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College Professors as Classroom Leaders: Strategic Thinking Capacity, Leader Influence Actions, and Classroom Performance

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Date Issued:
2017
Summary:
This non-experimental, quantitative study explored the leadership of college professors and the relationship to student assessments of their teaching performance. The leadership constructs under investigation were strategic thinking capacity (cognitive agility) and leader influence actions (behavioral agility), which are rooted in the theories of behavioral and cognitive complexity. Research indicates that cognitive and behavioral agility are two factors that produce more effective results for leaders in varying organizational contexts. However, previous research does not include college professors in those studies. Thus, this study sought to explore professors as classroom leaders and the relationship between college professors’ cognitive and behavioral agility and their students’ perceptions of their teaching effectiveness, if behavioral agility plays a mediating role, and if that relationship is moderated by alterable and unalterable contextual variables. Ninety-two full-time professors from one Florida college participated in the study. The professors’ strategic thinking capacity (cognitive agility) was measured using the STQP, an adaptation of Pisapia and Reyes-Guerra’s (2007) Strategic Thinking Questionnaire (STQTM), and the professors’ leader influence actions (behavioral agility) were measured using the SLQP, an adaptation of Pisapia, Reyes-Guerra, and Yasin’s (2006) Strategic Leadership Questionnaire (SLQTM) with both instruments employing Pisapia’s (2009) framework of strategic leadership. The ‘P’ denotes the ‘professor’ version of the original STQTM and SLQTM. Locus of control orientation as a contextual variable was measured using Spector’s (1988) Work Locus of Control Scale (WLCS). To measure student perceptions of professor effectiveness, the student assessments of courses and faculty were compiled from existing records from Palm Beach State College’s Institutional Research and Effectiveness (IRE) website. The data were statistically analyzed using correlational and regression analyses and tested for mediation and moderation effects. The findings of this study revealed that college professors demonstrated the same strategic thinking capacity and leader influence actions as leaders in more traditional leadership roles as measured by the STQP and SLQP. The findings were also consistent with previous studies that found that cognitive agility is a significant predictor of behavioral agility. However, it also found that student perceptions of professor effectiveness as measured by student assessments were not correlated to any of the research variables in this study. Findings and conclusions, as well as recommendations for future research, are presented in the concluding chapter.
Title: College Professors as Classroom Leaders: Strategic Thinking Capacity, Leader Influence Actions, and Classroom Performance.
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Name(s): Sfiropoulos, Mike, author
Reyes-Guerra, Daniel, Thesis advisor
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
College of Education
Department of Educational Leadership and Research Methodology
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Created: 2017
Date Issued: 2017
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 184 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: This non-experimental, quantitative study explored the leadership of college professors and the relationship to student assessments of their teaching performance. The leadership constructs under investigation were strategic thinking capacity (cognitive agility) and leader influence actions (behavioral agility), which are rooted in the theories of behavioral and cognitive complexity. Research indicates that cognitive and behavioral agility are two factors that produce more effective results for leaders in varying organizational contexts. However, previous research does not include college professors in those studies. Thus, this study sought to explore professors as classroom leaders and the relationship between college professors’ cognitive and behavioral agility and their students’ perceptions of their teaching effectiveness, if behavioral agility plays a mediating role, and if that relationship is moderated by alterable and unalterable contextual variables. Ninety-two full-time professors from one Florida college participated in the study. The professors’ strategic thinking capacity (cognitive agility) was measured using the STQP, an adaptation of Pisapia and Reyes-Guerra’s (2007) Strategic Thinking Questionnaire (STQTM), and the professors’ leader influence actions (behavioral agility) were measured using the SLQP, an adaptation of Pisapia, Reyes-Guerra, and Yasin’s (2006) Strategic Leadership Questionnaire (SLQTM) with both instruments employing Pisapia’s (2009) framework of strategic leadership. The ‘P’ denotes the ‘professor’ version of the original STQTM and SLQTM. Locus of control orientation as a contextual variable was measured using Spector’s (1988) Work Locus of Control Scale (WLCS). To measure student perceptions of professor effectiveness, the student assessments of courses and faculty were compiled from existing records from Palm Beach State College’s Institutional Research and Effectiveness (IRE) website. The data were statistically analyzed using correlational and regression analyses and tested for mediation and moderation effects. The findings of this study revealed that college professors demonstrated the same strategic thinking capacity and leader influence actions as leaders in more traditional leadership roles as measured by the STQP and SLQP. The findings were also consistent with previous studies that found that cognitive agility is a significant predictor of behavioral agility. However, it also found that student perceptions of professor effectiveness as measured by student assessments were not correlated to any of the research variables in this study. Findings and conclusions, as well as recommendations for future research, are presented in the concluding chapter.
Identifier: FA00004983 (IID)
Degree granted: Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017.
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Includes bibliography.
Subject(s): Dissertations, Academic -- Florida Atlantic University
College professors.
Leaders.
Classroom management.
Teaching effectiveness.
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Sublocation: Digital Library
Links: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004993
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004983
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.