Attitudes of elementary school principals to educational innovation in relation to their belief systems and other personal characteristics
Date
1970
Authors
Punt, Philip Laurence
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This study analyzed the attitudes of elementary school principals to educational innovation in relation to their belief systems and other personal characteristics. A sample of 200 elementary school principals of schools comprising six or more classrooms was randomly selected from a population of 602 principals in the Province of British Columbia. The final sample consisted of 178 elementary school principals.
The data used in testing the hypotheses were derived from three instruments mailed to the subjects for completion: the Dogmatism Scale, an instrument developed by Rokeach and revised by Troldahl, which purports to measure the extent to which belief systems are open or closed, the Educational Innovation Attitude Scale, developed by Ramer, which purports to measure attitudes toward educational innovation, and a Personal Data Sheet designed to acquire personal data from the respondents. Statistical analysis was performed using product-moment correlations and multiple regression analysis with fifteen variables.
Three of the eight hypotheses were significant beyond the .05 level. Significant relationships were found between receptiveness to educational innovation and open-mindedness, age, and tenure of elementary school principals.
No significant relationships were found between receptiveness to educational innovation and years of experience, level of formal education, recency of formal education, level of income, and principal's origin of office.
Additional findings showed that inservice education and principals' perception of teachers' receptivity to educational innovation were significantly related to the principals' receptiveness to educational innovation. A stepwise multiple regression analysis showed the variables of open-mindedness and inservice education predicted receptiveness to innovation beyond the .01 level of significance. Other variables were not significantly related.