CHAPTER III DESIGN OF THE STUDY

Transcription

1 CHAPTER III DESIGN OF THE STUDY 3.1 INTRODUCTION This chapter delineates the research design adopted for the present investigation. The main themes of this chapter revolves around the method used for investigation, variables involved in the study, nature and size of the samples selected for the present investigation, tools used for the collection of data, method of data collection and coding, and the statistical techniques employed for analysis and interpretation of the data. 3.2 THE METHOD The term Normative implies the determination of normal or typical conditions, facts or practices. The term normative survey is generally used for the type of research, which purposes to ascertain what is the normal or typical condition or practice at the present time. The survey type of research is often confused with the mere gathering and tabulating the data while it goes beyond this. According to Best (1978), The survey is an important type of study. It must not be confused with the mere clerical routine of gathering and tabulating figures. It involves a clearly defined problem and definite objectives. It requires expert and imaginative planning, careful analysis and interpretation of the data gathered and logical and skillful reporting of the findings. 86

2 In order to achieve the objectives of the present study Normative Survey method was used for investigating the inter-relationships amongst the variables viz head teachers leadership style in relation to school effectiveness. 3.3 POPULATION A population may refer to all of any specified groups of human being or of non-human entities such as objects, geographical areas, time units, methods, test or schools. The population for the present study could be considered as all head teachers, teachers, students and parents of government schools at the secondary stage in Mysore City, (India) and Shiraz City, (Iran). 3.4 SAMPLE AND SAMPLING FRAME The population for the present study has been identified as the head teachers, teachers, students and their parents in Mysore City and Shiraz City. The population has been further limited to the head teachers and teachers who are working at the secondary stage and students who are in 9 th and 10 th standards along with their parents. For the selection of sample, the researcher collected the details of all the schools in both these cities. Using simple random procedure from the list of schools the researcher identified 30 schools from the city of Mysore and 30 schools from Shiraz City. Further, from each of the identified schools, one head teacher, 6-7 teachers, 5 students and 5 parents were randomly selected. 87

3 The final sample for the present study consists of 60 secondary school head teachers (30 head teachers from Mysore City in India, and 30 head teachers from Shiraz City in Iran), 390 secondary school teachers (194 teachers from Mysore City and 196 teachers from Shiraz City, 277 parents (138 parents from Mysore City and 139 parents from Shiraz City) and 283 students (141 students from Mysore City and 142 students from Shiraz City). The sampling frame is summarized below in Table 3.1. Table 3.1: Sampling Frame Country No. of Head No. of No. of No. of Teachers Teachers Parents Students India Iran Total DESCRIPTION OF TOOLS USED The selection of suitable instruments or tools is of vital importance for successful research. As the study involved 2 main variables, namely, leadership style and school effectiveness, the following two tools were employed for measuring these variables in the study. (i) (ii) Multifactor Leadership Style (MLQ-5X) revised by Bass and Avolio (1995). School Effectiveness Questionnaire (SEQ) developed by Baldwin et al. (1993). In addition to these two tools, a Personal Information Sheet was also developed and administrated to get background information of the school head teachers. The tools are briefly discussed below. 88

4 3.5.1 Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-5X) The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-5X) was first developed by Bass in 1985 and was revised several times through subsequent research. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-5X) was revised by Bass and Avolio (1995) to measure the transformational and transactional leadership styles. According to the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Manual and Sampler Set (Avolio and Bass, 2004), The MLQ-5X Short is available in a validated form of 45 items for organizational survey and research purposes and for preparation of individual leader reports (p. 5). Furthermore, the MLQ-5X Long is available in a validated form of 63 items for training, development and feedback purposes (p. 5). The researcher utilized the MLQ-5X short form in the study. A copy of the questionnaire is provided in Appendix 2. The MLQ-5X incorporated a leader form and a rater form. Rater form of this questionnaire was used in this research. Each questionnaire included 45 items with a specific variable selected for each leadership factor (five subscales for transformational leadership and four subscales for transactional leadership and one for non-leadership factor). The Transformational subscales were the following: Idealized Influence-Attributed (IIA), Idealized Influence- Behavior (IIB), Inspirational Motivation (IM), Intellectual Stimulation (IS), and Individual Consideration (IC). The Transactional subscales were Contingent Reward (CR), Management-by-Exception-Active (MBEA), and Management-by-Exception-Passive (MBEP). The non-leadership subscale 89

5 was Laissez-faire. There were three outcomes of leadership, Extra Effort (EE), Effectiveness (EFF), and Satisfaction with the Leadership (SAT). 3.3 and 3.4. MLQ-5X has 12 subscales which have been mentioned in Tables 3.2, Table 3.2: Transformational leadership constructs and individual statements related to the specific construct in the MLQ-5X-Short Form. Leadership Item Item Statement Construct Number Idealized Influence 6 Talks about his/her most important values and beliefs. (Behavior) 14 Specifies the importance of having a strong sense of purpose. 23 Considers the moral and ethical consequences of decision. Transformational Leadership Idealized Influence (Attributed) Inspirational Motivation Intellectual Stimulation Individual Consideration 34 Emphasizes the importance of having a collective sense of mission. 10 Instills pride in others for being associated with him/her. 18 Goes beyond self-interest for the good of the group. 21 Acts in ways that builds my respect. 25 Displays a sense of power and confidences of decisions. 9 Talks optimistically about the future. 13 Talks enthusiastically about what needs to be accounted. 26 Articulates a compelling vision of the future. 36 Expresses confidence that goals will be achieved. 2 Re-examines critical assumptions to question whether they are appropriate. 8 Seeks differing perspectives when solving problems. 30 Gets me to look at problems from many different 32 Suggests new ways of looking at how to complete assignments. 15 Spends time teaching and coaching. 19 Treats me as an individual rather than just as a member of a group. 29 Considers me as having different needs, abilities, and aspirations from others. 31 Helps me to develop my strengths. 90

6 Table 3.3 (continued): Transactional leadership constructs and individual statements related to the specific construct in the MLQ-5X Short Form. Leadership Item Item Statement Construct Number Contingent Reward 1 Provides me with assistance in exchange for my efforts. 11 Discusses in specific terms who is responsible for achieving performance targets. 16 Makes clear what one can expect to receive when performance goals are achieved. Transactional Leadership Style Managementby-Exception (Active) Managementby-Exception (Passive) Laissez-faire 35 Expresses satisfaction when I meet expectations. 4 Focuses attention on irregularities, mistakes, exceptions and deviations from standards. 22 Concentrates his/her full attention on dealing with mistakes, complaints, and failures. 24 Keeps track of all mistakes. 27 Directs my attention to failures to meet standards. 3 Fails to interfere until problems become serious. 12 Waits for things to go wrong before taking action. 17 Shows that he/she is a firm believer in If it isn t broke don t fix it. 20 Demonstrates that problems must become chronic before I take action. 5 Avoids getting involved when important issues arise. 7 Is absent when needed. 28 Avoids making decisions. 33 Delays responding to urgent questions. 91

7 Leaders Outcomes Table 3.4 (continued): Other leadership constructs and individual statements related to the specific construct in the MLQ-5X Short Form. Leadership Item Item Statement Construct Number Extra 39 Gets me to do more than they expected to do. Effort 42 Heightens my desire to succeed. 44 Increases my willingness to try harder. Satisfaction 38 Uses methods of leadership that are satisfying. 41 Works with me in a satisfactory way. Effective 37 Is effective in meeting my job-related needs. 40 Is effective in representing me to higher authority. 43 Is effective in meeting organizational requirements. 45 Leads a group that is effective Validity and Reliability of MLQ-5X MIQ has been used in nearly 200 research programs, doctoral dissertations and master s theses around the world. Since this instrument fits well into the description of head teachers leadership styles, the researcher posited that the MIQ-5X was a valid research instrument to be used in this study. The reliabilities within each data set generally indicated that the MLQ-5X was reliably measuring each leadership factor across the initial nine data sets used by Bass and Avolio (1995). Researchers constructed the MLQ-5X from a series of studies. The development of the MLQ-5X included many revisions and involved various researchers. According to Avolio and Bass (2004), the MLQ is a full range leadership instrument. MLQ-5X means, standard deviations and reliabilities have been mentioned in Table

8 Table 3.5: MLQ-5X means, standard deviations, and reliabilities MLQ-5X Factors Means Standard Deviation Reliabilities Idealized Influence (IIA) Idealized Influence (IIB) Inspirational Motivation (IM) Intellectual Stimulation (IS) Individual Consideration (IC) Contingent Reward (CR) Management-By-Exception Active (MBEA) Management-By-Exception Passive (MBEP) Laissez Faire (LF) Extra Effort (EE) Effectiveness (EFF) Satisfaction (SAT) N=2080 (Avolio, Bass and Jung, 1995) Rowold (2005), furthermore, validated the instrument. He stated The MLQ has been developed and validated (Avolio and Bass, 2004). It is now the standard instrument for assessing a range of transformational, transactional and non-leadership scales (p. 4). According to Avolio and Bass (2004), the MLQ-5X is a full range leadership model. This full range includes leadership dimensions which are highly transformational at one end to those which are avoidant at the other end. (p. 45). Descriptive statistics and reliabilities for the MLQ-5X are shown in Table 3.5 for all items in each scale for the initial sample set. According to Avolio and Bass (2004) these scale scores are based on ratings by others evaluating a target leader from the initial set of nine samples (N=2, 154) reported in the 1985 MLQ Technical Report. No self-ratings are reported. Reliabilities for the total items and for each leadership factor scale ranged from 93

9 .74 to.94. All of the scales reliabilities were generally high, exceeding standards cut offs for internal consistency recommended in the literature. Table 3.5 also presents the reliabilities for each leadership factor broken down for each individual sample (pp ) Scoring of MLQ-5X The MLQ-5X rater form was used to determine each head teacher s leadership style. Transformational leadership questions were items 2, 6, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 21, 23, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34 and 36. Transactional leadership questions were items 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 11, 12, 16, 17, 20, 22, 24, 27, 28, 33 and 35. Head teachers were then classified either into transformational or into transactional based on the results of the survey. The highest mean score was the dominant leadership style. Participants answered the questionnaire using a 5-point Likert scale with the scores, for example: 0=not at all, 1=once in a while, 2=sometimes, 3=fairly often, 4=frequently, if not always. Leadership styles of the head teachers were determined based on the mean of teachers response to the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire in each school Norms Raw Score Norms for Leadership Style For the interpretation of the scores on the secondary school head teachers leadership style raw score norms have been prepared for the total sample. Table 3.6 shows the raw score norms on the secondary school head teachers leadership style. 94

10 Table 3.6: Raw score norms for the secondary school head teachers leadership style. Interpretation Range of Raw Scores Excellent Good Average Weak Very Weak 1-29 The scores on the secondary school head teachers leadership style in Mysore City and Shiraz City were and respectively. This showed that the obtained scores in both countries were within the average range. Also, it showed that the head teachers in Shiraz City had obtained higher scores than their Indian counterparts Raw Score Norms for Transformational Leadership Style For the interpretation of the scores on the secondary school head teachers transformational leadership style raw score norms have been prepared to the total sample. Table 3.7 shows the raw score norms on the secondary school head teachers transformational leadership style. Table 3.7: Raw score norms for the secondary school head teachers transformational leadership style. Interpretation Range of Raw Scores Excellent Good Average Weak Very Weak 1-16 The scores on the secondary school head teachers transformational leadership style in Mysore City and Shiraz City were and respectively. This showed that the averaged obtained score in Mysore City was in the average category whereas in Shiraz City it was in the good range. 95

11 Also, it showed that the head teachers in Shiraz City had obtained higher transformational leadership style scores than their Indian counterparts Raw Score Norms for Transactional Leadership Style For the interpretation of the scores on the secondary school head teachers transactional leadership style raw score norms have been prepared for the total sample. Table 3.8 has summarized the raw score norms on the secondary school head teachers transactional leadership style. Table 3.8: Raw score norms for the secondary school head teachers transactional leadership style. Interpretation Range of Raw Scores Excellent Good Average Weak Very Weak 1-13 The scores on the secondary school head teachers transactional leadership style in Mysore City and Shiraz City were and respectively. This showed that the obtained scores in Mysore City and Shiraz City were within the average range. Also, it showed that the head teachers in Mysore City had obtained higher transactional leadership style scores than their Iranian counterparts School Effectiveness Questionnaire (SEQ) The School Effectiveness Questionnaire (SEQ) developed by Baldwin, Coney, Fardig, and Thomas (1993) was utilized for the purpose of this study. The School Effectiveness Questionnaire grew out of a project conducted by the 96

12 Orange County, Florida, School District in Orange County began its project by assembling a committee of district-level staff and head teachers from the various elementary and secondary schools. The committee also included parent and community representatives. The committee agreed upon 11 characteristics of school effectiveness that would be measured in Orange County schools (Baldwin et al., 1993). The committee developed questionnaires for teachers, parents, and students Validity and Reliability of SEQ The original questionnaires (Appendices 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 10) were field-tested using teachers, parents, and students in 7 schools, with 9 th and 10 th standards represented. The results were analyzed and revised based on these data. Afterwards, head teachers, teachers, parents, and students were surveyed with the revised instruments. Cronbach s (1951) coefficient alpha was computed on data obtained from the secondary schools of Mysore City and Shiraz City to provide an estimate of the internal consistency reliability for each of the characteristics. The internal consistency reliability for all participants had a range from.77 to.96 (Table 3.9). The questions tested from the instrument were reliable. The high coefficient for each characteristic created questions that were clear with no ambiguity. 97

13 Table 3.9: Coefficients alpha reliabilities of SEQ Characteristics Teachers Parents Students Effective instructional leadership * Clear and focused mission * Safe and orderly environment Positive school climate High expectations Frequent assessment/monitoring Of student achievement Emphasis on basic skills Maximum opportunities for learning Parent/community involvement Strong professional development.96 * * Teacher involvement in decision-making.96 * * Entire instrument The questionnaires administered amongst teachers, parents, and students were consistent with regard to the content analyzed, but some of the questions varied depending on the audience. For example, teacher questionnaires surveyed all 11 characteristics while parent questionnaires surveyed 9 of the 11 characteristics on the instrument. In contrast, only 7 characteristics were assessed on the students questionnaires. Surveying varied amongst teacher, parent, and student questionnaires (Table 3.10) due to the reality that these different audiences would contain various abilities to answer questions about content areas associated with the secondary schools. 98

14 Table 3.10: Relationship of statements to characteristics of SEQ Characteristics Teachers Parents Students Effective instructional leadership * Clear and focused mission * Safe and orderly environment Positive school climate High expectations Frequent assessment/monitoring of student achievement Emphasis on basic skills Maximum opportunities for learning Parent/community involvement Strong professional development * * Teacher involvement in decision-making * * Characteristics of School Effectiveness in Detail Characteristics of school effectiveness may be summarized as the followings: Effective Instructional Leadership The head teacher is an acknowledgeable and effective school administrator who encourages teachers, parents, and students to work together as a team in order to maximize the benefits of the school educational experience. Communication is evident amongst teachers, parents, and students. The head teacher is at the forefront in facilitating the development of a high quality instructional program and the monitoring of its implementation Clear and Focused Mission The mission of the school is articulated throughout the school in a manner that teachers, parents, and students understand. The school s goals, objectives and policies, and procedures, means of assessment and ways of delivering services are clearly stated. 99

15 Safe and Orderly Environment The environment of the school is favorable for educational experiences. Teachers can teach and students can learn without concerns for safety or undue infringements upon the instructional process or academic freedom. Everyone is involved and supports the discipline procedures. The buildings are clean Positive School Climate The school climate reflects an ambiance of trust, respect, and caring amongst administrators, teachers, parents, and students. Cultural differences are celebrated and never cause a hindrance in the educational process. Everyone is recognized for his or her accomplishments High Expectations All students are expected to learn and behave at high standards. The school ensures that teachers, parents, and students are aware of their respective roles and are knowledgeable of their expectations Frequent Assessment/Monitoring of Student Achievement Student academic progress is measured frequently by an assortment of assessment methods. The results of these assessments are used to improve the instructional effectiveness of the school. Tracking of student performance is often discussed by teachers, parents, as well as students and modified to meet the needs of all students. 100

16 Emphasis on Basic Skills The school has defined grade appropriate basic skills within content areas and has set challenging standards for all student achievement. Critical/higher-order thinking skills such as problem solving are also emphasized. These basic skills are evident in elective subjects as well Maximum Opportunities for Learning School activities are planned so that instructional time is maximized and geared to meet the needs, interests, and abilities of all students. Extracurricular and supplemental activities serve to support and enhance the school s instructional agenda. Teachers feel supported by their administrators. Classes are not interrupted often, so teachers have continuous opportunities to teach their high-interest lessons Parent/Community Involvement The school actively seeks parent and community input in the development of the school s mission, policies, and procedures. In addition, parents and community members support the school s curricular and extracurricular activities with resources and services. Parents have a voice developing school policies Strong Professional Development All teachers are encouraged to improve themselves professionally. Consequently, teachers are provided with opportunities for enhancing their 101

17 professional status and becoming more skilled in meeting the needs of teachers, parents, students, community, and themselves. Teachers are able to apply their tailored staff development to meet their individual needs Teacher Involvement in Decision-Making Teachers are made a significant component of the school team. They are involved indecisions related to school planning and budgeting and developing the school s mission and goals as well as developing and implementing school policies and procedures Scoring of SEQ The SEQ was used to determine school effectiveness. There were 70 items for the teachers, 44 items for the parents and 36 items for the students who answered the questionnaire using a 5-point Likert scale with the scores, for example: 5=strongly agree, 4=agree, 3=uncertain, 2=disagree and 1=strongly disagree. School effectiveness was determined by scoring each of the participants response to the questionnaire and the sum of the total score Norms For the interpretation of the scores on school effectiveness raw score norms have been prepared for the total sample. Table 3.11 has summarized the raw score norms on school effectiveness. 102

18 Table 3.11: Raw score norms for school effectiveness Interpretation Range of Raw Scores Very High High Average Below Average Low The scores on school effectiveness at the secondary stage in Mysore City and Shiraz City were and respectively. This showed that the obtained scores on school effectiveness in both cities were high Purpose of 11 Characteristics of School Effectiveness Baldwin et al. (1993) provided the following definitions of all 11 school effectiveness characteristics. Each characteristic was used as a means of identifying and understanding the perceptions of teachers, parents, and students in the two exemplary open-enrollment charter schools in this study Teacher Questionnaire Teachers had more questions than both parents and students. A copy of the questionnaire is provided in Appendices 3 and 8. Questions 1 up to 8 on the teacher questionnaires addressed effective instructional leadership while questions 9 up to 15 questioned the secondary schools clear and focused mission. Safe and orderly environments were addressed in questions 16 up to 20, and questions 21 up to 30 requested responses concerning positive school environments. High expectations were surveyed beginning with questions 31 upto 35, and questions 36 up to 41 allowed teachers to comment on the frequency of assessments in their schools. The characteristics associated with 103

19 basic skills were identified in questions 42 up to 46, while questions 47 up to 53 reviewed maximum opportunities for learning. Questions 54 up to 59 dealt with parent and community involvement, and questions 60 up to 65 requested responses regarding strong professional development. In conclusion, questions 66 up to 70 asked teachers about their involvement in decision-making processes on their secondary school environment Parent Questionnaire The questionnaire administered to parents consisted of 44 questions. A copy of the questionnaire is provided in Appendices 4 and 9. Questions 1 up to 6 requested the parents to reflect on effective instructional leadership at the secondary schools. In addition, questions 7 up to 10 dealt with the secondary schools mission. Parents expressed their feelings concerning a safe and orderly environment of the school using questions 11 up to 15, while questions 16 up to 22 gave parents an opportunity to revisit the school climate. High expectations were rated on questions 23 up to 25, and questions 26 up to 30 requested parents to respond to the frequency of assessment of the secondary schools. Questions 31 and 32 emphasized a response to basic skills, while parents used questions 33 up to 38 to respond to the maximum opportunities provided for learning. Finally, questions 39 up to 44 requested parents to comment on the community and their involvement with the secondary schools Student Questionnaire Student questionnaires examined similar content using 36 questions A copy of the questionnaire is provided in Appendices 5 and 10. Students used questions 104

20 1 up to 7 to respond to their safe and orderly environment. Questions 8 up to 14 gave students an opportunity to reflect on their school climate, and questions 15 up to 17 requested a response regarding high expectations. The frequency of assessments was addressed in questions 18 up to 21 and basic skills characteristics were in questions 22 up to 28. Questions 29 up to 34 asked for comments about opportunities for learning. Lastly, questions 35 and 36 requested students to respond to parent and community involvement in their schools. 3.6 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE After the questionnaires were modified and accepted as appropriate tools to collect the necessary data in colloquium meeting, the researcher wrote a letter to the Principal of Regional Institute of Education through the guide to get recommendation letter to submit to the Deputy Director of Public Institutions in Mysore City, India and Fars Education Organization in Shiraz City, Iran. After the questionnaires were modified and accepted as appropriate tools to collect the necessary data in colloquium meeting, the researcher wrote a letter to the Principal of Regional Institute of Education through the guide to get recommendation letter to submit to the Deputy Director of Public Institutions in Mysore City, India and Fars Education Organization in Shiraz City, Iran. Then the researcher along with the mentioned submission letters subjected to head teachers, selected and conferred secondary schools as the source to collect the necessary data. About leadership style the researcher collected the data from head teachers and teachers only. Head teachers background 105

21 characteristics were collected from head teachers themselves. Then, the teachers from the secondary schools were asked to answer the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) by judging how frequently their head teacher displayed the behaviors described in the questionnaire, using a 5-point scale that would be mentioned in step two of data entry. For the second variable i.e. school effectiveness, three groups of participants (teachers, parents and students) replied the considered questionnaires. The data was collected from Iran on during October-December, 2007 and from India during January-March Coding the Data The first step in data analysis involved (a) creating a coding system for each of the three questionnaires and (b) applying these coding systems to each individual questionnaire. These two tasks were completed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program. A code number was considered for each country 1 for India and 2 for Iran. Then school ID was considered for all of the selected schools in both countries. The researcher continued coding the data for head teachers gender, age, educational qualification, academic stream and experience. Finally, different dimensions of the questionnaires and all items of them were coded. For the purpose of this study, descriptive statistics were used to report data included in this study. Responses were notated for each hypothesis. All responses to each characteristic were assigned a score by adding the total group of question responses for each participant. 106

22 3.6.2 Data Entry Survey questionnaires were checked for missing data. Surveys were rechecked for data transcription error, every survey was checked to ensure the data had been entered correctly Generating the Response Distribution The SPSS program was then used to create the initial response distributions for each item in teacher, parent, and student questionnaires. A value was designated as an identifier of the outcomes in SPSS program. Researcher used Rater Form of Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-5X) revised by Bass and Avolio (1995) in this research for independent variable i.e. leadership style. Participants answered the questionnaire using a 5-point Likert scale representing the frequency of each behavior, examples are 0=not at all, 1=once in a while, 2=sometimes, 3=fairly often, 4= frequently, if not always. For dependent variable i.e. school effectiveness used School Effectiveness Questionnaire (SEQ) developed by Baldwin et al., (1993), for example: 5 was identified as strongly agree, 4 was identified as agree, 3 was identified as uncertain, 2 was identified as disagree and 1 was identified as strongly disagree Statistical Techniques Used After entering the survey responses into the SPSS software and coding the data, the description of scores on leadership style, transformational and transactional leadership styles and school effectiveness were presented by scores obtained on 107

23 the employed scales (minimum, maximum, mean, standard deviation, median, mode, skewness and kurtosis). Then, distributions of scores were presented through tables and figures. Some statistical techniques such as t test, correlation coefficient (Pearson Correlation) and linear regression were used to analyze the data based on the designed hypotheses for this research. The analysis and interpretation of the data in the context of the objectives and hypotheses of the study have been attempted in the following chapter. 108