Organizational Learning Capacity, Evaluative Inquiry and Readiness for Change in Schools: Views and Perceptions of Educators

In recent review of the literature on integrating evaluative inquiry into organizational culture, Cousins, Goh, Clark and Lee [Cousins, J.B., Goh, S., Clark, S. & Lee, L. (2004). Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation 19(2), 99–144] suggest that there is a link between evaluative inquiry and organizational learning in schools. However, there have been no published studies examining the views, perceptions and importance teachers and administrators attach to these practices and activities in their schools. This article reports results from a survey of 970 educators about their views on both of these topics – organizational learning and evaluation. Teachers and school administrators in 41 middle and secondary schools in Manitoba, Canada, responded to questions about current evaluation practices, attitudes towards evaluation and experience with systematic inquiry, as well as organizational learning capacity, school support structures and their readiness for evaluation and change. The survey results suggest that educators perceive their schools to have a moderate capacity for organizational learning. Similarly, respondents indicated that a moderate to low level of evaluation activity is currently taking place in their schools. Some implications for change in building a learning capacity and an evaluative inquiry culture in schools and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

Understanding the intention to use interactive whiteboards: model development and testing

The effective use of an interactive whiteboard (IWB) in teacher-education institutions depends strongly on student teachers' intention of using it. Despite the recent surge in published research on the widespread applications for IWBs in teaching and learning, few have developed a model to elucidate the factors which influence student teachers' behavioural intentions (BIs) regarding the use of IWBs. The aim of this study was to develop a model which demonstrates the variables that affect student teachers' intentions and which also explain their interactions. The proposed research model is based on previous models of technology acceptance. Six variables (technology self-efficacy (TSE), performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI), facilitating condition, and BI) were selected to build a model for this study. Structural equation modelling was used as the main technique for data analysis. The research model was found reliable and valid, the findings being based on a self-reported survey of 156 student teachers in Australia. Of the seven hypotheses which were formulated, five were supported by the findings. From the effect sizes, the dominant determinant of BI was found to be PE, this being followed by TSE, EE, and SI.     

The 2001 Benjamin Franklin medal in physics presented to Alan Guth, Ph.D. of Cambridge, Massachusetts

The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, awarded the 2001 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics to Alan H. Guth for his efforts to advance our knowledge of physical science and its application of the inflationary scenario, in which the universe undergoes a rapid expansion in the first stages of the Big Bang.