Month: February 2018

Unit 5 Learning Activities

 

• The sampling strategy is appropriate and justified (3/3) –  Cerit provides a clear explanation of the gender, teaching experience and levels of education for the teachers that responded to the survey. The survey was sent out to 700 teachers and 595 responded. This is an appropriate sample size for the survey. Plano Clark and Creswell suggest that a higher quality sampling strategy should be “fully described and clear” (Plano Clark and Creswell, 2015, P 249). Cerit justified his sampling by stating, “no studies on this subject have been carried out in Turkey.” (Cerit Y., 2009, P  601)
• The sample size is appropriate and justified (2/3) – The sample size for this survey was appropriate. Plano-Clark and Creswell suggest that a survey study should have at least 350 responses. (Plano-Clark and Creswell, 2015, P 238).  Cerit surveyed across 29 different schools and had 595 teachers respond to the survey. Plano Clark and Creswell state that in order to meet criteria for higher quality quantitative research, the author needs to strongly justify the sample size using a procedure. Cerit stated the sample size but did not justify it.
• High quality instruments are used to gather data (3/3) – Cerit provides an explanation of the instrument used in the research. The servant leadership scale (OLA), developed by Laub in 1999, is a measurement scale that uses six factors of servant leadership. Respondents were required to respond to questions using a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). (Cerit, Y., 2009, P 608). Plano-Clark and Creswell state that the author should indicate that the instrument was previously developed for research purposes. Cerit provides references to other servant leadership research in which this instrument was used. (Cerit, Y., 2009, P 608).
• The data gathered using ethical quantitative procedures (1/3) –  Cerit sent out 700 survey questionnaires.  Of those 585 elementary teachers responded; an 85% response rate.  Cerit does not indicate specifically what consent was formally obtained, if any, before the survey was sent out.  One can only infer that consent was specifically asked for on the survey questionnaire document, or alternatively that consent was assumed by virtue of the fact that the teacher responded to the questionnaire.
• The data are gathered using standardized quantitative procedures (2/3) – Plano-Clark and Creswell state that all participants must be asked the same questions, are given the same choices for responding, are given the same instructions for completing the survey and can complete the survey under similar conditions such as the same amount of time etc. (Plano-Clark and Creswell, 2015, P 245-246). Cerit meets all of these criteria for using standardized quantitative procedures. A criticism of the standardized quantitative procedures for this research may be that respondents may have had the opportunity to talk to others while completing the questionnaire and I believe that this could easily influence their responses. Plano-Clark and Creswell, (2015) suggest that researchers should ensure that participants cannot talk to each other while completing the survey, however, with a sample size this large, that would be difficult to control.
• The study has a high level of internal validity (3/3) – This research measured the relationship between factors of servant leadership and job satisfaction. “Results of correlation analysis revealed a positive and significant relationship between extrinsic job satisfaction of teachers and factors of servant leadership. (Cerit Y., 2009, P 611). I believe this study has good internal validity.
• The study has high level of external validity (3/3) – The study had an 85% rate of response. Plano-Clark and Creswell (2015) suggest that 80% or higher indicates high external validity. (Plano-Clark and Creswell, 2015, P 247). The researchers also examined the demographics of the participants including gender, teaching experience and education

 

References

Cerit, Y. (2009). The Effects of Servant Leadership Behaviours of School Principals on Teachers’ Job Satisfaction. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 37(5), 600. doi:10.1177/1741143209339650

Creswell, J. W. (2015). Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, 5th Edition. [Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780133570847/

Plano-Clark, V., Creswell, J. (2015). Understanding research: A consumer’s guide (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Unit 5 Learning Activities

• What quantitative research design is used and is it justified?

The quantitative research design used in this nonexperimental research is a survey design. (Plano Clark and Creswell, 2015, P 196). The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of the servant leadership behaviour in principals of elementary schools, and determine how it impacted teacher’s job satisfaction.(Cerit, Y., 2009, p. 600). “Justifying the research problem means that you use the literature to document the importance of the issue examined in the study” (Creswell, J.,2015, p.13).The study is justified as there is a significant review of literature and current research on the subject matter, and this type of study has not ever been done in Turkey. (Cerit, Y., 2009, p. 601) The leadership scale developed by Laub (1999) was used to determine servant leadership behaviours in principals, and the job satisfaction scale developed by Mohrman et al. (1977), to determine teacher job satisfaction. (Cerit, Y., 2009, p. 600). The study method is high quality in that it provides trends to variables in a given population: in this case principals and teachers. The study was conducted by giving questionnaires out to 700 primary school teachers in 29 different primary schools in Turkey. They had an 85% response rate, as 595 teachers responded. (Cerit, Y., 2009, p. 608) The reason for the research was very clear and was justified.

• Are good quantitative procedures used to select and assign participants?

The procedure for obtaining participants was appropriate.  Participants were randomly selected within the population.  Researchers sent the questionnaire to 700 primary school teachers in 29 different primary schools and out of this, 595 responded. (Cerit, Y., 2009, p. 608) Of this group, 56.3% were female and 43.7% were male.(Cerit, Y., 2009, p. 608) “21% of the teachers had a bachelor’s degree, 67.9 a college degree and 10.9% a master’s degree”(Cerit, Y., 2009, p. 608) In terms of the experience that the teacher’s had, the number of years teaching varied from 1 year to 21 years or more. (Cerit, Y., 2009, p. 608) The researchers identified a few variables to study based on the leadership scale developed by Laub (1999), which was used to determine servant leadership behaviours in principals, and the job satisfaction scale developed by Mohrman et al. (1977), to determine teacher job satisfaction. (Cerit, Y., 2009, p. 600).

• Are good quantitative data collection procedures used?

Rigorous quantitative data collection procedures were used. The instrument used for quantifying the data was a questionnaire made up of 68 questions. Of those, 60 were related to determining the servant leadership behaviour of principals and 8 were questions to measure teacher job satisfaction (Cerit., Y., 2009, p. 608) After collecting and analyzing the data, the researchers were able to draw conclusions from the results.

• Does the quantitative research design address the study’s purpose?

The basic quantitative research design format was: introduction, review of the literature, methods, results, and discussion to address the study’s purpose. The results of the questionnaire were broken down and rigorously analyzed using statistical analyses, such as: standard deviation, mean, correlation and multi-regression analysis. The researchers found that there is a positive and significant relationship between a teacher’s level of job satisfaction and the servant leadership qualities displayed by the principal. (Cerit, Y., 2009, p.613).The findings were supported by other studies that had been conducted previously, but not in Turkey. The researchers concluded the study by acknowledging that the answers to the questionnaires were based on an individual teacher’s perception and biases within their school setting, and it is recommended that in order to generalize the results, more studies would have to be conducted in different places. (Cerit, Y., 2009, p. 617). I would rate this research as: 3.

Reference:

Cerit, Y. (2009). The Effects of Servant Leadership Behaviours of School Principals on Teachers’ Job Satisfaction. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 37(5), 600. doi:10.1177/1741143209339650

Creswell, J. W. (2015). Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, 5th Edition. [Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780133570847/

Plano-Clark, V., Creswell, J. (2015). Understanding research: A consumer’s guide (2nd ed.).
Boston, MA: Pearson.