- 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.