Principal's Leadership as a Critical Factor for School Performance: Evidence from Multi‐Levels of Primary Schools 1

This study aims to investigate how principal's leadership is related to school performance in terms of multi‐level indicators such as school's organizational characteristics, teachers’ group‐level and individual‐level performances, and students’ performances. In the study, strong leadership represents that a principal can be supportive and foster participation for teachers, can develop clear goals and policies and hold people accountable for results, can be persuasive at building alliances and solving conflicts, can be inspirational and charismatic, and can encourage professional development and teaching improvement. The strong leadership is found associated with high organizational effectiveness, strong organizational culture, positive principal‐teachers relationship, more participation in decision, high teacher esprit and professionalism, less teacher disengagement and hindrance, more teacher job satisfaction and commitment, and more positive student performance particularly on attitudes to their schools and learning. The findings support that principal's leadership is a critical factor for school performance at multi‐levels. Implications are advanced for further study and development of leadership.

     

Predicting teacher emotional labour based on multi-frame leadership orientations: a case from Turkey

Human behaviours in organisations are closely associated with leadership styles. The main purpose of this study is to find out the relationship between teachers’ perception about multi-frame leadership orientations of principals and teachers’ emotional labour. The study is based on Bolman and Deal’s Four Frames Model, and, therefore, the Leadership Orientation Scale and Emotional Labour Scale are used. The participants of this research are 570 teachers. The teachers’ perceptions showed that school principals tend to mostly use political and structural frames. In addition, teachers consider themselves as having a high level of genuine emotions. It was also found that school principals’ leadership orientations are significant predictors of emotional labour.     

Culture,gender and school leadership: school leaders' self-perceptions in China

Since the 1980s, numerous studies have demonstrated the influences of culture and gender on leadership, including school leadership. Such studies have been criticised, however, for being dominated by Anglo-American paradigms and frameworks and for under-exploring the roles of culture and gender on leadership in non-Western societies. With reference to China, this paper focuses on the relationship between gender and school leadership and explores gender differences between Chinese male and female school leaders in their leadership orientations. The study adopted a mixed methodology of a questionnaire survey and individual interviews to solicit Chinese school leaders' views in 2008. The study finds mixed patterns of gender differences in Chinese school leadership, including stereotypical, non-stereotypical and no differences. This paper argues that these patterns can be interpreted as resulting from the dynamic interplay among traditional Chinese culture, contemporary political context and organisational settings into which Chinese school leaders are socialised and in which their leadership styles and behaviours are shaped and leadership is exercised.     

ICT,Leadership in Education and E‐leadership

Advances in information and communication technology are changing organisations, including those in educational settings. Old practices are being altered, and new practices, spaces and possibilities created. The changes are such that it is timely to consider whether our current leadership conceptions remain useful. In non‐educational sectors there is an emerging body of opinion and empirical research that is focusing on what is termed “e‐leadership”. Whilst e‐leadership is a recently constructed concept, with considerable conceptual ambiguity, there are significant differences in leading technology‐mediated environments. These environments appear to place greater emphasis on the ability of leaders to cope with paradoxes and dilemmas and the associated behavioural complexity, to communicate with team members and establish an appropriate social climate and to be able to convey exemplary interpersonal skills through the associated technology. There is a greater emphasis on dispersed leadership. In some situations, such as anonymous groups, formal leadership may be detrimental to group performance. More research is needed, but even at the early stage of the development of e‐leadership it is clear that leadership in technology‐mediated environments needs to be carefully considered. As more examples of these environments are developed in educational settings, e­‐leadership will become an important part of our view of educational leadership.     

Influential Factors for Teachers' Creativity: Mutual Impacts of Leadership,Work Engagement,and Knowledge Creation Practices

This research examined the structural relationships among transformational leadership, work engagement, knowledge creation practices, and the level of creativity among the teachers in career and technical education (CTE), and investigated the mediating role of work engagement and knowledge creation practices in explaining the association between transformational leadership and the level of teachers' creativity. A total of 304 responses from CTE school teachers were analyzed. The structural equation modeling (SEM) method was employed. Transformational leadership was found to have positive impacts on work engagement and knowledge creation practices of teachers, but no direct relationship was found between transformational leadership and the level of teachers' creativity. Teachers' work engagement and knowledge creation practices were respectively associated with their perceived creativity levels. Therefore, work engagement and knowledge creation practices of teachers may be considered as mediating factors in the relationship between transformational leadership and teacher's creativity. To promote teachers' creativity, transformational leadership should be complemented by a school climate where teachers' work engagement and knowledge creation are encouraged.     

The Supporting Effective Teaching (SET) project: The relationship of inclusive teaching practices to teachers' beliefs about disability and ability,and about their roles as teachers

The Supporting Effective Teaching (SET) project consists of studies that examine the relationship between elementary general education teachers' beliefs about disability and ability and their roles in inclusive classrooms, and how these are related to teaching practices. Teaching effectiveness is operationally defined as multiple dimensions of teaching practices observed in inclusive classrooms. This paper examines previously reported and newly completed studies that investigate the characteristics of teachers in inclusive classroom settings, what they believe about their roles and responsibilities and about their students' learning, and how their beliefs relate to their teaching effectiveness with students both with and without disabilities.     

Thinking styles: teaching and learning styles in graduate education students

This study investigated the relationship between two intellectual styles approaches: Sternberg’s thinking styles of teachers and Felder and Silverman’s learning styles. Ninety‐five graduate students majoring in special education, reading, educational leadership and curriculum, and elementary education completed the Thinking Styles in Teaching Inventory (TSTI) and the Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire (ILS). Several thinking styles from Sternberg’s theory of self‐government were highly to moderately correlated with Felder’s learning styles. The TSTI did not differentiate between master’s and doctoral students, but the ILS did so. Participants differed in their thinking styles in teaching and in their learning styles, based on their educational major.     

INFLUENCES OF MOTIVATION AND APTITUDE ON LEARNING ELEMENTARY ACCOUNTING IN A JUNIOR COLLEGE THROUGH INDIVIDUALIZED SELF‐PACED AND TRADITIONAL INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS

The purpose of this study was to compare two teaching methods in elementary accounting: an individualized self‐paced method and a traditional method. One hundred students enrolled in an individualized self‐paced elementary accounting class and 150 students enrolled in traditional elementary accounting classes were used in this study. The pre‐experimental equivalence of age, sex, college grade point average, business courses previously taken on the college level, and previous work experience were compared for the two groups. All of the students were administered the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Orientation Test and the Mehrabian Measures of Achieving Tendency at the beginning of the courses. Students in both groups completed the first 14 chapters in the same textbook. Students were then given the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Achievement Test, Level 1, Form GS. A significant relationship was found between students’ aptitude as measured by the AICPA Orientation Test and students’ age. Average age was significantly higher for those students in the individualized self‐paced accounting laboratory class. Age, along with aptitude, was found to be a significant predictor of success in the individualized self‐paced laboratory class but not the traditional classes. A multiple regression analysis showed that aptitude was found to be the best single predictor of students’ achievement in elementary accounting. Only 17 of the 100 students in the self‐paced class completed the course; 16 of those had high aptitude and high achievement motivation scores. A general conclusion of the study was that if individualized self‐paced accounting laboratories are to be used in teaching elementary accounting, counselors should select students who have high scores in both motivation and aptitude. Students with other than a combination of high aptitude and motivation scores should be provided with remedial work in order to raise their achievement and retention level or they should be advised to take traditional courses.     

Project stream: A 13‐year follow‐up of a pre‐college program for middle‐ and high‐school underrepresented gifted

This current, longitudinal study addresses two critical issues related to underrepresented gifted: identification and programming. As a follow‐up of minority and low‐income students identified as gifted in middle school, the study provides insight into the potential predictive value of specific gifted attributes on later academic performance: high‐school graduation, matriculation in an institution of higher learning, and completion of a college degree. Findings support the value of multiple forms of identification, specifically in problem‐solving, teacher identification of leadership ability, and grade point average. The study also evaluates the impact on academic outcomes of a long‐term, university/school pre‐college partnership program for middle‐ and senior‐high‐school underrepresented gifted. Results show a significant relationship between the level of student involvement in program activities and successful achievement of academic outcomes.     

自愿审计、市场反应与公司绩效——基于福建省的数据

将福建省A股上市公司分成自愿审计、强制审计和未审计三个组合,采用事件研究法对这三组上市公司在以半年报公告日为事件日,公告日前后5个和10个交易日为事件窗进行了研究分析,发现自愿审计组合的上市公司的累积超额收益率要明显高于其他两个组合,并进一步由回归模型得出该结论。而通过对上市公司绩效与自愿审计与否关系研究,可得出对于进行中报自愿审计的上市公司,其平均绩效要高于其他组合结论,另外,这些上市公司当年的平均绩效较前一年有明显增长,但是在未来有下降的趋势。     

An Autoethnographical Study of Culture,Power, Identity and Art Education in Post‐Colonial South Korea

This article reflects my experiences of learning art in the 1970s and 1980s and my teaching career in school art education in twenty‐first century South Korea. This autobiographical reflection shows how I have struggled with my identity as an art teacher in the post‐colonial context of Western influences on Korean society since World War II. There has been greater tension and a greater struggle for different values, practices and identities when new values and practices have been introduced into the particular socio‐cultural context of South Korea. My struggles with particular kinds of pedagogic identity valued within the rapidly changing political, economic and cultural context of Western influences on Korean art education demonstrate the hidden structural mechanism of the relationship between culture, power and identity in the post‐colonial world of globalisation. This study as an autoethnographical research provides critical insights into how identities are produced by pedagogic discourses and practices of art education that are constructed through the specific systems of practice and language which transmit and regulate such identities and values.     

A General Framework for Performance Management Systems: Structure,Design, and Analysis

Employees may spend their time on the job behaving in a variety of ways. The purpose of a well‐designed performance management system should be to channel and motivate employees to concentrate their energies on value‐added performance. The extent to which an organization achieves this outcome depends upon the design and structure of its performance management system. The basic framework of any performance management system as presented here involves four levels of operations, policies, and practices: (1) executive leadership; (2) the infrastructure of strategy, measurement and control, and work process; (3) human resource policies and practices in attracting, hiring, developing, and compensating employees; and (4) workplace working conditions shaped and driven by the practices of managers and supervisors and the dynamics of the work group or team. The issues that performance improvement specialists need to consider in analyzing an organization's performance management system are noted.     

The Relationship of Learning and Performance Improvement at Different System Levels

The importance of learning for organizational effectiveness is no longer questioned. Research in the last decade has identified the central role of learning for enhancing individual development. team effectiveness, leadership. innovation, and competitive advantage. However, this acknowledgement of learning's importance has been accompanied by the lack of conceptual clarity when learning, change, innovation, and performance‐all desirable states and co‐variants of each other‐are necessarily studied together. Because learning and performance strongly influence each other, we are often left confused by which is the phenomenon of interest. This confusion is compounded when levels of analysis are considered. This paper examines learning and performance improvement first as separate constructs, then as complimentary elements in organization systems. Using a four‐level systems model, changes in the relationship between learning and performance improvement are examined at different levels of the model.     

Comparing an Inquiry‐based Approach known as the Science Writing Heuristic to Traditional Science Teaching Practices: Are there differences?

Many state and federal governments have mandated in such documents as the National Science Education Standards that inquiry strategies should be the focus of the teaching of science within school classrooms. The difficult part for success is changing teacher practices from perceived traditional ways of teaching to more inquiry‐based approaches. Arguments are often made about the effectiveness of these traditional strategies. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of the inquiry‐based approach known as the Science Writing Heuristic approach as a treatment to traditional teaching practices on students' post‐test scores in relation to students' achievement level and teacher's implementation of the approach. A mixed‐method research approach was used to analyze the teacher observational data and students' test results. The major findings of this study are that the quality of the implementation does have an impact on student performance on post‐test scores and that high‐quality implementation of the Science Writing Heuristic approach has significant advantages in closing the achievement gap within science classrooms.     

New Labour,new leaders? Gendering transformational leadership

Transformational leadership is widely recognised as being central to the implementation of educational reform. In this paper I draw on selected educational speeches made by New Labour politicians in order to locate shifting discourses of leadership within the broader accountability framework through which the terms of the relationship between central government and head teachers have been re/configured in the United Kingdom. The gendered politics of transformation are examined, highlighting new and renewed forms of masculinity embedded within new leadership ideals. It is suggested that a gendered critique of transformational leadership offers an important contribution to critical analyses of the neo‐liberal and managerialist educational project.     

Leadership and the Profession of Counseling: Beliefs and Practices

Thirty‐one individuals who have provided leadership to the counseling profession completed 3 Q‐sorts. These individuals sorted 39 statements about leadership according to 3 phases: when a leadership effort is getting started, when work is progressing, and when a leadership effort is coming to a close. The authors present perspectives on leadership that emerged from the study, during each of the 3 phases, and attempt to present their findings in a way that honors multiple voices about leadership.     

A Comparative Study or Western and Japanese Practices Geared Towards Improved Learning and New Product Performance

Increasingly, the long‐term success of a company resides in its ability to develop and market successful new products in a cost‐and time‐effective manner. In general, Japanese companies have outperformed their Western counterparts in bringing new products to market over the last 10 to 20 years. This has given them a substantial advantage in long‐term economic development. The authors hypothesize that the differences between the dominant models of corporate culture in Japan and the U.S. account for the Japanese advantage. In comparison to U.S. companies, Japanese companies tend to emphasize long‐term leadership, decentralized decision making, a flatter work structure using cross‐functional work teams, and rewarding teams for the ability to learn from mistakes. As a result of these differences, Western companies are more likely to utilize “single, loop” learning, where new products are developed using established (and unquestioned) procedures. Conversely, Japanese companies rely on “double‐loop” or “deutero” learning styles, which encourage employees to leverage their past experiences when proposing new product innovations. The authors conclude by outlining a research program for testing their as‐gumptions about the relations among nationality, corporate culture, learning styles, and new product success.     

Leadership Styles of Russian Enterprise Managers: The Effect of Transactional and Transformational Behaviors on Employees' Evaluation of Managerial Performance

The purpose of this research was to identify leadership styles of today's Russian enterprise managers and to determine how these styles are related to employees' subjective evaluation of managerial performance. The survey was based on Bass and Avolio's MLQ5x leadership styles instrument. Valid responses were received from 1,216 managers and employees at three large manufacturing enterprises located in Moscow. The study results suggest that Russian managers used three well‐known leadership styles—transactional, transformational, and laissez‐faire. However, the laissez‐faire style was not prevalent. Overall, transactional leadership was used more often than transformational leadership. Transactional contingent ceward leadership was used more often than any other approaches. Charisma and Individualized Consideration have received the lowest scores among the transformational leadership style dimensions. Tests of the relationship between leadership styles and managerial performance measures indicate that transformational leadership‐and one of its components, Charisma‐had the strongest relationship with positive outcomes. Implications for developing leadership training programs in Russia and for the transfer of Western training and development approaches are discussed.     

Influential factors for knowledge creation practices of CTE teachers: mutual impact of perceived school support, transformational leadership, and work engagement

This study examined the structural relationships among perceived school support, transformational leadership, teachers’ work engagement, and teachers’ knowledge creation practices. It also investigated the mediating effects of transformational leadership and work engagement in explaining the association between perceived school support and knowledge creation practices. Samples included 284 career and technical education teachers in the United States. Structural equation modeling was employed. Perceived school support was positively associated with transformational leadership and teachers’ work engagement, but had no direct impact on knowledge creation practices. Transformational leadership was found to affect knowledge creation practices, but not work engagement of teachers. Although a supportive school climate had no direct relationship with knowledge creation practices, it indirectly affected this outcome variable through transformational leadership and teachers’ work engagement. The results suggest that in order to increase teachers’ knowledge creation activities, a supportive school climate should be provided with efforts to improve teachers’ work engagement and transformational behaviors of the principal.     

Effectiveness of learning objects in various instructional settings

Learning objects (LOs), generally understood as digital learning resources shared and accessed through the Internet and reused in multiple learning contexts, have aroused enthusiasm in the field of educational technology. Although LOs offer many possibilities to change educational practices, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the effectiveness and usefulness of LOs. This paper reports results from three studies on effectiveness of LOs in various instructional settings. According to the results, there exists interaction between the effectiveness of LOs and various instructional arrangements. In order to be effective LOs require carefully designed learning environments and instructional arrangements. LOs themselves do not guarantee high‐quality learning performance and meaningful learning activities. It is the context of use together with instructional arrangements that defines the pedagogical value of LOs.