Extensive research has been conducted to determine the degree of satisfaction among workers in various categories of the working force. Educational researchers have become increasingly interested in determining not only the degree of job satisfaction among teachers, but also the sources of teacher job satisfaction and dissatisfaction.One of the most controversial issues in contemporary education is the increased tendency to construct schools with open-space designs. Of great concern to many people are the effects that architectural changes and resulting conditions have on teachers. Heretofore, studies involving open-space schools have been largely interested in the effects on pupil self concept, personality, and achievement. Few systematic and analytic attempts have been made to assess evaluations by teachers concerning the impact of open-space design on job satisfaction. The purpose of this study is to determine the degree of job satisfaction of teachers in two dissimilar elementary school settings, the open-space and the self-contained.The experimental design involved dissemination of The Purdue Teacher Opinionaire to 76 elementary classroom teachers from four predominantly open-space schools and 85 teachers from four predominantly traditional schools. Each of the eight schools is located in Delaware County, Indiana. Teacher participation was strictly voluntary. Those wishing to participate in the study were given five full school days in which to respond to-the opinionaire.There were two major hypotheses tested. Hypothesis I proposed that there would be no significant difference between the proportion of teachers responding from open-space schools and traditional schools. A formula by Glass and Stanley was used to test the equality of group proportions.Hypothesis II and all of its sub-hypotheses proposed that there would be no significant difference between teachers in open-space and traditional schools regarding the degree of job satisfaction as measured by The Purdue Teacher Opinionaire. Data for these hypotheses were analyzed by means of a One-Way Multivariate Analysis of Variance (Manova).No significant difference was found in the proportion of teachers responding from open-space and traditional schools. The null hypothesis of no significant difference between teachers regarding degree of job satisfaction as measured by The Purdue Teacher Opinionaire was rejected. The only variable contributing to this rejection was that of "Rapport Among Teachers." Data analysis revealed that teachers from traditional schools responded more positively to this variable than did teachers from open-space schools. Although no significant difference was found to exist between the two groups of teachers regarding either of the remaining five factors analyzed, teachers from traditional schools responded more positively to four of the five factors than did teachers from open-space schools. Suggestions for further research include consideration of whether or not teachers are teaching in a school by choice or by chance; consideration of data pertaining to factors such as sex, age, years of teaching experience, and number of years teaching in a particular type of school structure; and a similar study involving a greater number of subjects from a wider geographic area.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/175370 |
| Date | January 1976 |
| Creators | Buxton, Mary M. |
| Contributors | Lane, Conrad C. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | vi, 112 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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