Mahmut Polatcan, Nedim Özdemir, Ali Çağatay Kılınç, Sally J. Zepeda and Salih Çevik
This study tested a moderated mediation model of school leadership effects on teacher instructional practices. Specifically, the authors focused on the mediating effect of teacher…
Abstract
Purpose
This study tested a moderated mediation model of school leadership effects on teacher instructional practices. Specifically, the authors focused on the mediating effect of teacher professional communities and the moderating effect of instructional climate on the relationship between school leadership and teacher instructional practices.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected data from 958 teachers working in 72 middle and high schools in Türkiye and employed multilevel structural equation modelling (MSEM) with Bayesian estimation to predict structural links between the study variables.
Findings
Results affirmed a full mediation model where school leadership practices exerted indirect effects on teacher instructional practices through promoting teacher professional communities. The authors also found significant moderating role of instructional climate in the effect of school leadership on teacher professional communities and instructional practices.
Originality/value
This study illuminates the contextualized nature of school leadership by concluding that the effect of school leadership on teacher professional communities and instructional practices is closely tied to the extent to which a high-quality instructional climate is established in schools.
Details
Keywords
This study focused on the impact of principals' leadership content knowledge, evaluation practices and teachers' professional learning activities on classroom instruction.
Abstract
Purpose
This study focused on the impact of principals' leadership content knowledge, evaluation practices and teachers' professional learning activities on classroom instruction.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 425 teachers who worked in 46 elementary and lower secondary public schools within two provinces in Turkey. Teachers were asked to fill out a questionnaire on principals’ leadership content knowledge, evaluation feedback, professional learning activities and changed instructional practices. This study employed multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) by using the Bayesian estimation method to analyze the research hypotheses.
Findings
Findings indicate that if teachers perceive the evaluation progress as more useful, then they will participate in more professional learning activities, and they will be more effective in their classroom practices. This study also indicates that teachers' professional learning activities stimulate their instructional practices.
Research limitations/implications
Although the number of schools and teachers allows using multilevel analysis, it limits the findings generalized beyond the sample. To compensate for this limitation, the author confirmed that the sample was representative of the larger population by examining the size of students and teachers, SES and teachers' job experience. The author also conducted a Bayesian estimator to strengthen the test of significance of effects.
Practical implications
This study underlines the critical role of leadership content knowledge in evaluating practices and providing useful feedback perceived by teachers in elementary and secondary schools. Principals should lead to instruction by knowing how to address a lack of teachers' pedagogical content knowledge and classroom practices. The Ministry of Education should support principals in becoming effective instructional leaders to observe teachers and provide them meaningful feedback on teaching.
Originality/value
Despite increased interest in this construct, research on principals' and teachers' responses to adapt the recent form of teachers’ performance evaluation systems is scant, especially in developing countries’ context. Moreover, little is known about the paths through which principals can enhance classroom practices by providing useful feedback. Given these trends in policy and practice context, this study provides empirical evidence that principals can enact the teachers' performance evaluation that affects classroom instruction.
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Keywords
Elif Tanrikulu and Ibrahim Taylan Dortyol
Social exclusion is a complicated psychological phenomenon with behavioral ramifications that influences consumers' lifestyles and behaviors. In contrast, anthropomorphism is a…
Abstract
Purpose
Social exclusion is a complicated psychological phenomenon with behavioral ramifications that influences consumers' lifestyles and behaviors. In contrast, anthropomorphism is a phenomenon that marketing strategists employ and that occurs in customers' lives as a result of social isolation. The literature discusses these two complicated structures as ones that require investigation based on consumer judgments. The purpose of the current study is to understand the fundamental motivations that underlie the propensity for anthropomorphizing in people who suffer social isolation through their pets.
Design/methodology/approach
To look into the motivations driving these themes, a study technique with three distinct components was created. Cyberball was employed as a technique to manipulate social exclusion in the initial stage of this research methodology. Two scenarios, one of which had an anthropomorphizing tendency and the other of which did not, were presented to participants who had suffered social exclusion and advanced to the second phase in order to determine the anthropomorphizing tendency. The Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS), which Johnson et al. (1992) created based on the social support provided by pets, was utilized while creating the scenarios. The Zaltman method was applied as an interviewing technique in the third stage of the research design, with the interviewees being guided by visuals that reflected their emotions and thoughts.
Findings
The results of the data analysis were evaluated in light of social psychology. A more thorough expression of the complex relationship between anthropomorphism and those who experience social exclusion has been made. The findings showed that when people anthropomorphize their pets in response to feelings of social exclusion, the motivations that emerge include pure love, loyalty, animals' need for a human, living creature and embracing. The study emphasizes that these ideas will be helpful in customers' interactions with anthropomorphic objects.
Practical implications
As a contribution to the literature, the study findings offer the five major motivations underpinning these beliefs. These findings may help marketing scientists comprehend social exclusion and anthropomorphism, thereby benefiting the individual and society.
Originality/value
The majority of research in the literature (Chen et al., 2017; Epley et al., 2008; Eyssel and Reich, 2013; Waytz et al., 2019) verified that people who were socially excluded would use anthropomorphism, but no studies were discovered about the motivations outlined in the current study. The results of this investigation should add to the body of knowledge in this area. The pet was employed as an anthropomorphism tool in the current study because it is the object that a person chooses to anthropomorphize deliberately and independently. It adds to the study's originality by explaining in the individual's own terminology how he will feel as a result of his social isolation, how he will make up for it and potential responses he may have. In addition to all of these contributions, the study's primary goal of analyzing the motivations behind anthropomorphism yields significant findings that are relevant to both industry and academic research.