Date Approved
4-5-2016
Embargo Period
4-5-2016
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ed.D. Educational Leadership
Department
Educational Services and Leadership
College
College of Education
Advisor
Coaxum, James
Committee Member 1
Doolittle, Virginia
Committee Member 2
Horner, Barbara
Keywords
Case Study, Implementation, Leadership, Marzano, Qualitative, Sensemaking
Subject(s)
Teachers--Rating of--New Jersey; Organizational change
Disciplines
Elementary and Middle and Secondary Education Administration
Abstract
The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how teachers understood and changed their instructional practice in response to imposed teacher evaluation requirements. The strategy of inquiry was a single case study, representative of a large suburban high school adapting to the changes required under the provisions of Achieve NJ, the policy mandating new teacher evaluation (Yin, 2009). The theoretical framework of sensemaking and sensegiving guided the analysis of how teachers processed the changes to their evaluation system and the role the context played in the implementation of the MTEM (Weick, 1995, Gioia & Chittipeddi, 1991). Data was collected in the form of archival documents, participant interviews and field notes from observations which produced clear and coherent themes around the implementation of the MTEM.
The findings of this study indicate that teachers perceive only incremental shifts in their instructional practice, that they perceive significant barriers to implementation, that a compliance orientation exists towards the MTEM, also that contextual messages influence teacher’s perceptions of the MTEM, and that school leadership acts as capacity builders. In this setting change is framed by a teacher’s experience, and providing support that is context specific, especially for veteran teachers, is critical to the implementation process. Teacher’s resistance to change is also influenced by the context, and supportive leadership designed to mitigate resistance must take into account the contextual factors impacting change.
Recommended Citation
Donahue, Brian P., "The implementation of a new teacher evaluation model: a qualitative case study of how teachers make sense of the Marzano Evaluation Model" (2016). Theses and Dissertations. 895.
https://rdw.rowan.edu/etd/895
