"May 2002." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 362-387). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

This study is an investigation of the personality characteristics of the Most and least effective teachers in three church-related universities in a central West Texas city. A student evaluation of instruction form was utilized to allow students in the three universities to rate teacher effectiveness in the classroom. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Isabel Briggs-Myers, The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, 4th ed., Princeton, Educational Testing Service, 1973) was administered to those teachers who were rated both as most effective and least effective by 5,153 students. The use of this instrument, which provides a personality profile that is indicative of dominant personality characteristics (extrovert-introvert; sensing-intuitive; thinking-feeling, judging-perceptive), allows for measurement (by upper and lower quartile scores) of the differences between the personality characteristics of the most and least effective teachers in this sample.

The purpose of this study was to determine if any statistically significant difference exists between the self-efficacy scores of student teachers who began their college experience at the community college level and student teachers who began their education at the university level. The study was used to determine whether or not the type of initial college experience impacted the first two years of college study, in relation to the development of a sense of self-efficacy at the end of the program of study. Self-efficacy data were gathered from beginning student teachers at two comparative institutions. The participants were enrolled in the colleges of education at two large metropolitan universities. One university was located in southern Texas and the other was located in north central Texas. The Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale was the instrument used, as well as a researcher-made questionnaire that collected demographic data. In addition to pattern of education, other independent variables included age, gender, ethnicity, certification level sought by the participant, and the number of contact hours spent by the participant in early field experiences in K-12 classrooms. A multiple regression analysis indicated no statistically significant difference in the composite score of the Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale, a measure of self-efficacy. The TSES also loads on three factors: Instructional Strategies, Classroom Management, and Student Engagement. Multiple regression analyses of the individual factor scores indicated no statistically significant predictive ability for self-efficacy on any of the subscales across initial college experience. Multiple regression analyses as well as MANOVAs were conducted to determine if the demographic variables of gender, age, ethnicity, G.P.A, certification level, and contact hours impacted TSES scores. The dependent variable was the general self-efficacy scores and the individual factor scores (i.e., Student Engagement, Instructional Strategies and Classroom Management) of student teachers as measured by the TSES. Analyses indicated a positive relationship between age, pattern of education, and global self-efficacy scores. In addition, a statistically significant relationship was indicated between age, pattern of education, and the factor of Instructional Strategies. No statistically significant relationship was found between initial college experience and global TSES scores or factor scores across the other demographic variables.

Hackman and Oldham's Job Characteristic Model was applied to study of perceptions community music school faculty hold towards their job. The research questions addressed core job characteristics of skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback, critical psychological states (experienced meaningfulness, experienced responsibility, and knowledge of results); personal and work outcomes of satisfaction and motivation; need for professional growth. The results were compared to the national norms for nine different job families provided by Oldham, Hackman, and Stepina. Thirty-three schools, all members of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts, located in every geographical region of the United States, yielded 437 faculty responses (64% return rate). Of the core job characteristics, dealing with others and autonomy received the highest ratings; feedback and task significance received the lowest ratings. Of the psychological states, experienced responsibility yielded the highest rating and experienced meaningfulness yielded the lowest ratings. Of the personal/work outcomes, personal development and colleague relations received the highest ratings; pay satisfaction and overall general satisfaction received the lowest ratings. A comparison to the professional job family norms, using a one-sample ttest, found significant differences in 16 out of the 18 variables measured by the Job Characteristic Model. Strong positive feelings for growth combined with less than strong feelings for the core job dimensions yielded a low motivating potential score of 96.18.

This qualitative case study examined the effect of PLCs on teacher self-efficacy, and whether the type of PLC structure on each campus affected efficacy. The overarching research question that guided the study was, to what extent does perceived teacher self-efficacy change as a result of the practice of PLCs? Participants were selected using purposive and convenience sampling. Ten teachers and two principals on two different campuses participated in teacher focus groups and one-on-one principal interviews, respectively. The available literature on the topics of professional development, professional learning, teacher collaboration, and teacher self-efficacy yielded the discovery that collaborative practices can be used to improve a school and/or district or used to enhance positive practices that already occur. This study adds to the body of research as it develops the area of teacher efficacy and influence of PLCs. Using the coding software, NVivo, focus group data were coded into themes and further comparisons were made with categories derived and saturated until conclusions were drawn. The data show teacher self-efficacy increases as a result of PLCs when teachers are able to experience positive feedback from teammates, shared leadership, trust and honesty, and a freedom to fail. For those teachers who are not on a campus where PLCs are present, the data suggest they created their own PLCs as the need arose. These teachers experienced all of the same benefits of those teachers on a campus where a formal PLC structure exited; however, their stress level was higher.

The aim of the research was to determine the relationship between the self-concept of student teachers and their interpersonal relationships. A literature survey focused on these two variables. This was followed by an empirical investigation involving 300 students. Findings include: A significant, positive correlation was found between selfconcept and interpersonal relationships for males and females and for all three year groups involved. Significant, positive correlations were also found between: cognitive self-concept and relationships with lecturers; self-concepts of male students and relationships with parents; self-concepts of female students and relationships with lecturers. For all three year groups the relationships with lecturers contributed most to their self-concepts. For males, the emotional self-concept; and for females, the cognitive self-concept contributed significantly towards their interpersonal relationships. For first and second-year students, the social self-concept contributed most towards their interpersonal relationships; while for third-year students, the cognitive self-concept contributed significantly towards interpersonal relationships. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

The problem of this study was to determine the relationship between self-concept, expressed sexual knowledge, and attitude toward sex education of a group of experienced elementary teachers. A second dimension of the problem was to investigate the relationship of the three variables above with certain other factors that could possibly influence the effectiveness of the elementary teacher of sex education. These factors were age of the teacher, sex of the teacher ,grade level of teaching, educational level of the teacher, teaching experience, marital status of the teacher, number of siblings of the teacher, and church preference or affiliation of the teacher.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between personality traits and job satisfaction among music teachers. The research problems were 1. to investigate the areas of job satisfaction of music teachers; 2. to investigate the patterns of personality traits that were common among music teachers; 3. to determine whether relationships existed between the areas in which the music teachers showed job satisfaction/dissatisfaction and their personality profiles.

Individual personality traits of pre-service teachers may have a significant influence on their confidence in teaching. Confidence in teaching does not always align with the experience of pre-service teachers. simSchool enables transformational experiences for teacher candidates to improve in general teaching skills, connect learning theories in the classroom, and develop confidence to be an effective teacher without the ill impacts of practicing on real students. This study executed a quasi-experimental design to explore the personality traits of 152 pre-service teachers and examined how their perceptions of teaching confidence and teaching experience were related in the context of simSchool. A treatment and comparison group completed the Survey of Teaching Skills pre/post tests and the OCEAN survey for quantitative data analysis to investigate four research questions: 1. Is there a difference between treatment and comparison groups on educator’s gains in confidence and experience? 2. Is there a relationship between personality type and perceived teaching effectiveness? 3. Is there a relationship between personality attributes and pre-service educator ratings of teaching experience in a simulated teaching environment? 4. Is there a relationship between personality attributes and pre-service educator ratings of teaching confidence in a simulated teaching environment? Findings from repeated measures MANOVA tests indicated that the simSchool treatment group increased their perceptions of experience with significant gains (p < .05), in contrast to the comparison group. Two key constructs of personality and effective teaching, the latter of which is comprised of the pre-service teachers’ self-reports of teaching confidence and teaching experience, were examined using canonical correlation analysis. The traits of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism were components linked by structure coefficients to the synthetic variable of personality, the latter of which was found to be correlated with effective teaching. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were produced to assess the relationship between experience and confidence and relationships between experience and confidence with the personality traits of conscientiousness, openness, extraversion, and emotional stability. Multiple regression analyses were run using the predictors of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and neuroticism. These were found to be significantly (p < .05) effective in predicting self-reported teaching experience and confidence from personality traits. Furthermore, the variable of openness was individually found to be a significant (p < .05) predictor of teaching experience and confidence. These findings suggest that personality traits affect the experience and confidence ratings of pre-service teachers in a simulated classroom environment and that simSchool training can foster the development of teaching effectiveness.

by Lee Wai Tong, Richard. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [133]-[142]). / Abstract / Acknowledgements / Tables / Contents page / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Literature Review: Recasting Approaches to Job Satisfaction Studies --- p.17 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- The Social Environment of the School --- p.48 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Culture and Efficacy in Instructing Students --- p.66 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Culture and Efficacy in Disciplining Students --- p.92 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Conclusion --- p.122 / References --- p.131 / Appendix