scholarly journals School Heads Leadership and Attributes and Teachers’ Morale: Its Impication to School Performance

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 661-670
Author(s):  
Lerma P. Buenvinida ◽  
Rea G. Tamayo

This study determined the relationship among the school heads’ leadership and attributes, teachers’ morale and implication to school performance. Respondents of the study were 68 school heads and 532 teachers from public elementary schools of the Division of Laguna. The Level of Teacher’s Morale in terms of Teacher Rapport with Principal scored as good; while in terms of Satisfaction with Teaching was found moderately satisfied.  Further, the relationship between school head leadership and professional attributes and teacher’s Morale in terms of rapport and personal and professional attributes are evident using the Chi-Square Test of Independence. The correlation between Building High Performance Team scores and Teacher Morale in terms of rapport comes out to be highly significant. However, School Leadership in terms of Problem Solving and Coordinating with Others and Leading & Managing Changes were not significant. For Interpersonal Sensitivity of School Heads and Teacher Morale in terms of rapport, the correlation is significant at p<.05. There are significant relationships between leading and managing changes to cohort survival, interpersonal sensitivity and completion rate with p<.05; and relationship between Teacher’s Morale in terms of satisfaction to completion rate. School heads need to evaluate and monitor the training needs assessment to address teachers’ professional growth and assist in improvement of the school performance. A similar research can be conducted to determine the validity of the relationship between teacher’s morale and school performance and to verify the results of this study.

Author(s):  
Xavier M. Ultra

A descriptive study sought to determine the school heads’ adherence to the national competency-based standards and its relationship to the professional profile of the school heads in the Division of Northern Samar was done. This study used the descriptive-correlational research design which the questionnaire was patterned from studies on leadership and National Competency-Based Standards for School Heads (NCBS-SH) TDNA tool. Elementary schools were proportionally sampled by district/municipality while secondary schools were proportionally sampled by legislative districts of the province of Northern Samar. The respondents answered a survey questionnaire developed from the standards of Department of Education. This study found out that most of the school heads have earned master’s degree, are principal’s test passers, had more than 10 years of administrative and supervisory experience and had limited number of exposures to trainings. All the indicators of leadership skills were very highly observed. On the test of relationship between the professional profile of the school heads and their adherence to National Competency-Based Standards, administrative and supervisory experience and NCBS-SH domains on school leadership, instructional leadership, HR management and professional development were found to be significantly correlated. Also, administrative, and supervisory trainings attended and NCBS-SH domains on school leadership, instructional leadership, HR management and professional development were found to be significantly correlated. Respondents’ leadership skills and NCBS-SH domains, leadership skills have significant correlation to all the NCBS-SH domains. From the test of relationship between the professional profile of the school heads and the school performance, only eligibility and administrative and supervisory experience are significantly correlated to SBM level of practice. The test of relationships between school heads’ adherence to national competency-based standards and school performance, the school leadership is significantly correlated to SBM level of practice.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3341
Author(s):  
Jesús Maya ◽  
Juan F. Luesia ◽  
Javier Pérez-Padilla

Universities strive to ensure quality education focused on the diversity of the student body. According to experiential learning theory, students display different learning preferences. This study has a three-fold objective: to compare learning styles based on personal and educational variables, to analyze the association between learning styles, the level of academic performance, and consistency of performance in four assessment methods, and to examine the influence of learning dimensions in students with medium-high performance in the assessment methods. An interdisciplinary approach was designed involving 289 psychology, early childhood education and primary education students at two universities in Spain. The Learning Style Inventory was used to assess learning styles and dimensions. The assessment methods used in the developmental psychology course included the following question formats: multiple-choice, short answer, creation-elaboration and an elaboration question on the relationship between theory and practice. Univariate analysis, multivariate analysis, and binomial logistic models were computed. The results reveal Psychology students to be more assimilative (theoretical and abstract), while early childhood and primary education students were evenly distributed among styles and were more divergent and convergent (practical) in absolute terms. In addition, high scores in perception (abstract conceptualization) were associated with a high level of performance on the multiple-choice tests and the elaboration question on the relationship between theory and practice. Abstract conceptualization was also associated with medium-high performance in all assessment methods and this variable predicted consistent high performance, independent of the assessment method. This study highlights the importance of promoting abstract conceptualization. Recommendations for enhancing this learning dimension are presented.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Jia Zhou ◽  
Dingkun Wang ◽  
Bingong Li ◽  
Xuelian Li ◽  
Xingjun Lai ◽  
...  

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) is a metabolite produced by gut bacteria. Although increased TMAO levels have been linked to hypertension (HTN) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) with poor prognosis, no clinical studies have directly addressed the relationship between them. In this study, we investigated the relationship between TMAO and renal dysfunction in hypertensive patients. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> We included healthy controls (<i>n</i> = 50), hypertensive patients (<i>n</i> = 46), and hypertensive patients with renal dysfunction (<i>n</i> = 143). Their blood pressure values were taken as the highest measured blood pressure. Renal function was evaluated using the estimated glomerular filtration rate. Plasma TMAO levels were measured using high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. <b><i>Results:</i></b> We found significant differences in plasma TMAO levels among the 3 groups (<i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.01). The plasma TMAO of patients with HTN was significantly higher than that of healthy people, and the plasma TMAO of patients with HTN complicated by renal dysfunction was significantly higher than either of the other groups. Patients in the highest TMAO quartile were at a higher risk of developing CKD stage 5 than those in the lowest quartile. In the receiver operating characteristic curve, the area under the curve of TMAO combined with β 2-macroglobulin for predicting renal dysfunction in patients with HTN was 0.85 (95% confidence interval 0.80–0.90). <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> An elevated TMAO level reflects higher levels of HTN and more severe renal dysfunction. TMAO, combined with β 2-macroglobulin levels, may assist in diagnosing CKD in hypertensive patients. Plasma TMAO has predictive value for early kidney disease in hypertensive patients.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 197
Author(s):  
Giorgia Giovannini ◽  
René M. Rossi ◽  
Luciano F. Boesel

The development of hybrid materials with unique optical properties has been a challenge for the creation of high-performance composites. The improved photophysical and photochemical properties observed when fluorophores interact with clay minerals, as well as the accessibility and easy handling of such natural materials, make these nanocomposites attractive for designing novel optical hybrid materials. Here, we present a method of promoting this interaction by conjugating dyes with chitosan. The fluorescent properties of conjugated dye–montmorillonite (MMT) hybrids were similar to those of free dye–MMT hybrids. Moreover, we analyzed the relationship between the changes in optical properties of the dye interacting with clay and its structure and defined the physical and chemical mechanisms that take place upon dye–MMT interactions leading to the optical changes. Conjugation to chitosan additionally ensures stable adsorption on clay nanoplatelets due to the strong electrostatic interaction between chitosan and clay. This work thus provides a method to facilitate the design of solid-state hybrid nanomaterials relevant for potential applications in bioimaging, sensing and optical purposes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (7) ◽  
pp. 1501-1514
Author(s):  
Kersti Kõiv ◽  
Kadi Liik ◽  
Mati Heidmets

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating effect of teacher’s psychological empowerment between school leadership style and teachers’ work-related outcomes. Design/methodology/approach A total of 711 teachers from 31 Estonian schools were surveyed with a questionnaire measuring four dimensions of psychological empowerment (competence, meaning, self-determination and impact), school leadership characteristics (leadership style, leader’s empowering behavior and trust in leader) and teacher’s work-related outcomes (job satisfaction and workplace attachment). AMOS path analysis was used to investigate the direct and indirect relations between the teachers’ perceptions of school leadership, their psychological empowerment and their workplace attachment and job satisfaction. Findings This study found that psychological empowerment (subscales meaning and impact) mediates the relationship between perceived leadership empowerment behavior and teachers’ work-related outcomes. Also, the psychological empowerment (meaning and impact) mediates the relationship between perceived leadership style and teachers’ work-related outcomes. Trust in the principal has direct and indirect effect (through psychological empowerment) on job satisfaction, whereas there only seems to be indirect effect on workplace attachment through two components of psychological empowerment. Practical implications The mediating role of psychological empowerment includes an important message for school principals – in order to empower employees it is not sufficient to merely delegate formal power and decision-making rights. To facilitate the development of psychological empowerment, it is important to provide employees with an opportunity to experience agency, to experience that their voice and opinions are taken into account (perceived impact) and the purpose and targets of the whole organization are discussed with the employees and formulated in collaboration with them (perceived meaning). Originality/value Psychological empowerment as a mediating variable has not been widely researched, especially in school environment. The results will provide important signals for school principals, where and how to find leverage to improve teachers’ job satisfaction and workplace attachment.


2011 ◽  
Vol 1306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenting Dong ◽  
Wendell Rhine ◽  
Shannon White

ABSTRACTHigh performance polyimides have been widely investigated as materials with excellent thermal, mechanical, and electronic properties due to their highly rigid structures. Aspen has developed an approach to prepare polyimide aerogels which have applications as low dielectric constant materials, separation membranes, catalyst supports and insulation materials. In this paper, we will discuss the preparation of polyimide-silica hybrid aerogel materials with good mechanical strengths and low thermal conductivities. The polyimide-silica hybrid aerogels were made by a two-step process and the materials were characterized to determine thermal conductivity and compressive strength. Results show that compressive moduli of the polyimide-silica hybrid aerogels increase dramatically with density (power law relationship). Thermal conductivity of the aerogels is dependent on the aging conditions and density, with the lowest value achieved so far being ~12 mW/m-K at ambient conditions. The relationship between aerogel density and surface area, thermal stability, porosity and morphology of the nanostructure of the polyimide-silica hybrid aerogels are also described in this paper.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document