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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

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

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This study examined the leadership style and readiness for change exhibited by elementary school principals in two urban school districts. More specifically, the study examined leadership style and four demographic variables; gender, age, highest academic degree earned, and years of principal experience. One hundred and twenty elementary school principals employed in two urban school districts were invited to participate in the study, 108 completed the required instruments: Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire, Survey of Readiness for Change (an instrument created by the researcher), and a demographic information sheet. The t-test statistical technique was used to determine whether leadership style, gender, age, years of administrative experience, and highest earned academic degrees had an effect on personal readiness for change.Results revealed that a significant relationship (alpha level of .05) existed between personal readiness for change and leadership style (p=.009), and also between personal readiness for change and highest earned academic degrees (p=.019). Principals with a considerate leadership behavior and those holding a doctorate appeared more ready for change. The remaining independent variables gender (p=.394), age (p=.350), and years of administrative experience (p=.801) were not found to be significant with respect to a personal readiness for change.Results from the research produced the following recommendations: (a) school district administrators may encourage their principals to determine how their leader behavior effect change, (b) staff development on the change process needs to become a priority, (c) findings from this study should be considered by school officials who employ principals and especially for districts promoting a change agenda. / Department of Educational Leadership

The purpose of this multi-case study was to identify the influence of professional development experiences on the changing reading practices of third-grade teachers in low-performing schools. Schools were chosen to participate based upon a steady increase in reading achievement scores despite failing to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and being placed within the Corrective Action Phase of No Child Left Behind. Six teachers from 4 schools were chosen as participants based on the changing reading practices they reported on an initial survey of 13 teachers. Interviews, observations, focus groups, and collection of archival data was completed over the course of 5 months in order to determine the influence of professional development on their reading practices. It was determined that teacher change following professional development is heavily influenced by the domain of power the directive or development is coming from. A continuum was developed to illustrate the relationship between these varying domains of power and their influence on changes made within reading practice. The changes were categorized as tending toward self-propelled or compelled changes. Teachers within this study reported higher levels of change when they were personally vested in professional development experiences and when those experiences met the immediate needs of their own personal growth or the growth of the students in their classroom. / by Michelle Vaughan. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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