A Study to Identify the Components of Professional Learning Communities that Correlate with Teacher Efficacy, Satisfaction, and Morale

This study was conducted to provide information concerning the attributes of professional learning communities, i.e. supportive leadership, shared values and vision, collective learning and application, supportive conditions-relational, supportive conditions-structural, and shared personal practice and their correlation with teacher efficacy, satisfaction, and morale. These six characteristics of learning communities were studied to ascertain the association of those characteristics or attributes with teacher measures. The underlying premise for the study was that teachers who feel supported in their classroom practice are more committed and effective than those who do not. When teachers have a strong sense of efficacy, they tend to adopt new classroom behaviors and stay in the profession longer. Pearson Correlation analysis and regression analysis were performed on nine constructs to determine their associations. The three dependent variables were teacher measures of efficacy, satisfaction, and morale. The independent variables were the six constructs of professional learning communities, i.e. supportive leadership, shared values, collective learning, conditions-relational, conditions-structural, and shared personal practice. The three control variables were teacher experience, teacher autonomy, and teacher salary contentedness. The results of Pearson Correlation analysis showed that all six constructs of PLCs were significantly related to teacher efficacy; four of the six constructs, i.e. supportive conditions-structural, supportive conditions-relational, collective learning, and shared values of PLCs were significantly related to teacher satisfaction; and, all six of the PLC attributes were significantly related to teacher morale. Regression analysis determined that there were no significant relationships with teacher efficacy and professional learning community dimensions, one significant relationship with satisfaction and the PLC dimension of supportive conditionsstructural, two significant relationships with morale and PLC dimensions of collective learning and supportive conditions-structural.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education in Education Administration (Ed.D.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation (open access)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Leadership, Technology, and Human Development

Year dc:date.available

2009

Author dc:creator

• Weathers, Shirley Robinette

Contributors dc:contributor

• Samuel Hardy
• Bryan Griffin

• ETD
• Professional learning communities
• Teacher efficacy
• Teacher satisfaction
• Teacher autonomy
• Teacher morale
• Teachers

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/313

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu:etd-1313