Date Awarded

1983

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

Department

Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate: (1) the relationship between the leadership style of an elementary school principal, as second-level manager, and the mathematics achievement of the students, and (2) the relationship between the degree of leadership style congruence of the elementary principal, as second-level manager, and the teacher, as first-level manager, and the mathematics achievement of students. Fiedler's Contingency Theory of Leadership Effectiveness provided the conceptual framework for the study.;Measurements were recorded for a sample population of 28 principals, 245 teachers, and 5373 students of grades four, five, and six drawn from an urban district in southeastern Virginia with a student population of approximately 35,000.;Four hypotheses were tested for statistically significant (p (LESSTHEQ) 0.05) findings: (1) pupil gains in mathematics would be greater where principal leadership style and situation favorableness were matched, (2) pupil gains in mathematics would be greater where principal leadership style and teacher leadership style were congruent, (3) pupil gains in mathematics would be greater where principal leadership style and situation favorableness were matched and where principal and teacher leadership style were congruent, and (4) pupil gains in mathematics would be greater where teacher beliefs about mathematics and its instruction were informal and teacher competence in mathematics was high.;An analysis of variance for unequal cell size resulted in the rejection of each of the hypotheses. Significant findings, however, were found using student achievement as the dependent variable for the interaction between principal leadership style and situational conditions, for teacher leadership style, and for teacher attitude toward mathematics and its instruction.;It was concluded that there appeared to be a relationship between first- and second-level managers, teachers and principals, and the mathematics performance of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students. The matching of principal leadership style and situational conditions as postulated by Fiedler appeared to be partially supported. Further, certain teacher-related constructs did strongly relate to student achievement in mathematics.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.25774/w4-wh4h-qa34

Rights

© The Author

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