed leadership practice indirectly influence teacher professionalism mediated by collective teacher efficacy, professional learning community, and teacher job satisfaction? As a result, the initial hypothesized research model shows an inadequate fit to the data. The researcher revised the initial research model by using the results of modification indices provided by the output result of the AMOS program. The results of the study revealed that 1) the research model successfully accounted for the KELS data, 2) distributed leadership negatively influenced teacher professionalism, and 3) distributed leadership indirectly and significantly influenced teacher professionalism, mediated by collective teacher efficacy, professional learning community, and teacher job satisfaction. Additionally, the effects of these mediators also indicated significant relationships between study variables. Public schools cannot achieve their goals and sustain fundamental reform without considering the day-to-day lives of educators, leadership practice, and educators’ workload, and sometimes even re-culturing of schools. School organization should be a place where school members all collaborate with each other to achieve organizational goals and where teachers and students are learning through reciprocal cooperation. When we consider that teacher professionalism can be directly associated with student and parent satisfaction and student achievement, this study contributes to the creation of a model that improves teacher professionalism, and by implication student achievement and satisfaction.