Award Date

1-1-2006

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Committee Member

Patti Chance

Number of Pages

157

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe principals' and teachers' knowledge of recommended professional development practice as defined by The National Staff Development Council (2001). In addition, the study described teachers' and principals' perceptions of professional development practices in their schools; This study was guided by three research questions: (1) how do principals perceive their own behaviors and activities relative to professional development; (2) how do teachers perceive administrator's behavior and actions relative to professional development; and (3) to what extent did principals base the professional development activities and practices within their schools on the National Staff Development Standards?;This study used both qualitative and quantitative methods via a questionnaire and interview. The Instructional Leadership Inventory (ILI) was developed in collaboration with two other researchers in order to gather data on teachers' and principals' perceptions regarding instructional leadership, including professional development. Of the 84 Likert-type scale items in each questionnaire, 39 items specifically related to principals' and teachers' perception of professional development practices in their schools. The 400 participants surveyed in this study were principals who had been named Principal of the Year in 2004 by the National Association of Secondary School Principals or the National Association of Elementary School Principals and three teachers selected from each principal's staff; Findings from this study showed that principals did perceive themselves as providing effective leadership for teachers' professional development. However, there were responses which indicated that the National Staff Development Standards were not implemented nor relied on research based practices. Results of this study indicated significant differences between principals' perceptions of their own behaviors and activities relative to collaboration, teacher and principal professional development planning, research discussions, teacher implementation of new strategies, peer mentoring, and teacher leadership. This study supported Lieberman's 1995 findings that professional development ignores the context where teachers work (p. 595).*; *This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation). The CD requires the following system requirements: Microsoft Office.

Keywords

Development; Leadership; National Staff Development Council; Principals; Professional; Professional Development; Promoting; Role Standards; Standards-based

Controlled Subject

School management and organization; Teachers--Training of

File Format

pdf

File Size

3338.24 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Permissions

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Rights

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