The purpose of this study was to examine the desirable leadership type of teachers which can enhance the learning flow of students, through the study on the relationship between the teacher's leadership type perceived by fifth and sixth grade elementa...
The purpose of this study was to examine the desirable leadership type of teachers which can enhance the learning flow of students, through the study on the relationship between the teacher's leadership type perceived by fifth and sixth grade elementary school students and the student's learning flow. The selected background variables were children's grade and the gender and career of teachers. Three research questions were posed as below:
1. Do the background variables make any differences to the teacher's
leadership type?
2. Do the background variables make any differences to the learning flow
perceived by the students themselves?
3. What is the relationship between the teacher's leadership type and the
students' learning flow?
The subjects in this study were 550 students who were in their fifth and sixth grades in four different elementary schools in Seoul. After a survey was conducted, the complete answer sheets from 543 respondents were analyzed.
The measures and data processing used in this study are the following:
Halpin's 'Leadership Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ)' included in the thesis of Kim Kwang-Sik (2005) was modified and supplemented for the level of the elementary school students, in order to measure the type of teachers. And as for the measurement of the learning flow, the questions checked with validity and reliability were selected as measurement tools and the learning flow developed by Seok Im-Bok and Kang Yi-Cheol (2007) was used.
Concerning the data processing, t-test and F-test were applied for the analysis of the leadership type and the learning flow according to the background variables of students and teachers, using the 9.0 version of SAS program.
The findings of the study were as follows:
First, the largest number of the school children considered their teachers to have an efficient leadership, followed by inefficient, relationship-oriented and task-oriented leadership types. The children's gender made no significant differences to their perception. Rather than, meaningful gaps were found according to the children's grade as well as gender and career of the teachers. Especially, as for the fifth grade students, a majority of the students recognized that the leadership type of female teacher and the teacher with less than ten-year career as efficient one. Therefore, The teachers themselves should make more efforts to balance the efficient leadership with task-oriented and relationship-oriented ones.
Second, regarding the learning flow which students perceive, there is no remarkable difference in the gender of students and teachers. However, statistically meaningful distinction was found in the student's grade and teacher's career. The learning flow of the fifth grade students looked high when the teacher had short career. Thus, it is required that parents and teachers lead the self-regulating and stable environment to make the positive influence on the learning flow of the students.
Third, concerning the linkage between the teacher's leadership type and the student's learning flow perceived by the students, it is defined that efficient leadership type of teacher leads to the highest overall learning flow. Also, even the students in the low rank of the learning flow, the students group who recognized the leadership type of teacher as efficient got the highest score in the learning flow average. And the low rank in the learning flow displayed the highest average when the clear feedback, focusing on the task and obvious goal were provided. In case of inefficient leadership type, the low rank in the learning flow showed the lowest learning flow average. From this context, it can be understood that we should endeavor to exhibit the efficient leadership type balanced with the task- and relationship-oriented ones in order to boost the learning flow of the students.
Hence, the study on the corelation between the teacher's leadership type and the student's learning flow concludes that the teachers should exert themselves to display the efficient leadership properly balanced with the task-oriented and relationship-oriented ones, recognizing that the student's learning flow would change according to the teacher's leadership type.