In education today, there is a growing sense of urgency to build the capacity of educators, parents, and community members to work together to solve the complex issues facing schools. The central purpose of this study was to explore how one elementary school site council learned and adopted a set of tools to improve its patterns of communication and ability to work as a team. The communication and inquiry tools introduced to this site council were drawn from learning organization theory and organizations which are seeking to become learning organizations. A qualitative case study method was used in this research. The analysis focused on (a) how the communication and inquiry tools were used, (b) what results the communication and inquiry tools produced, and (c) the characteristics of the communication and inquiry tools. Findings indicate that the tools increased the site council members' individual and collective capacity to listen, engage, trust, and work effectively with each other. These aptitudes were developed through the use of the tools in six areas: (a) becoming aware of one's own thinking, (b) making one's thinking visible and transparent to others, (c) understanding the thinking of others, (d) seeing one's interactions from a systems perspective, (e) engaging in collaborative decision-making, and (1) capturing and documenting learning. These aptitudes and activities increased the members' awareness in three capacity building dimensions: awareness of self, awareness of others, and awareness of the system. The communication and inquiry tools exhibited the following operational characteristics: (a) they invite mindfulness and focus; (b) their potential comes from their application and the emerging skills of the users; (c) initial competence in their use can be gained from instruction, experimentation, ongoing practice, and reflection; (d) and they can be used to harness collective intelligence. The findings may have implications for schools and universities that seek to build the capacity for educators, parents, and community members to engage in systemic school reform initiatives. / Graduation date: 1999

This qualitative study examined organizational change including the necessary steps that a large school district took in planning and implementing a reform effort. This project told a story of one school district's experience. The study covered a five year period from 1990 to 1995 in the 30,000 student Salem-Keizer School District of Salem, Oregon. The examination included a description of school board action in 1989 where a staff recommendation to reform middle schools and move sixth graders to middle schools with a seven-eight grade configuration was denied. The study then continued with an examination of the change process during which sixth graders were moved to middle schools, reforms were implemented, three new schools were opened and five schools were remodeled to accommodate the new programs. This reform, however, was not without problems. Those issues were discussed in the study. The retrospective part of the study reflected upon the project through the analysis of district documents and the results of nine field interviews of middle school principals using a set of seven questions designed to reveal the principals' perceptions of the process. The study then triangulated the results of the interviews by examining information from a focus group comprised of Salem-Keizer curriculum directors and staff development specialists who were asked the same seven questions. The study answered the questions: "Did the district do what the community asked it to do in creating middle schools that afford students a more effective educational program?" and "What are the implications for the district in undertaking a major reform effort?" Themes that emerged from the study included the following: organizational change is highly personalized; change should have a literature and research foundation; stakeholders must participate in the change process; communication must be consistent and must be "two way"; one person must be the individual in charge of the change; a change process requires vigilance, constant reevaluation and refinement; staff development is crucial in a change process; and if a district wants new thinking, then new people must help in organization change. / Graduation date: 1997

For the past 100 years, the prominent instructional model for all public education in the United States has been teacher/content centered with the intent of covering a discrete body of knowledge in a given period of time. As the end of the twentieth century approaches, natural, social, political, and economic forces are influencing community college instructors to transition from content centered instruction to a student centered approach to teaching and learning as part of the national education reform agenda. The purpose of this study was to document, through a case study, the experience of one community college instructor as she attempted to transition from a traditional content focused teaching model to an outcome-based/learner centered model. A literature survey provides a review of education reform as it relates to instructors in a community college. A learner centered training model from industry, is applied as a framework for outcome-based/learner centered instruction in community colleges. Participant observation, surveys, and interviews were the methods used to collect data. Six hypotheses were generated from the study: 1. Learner centered/outcome-based teaching is more complex and takes greater skill in basic teaching techniques than teaching in a traditional content framework. 2. An instructor whose teaching experience has been exclusively content focused may find it difficult to create authentic learning tasks. 3. Collegial influence is a major factor affecting the ability of one instructor to change instructional practices. 4. A single instructor's ability to change instructional practice in one course is limited by the way the program curriculum is designed. 5. Learning is enhanced by human relationships that foster trust and reflective practice. 6. Teaching and learning is complex and multifaceted in nature: it is not a logical linear process. / Graduation date: 1996

School districts across the nation are engaged in an ongoing attempt to bring about change. Educational researchers strive to initiate change in the classroom with students as well as the teachers of these students. The evaluation of a change effort is a key element in any implementation model; as the actual training and development strategies used to induce change need to be consistently refined. The change effort studied was an effort to implement Madeline Hunter's Instructional Theory Into Practice (referred to as ITIP). The study evaluated the effectiveness of this change effort over time. The evaluation determined the extent to which intended behavioral outcomes of five dimensions (key elements in the 11113 model) were realized initially and four years after treatment. Because the behaviors of the treatment teachers and control group teachers were crucial to the study, the research design collected data by videotaping teaching episodes of the sample group pre- and post-treatment. These episodes were assessed for their pretreatment teaching behaviors and post-treatment teaching behaviors . In addition, the research design collected data by videotape and assessed the teaching behaviors four years after the initial training. In the same manner, the control group's teaching behaviors were assessed. An analysis of the study's treatment group concerns was done as they evolved through the change stages, as hypothesized by Dr. Frances F. Fuller (Fuller, 1969). This change analysis and behavioral assessment led to additional evidence for the evaluation of the effectiveness of the change effort in question. This study showed that, from the beginning, a change effort needs to be carefully and clearly defined so that everyone involved understands it well and everyone shares the same definition. The study found that the initial training did change teaching behaviors in four of the five areas in question. However, four years after the initial training, it was found that there was significant regression in the skills learned from the initial training sessions. Specifically, it was the areas that showed significant growth in the initial training that regressed four years later. These behaviors though, even after regressing after four years, were significantly displayed to a greater degree in each of the individual's teaching behaviors when compared to individuals who had no formal training at all. Therefore, it must be concluded that the formal training made a difference in the teaching behaviors of those who participated in the change effort design, but not to the degree that was necessary for the dimensions to become part of each individuals' teaching behavior over the long term. Change effort designs of the future must account for the time necessary for change to occur and promote follow up activities until a significant amount of time for this follow up has occurred. / Graduation date: 1991

The purpose of this study was to examine the manifestations of curriculum change on organizational culture of a primary school, with a specific focus on the culture of teachers. In this study, phenomenological design was used to investigate what meanings teachers attached to the changing nature and structure of their work, through the examination of the organizational culture of one primary school located in Ankara. Data were collected through face-to-face semi-structured teacher interviews aiming to find out the meaning of curriculum change and its manifestations on teacher culture for them. Findings revealed that although teachers perceived the change as a threat at the initiation process due to their experiencing lack of choice, they later expressed approval of the values and beliefs of the constructivist curriculum. However, when their meanings and perceptions regarding implementation are examined, it seems that the constraints regarding implementation are more decisive than these values and beliefs. Besides, it was found that teachers mostly defined factors outside them as constraints to their implementation of the curriculum, such as physical limitations or insufficient in-service training. Finally, findings showed that the working lives of teachers outside the classroom manifested change especially in aspects like lesson planning and preparation, and cooperation among teachers.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 130-137). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Education." Includes bibliographical references (p. 309-318).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 500-517).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 167-174). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Leaf 100 blank. 41 unnumbered leaves in Appendix between leaf 103-106. Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-99). Also available on the Internet.