Measuring change from School Leadership Education and Development: exploring the relationship of organizational learning and individual self-efficacy
Author(s):
Ingunn Hybertsen Lyso (presenting / submitting) Roger Andre Federici (presenting) Karen Watkins
Conference:
ECER 2013
Format:
Paper

Session Information

26 SES 04 B, Principal Programs and Leadership Development

Paper Session

Time:
2013-09-11
09:00-10:30
Room:
D-307
Chair:
Helen Wildy

Contribution

This paper contributes in debates of ways of measuring quality and effects from investments in school leadership education and development. The background for this interest is that most studies of effects from leadership education and development are measuring only if the participants are satisfied (Kirkpatrick 1998; Watkins et al. 2011). There is a need for studies measuring the effects on several levels; experience of learning, impact on the school organization, and the results when it comes to improvement in pupils learning. The purpose of the paper is to explore how the Dimensions of Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) (Marsick & Watkins, 2003) and the Norwegian Principal Self-Efficacy Scale (NPSES) (Federici & Skaalvik, 2011) can be employed to measure change from school leadership education and development.  The relationship between experience of change at the individual and organizational level after participation in programs of leadership education and development will be discussed.

Learning culture is a concept that reflects organizational behavior from the perspective of learning and development (Watkins & Marsick, 1997). Watkins and Marsick developed a theory called organizational learning, which defines seven dimensions that are important in promoting on-going change and learning in a culture (Marsick & Watkins, 2003). Principal self-efficacy reflects a kind of leadership self-efficacy which is associated with a certain level of confidence in one’s own knowledge, skills and abilities in association with leading others (Hannah et al. 2008). In the present study, principal self-efficacy is defined as the principals’ judgments of their capabilities to plan, organize and execute tasks and deal with their relationship to people and institutions in their environment (Federici & Skaalvik 2011).

Method

The research is conducted as a longitudinal study with a pre- posttest design on two cohorts of school leaders participating in the national initiative of school leadership education in Norway. Each cohort enrolled about 350 participants, where 1/3 was in a principal position and 2/3 in other school leadership positions. The discussion of ways of measuring the programs is based on analysis of empirical data collected through surveys developed for assessing the participants’ experiences before and after the school leadership education. The survey includes both established instruments (DLOQ, NPSES) and tailored instruments for examining the participants expectations, and experience of the quality and relevance of the program they attended. The research also included survey data collected from the employees in 12 of the participants’ school organization.

Expected Outcomes

In this study we will discuss the functionality of the DLOQ and the NPSES as measures of learning and change from participation in school leadership education at the individual and organizational level, and the relationship between the levels. We anticipate that most participants experience changes in self-efficacy after participating in the school leadership education, but variations when it comes to changes in organizational learning as this is dependent on aspects beyond investments in school leadership education for individual participants.

References

Hannah, S. T., Avolio, B. J., Luthans, F., & Harms, P. D. (2008). Leadership efficacy: Review and future directions. Leadership Quarterly, 19(6), 669-692. doi: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2008.09.007 Federici, R. A., & Skaalvik, E. M. (2011). Principal self-efficacy and work engagement: Assessing a Norwegian Principal Self-Efficacy Scale. Social Psychology of Education, 14(4), 575-600. doi: 10.1007/s11218-011-9160-4 Kirkpatrick, D. (1998). Evaluating Training Programs: the Four Level (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. Marsick, V. J., & Watkins, K. E. (2003). Demonstrating the value of an organization’s learning culture: The dimensions of the learning organization questionnaire. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 5(2), 132-151. Watkins, K. E., & Marsick, V. J. (1997). Dimensions of learning organization (DLOQ). Warwick, RI: Partners for the Learning Organization. Watkins, K. E., Lyso, I. H. & deMarris, K. (2011). Evaluating Executive Leadership Development: A Theory of Change Approach. Advances in Developing Human Resources. DOI: 10.1177/1523422311415643

Author Information

Ingunn Hybertsen Lyso (presenting / submitting)
Royal Norwegian Air Force, NTNU Social Research, Norway
Roger Andre Federici (presenting)
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU Social research, Norway
The University of Georgia
Athens

Update Modus of this Database

The current conference programme can be browsed in the conference management system (conftool) and, closer to the conference, in the conference app.
This database will be updated with the conference data after ECER. 

Search the ECER Programme

  • Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
  • Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
  • Search for authors and in the respective field.
  • For planning your conference attendance, please use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference and the conference agenda provided in conftool.
  • If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.