Towards Better Schools in Iceland. A divice for Evaluating School Activity in Iceland

Sammanfattning: In this research project, that was carried out in Iceland, an attempt is made to construct and develop a questionnaire administrators can use as a “device” to shed light on and evaluate certain aspects of the administration in their school. The research is based upon a quantitative method that was chosen in order to secure a maximally objective approach of those who carry out the evaluation. The enactment of the Compulsory School Act from 1995 significantly increased the independence of principals. Likewise, the wage agreements 2001-2004 and 2004-2007 extended the scope of administration within the schools. The Act granted principals the warranty and opportunity to enhance the uptrend in school activity. This thesis is part of that uptrend. Theories and concepts put forth and developed by Bert Stålhammar and Tomas J. Sergiovanni concerning the role of the principal were a point of reference in the choice of questions in the questionnaire. Four schools were chosen to participate in the research. All the principals answered the questionnaire, one female and three males. The total number of respondents among the teachers of the four schools was 103. The methodology used to verify the reliability of the questionnaire is a statistically reliable measure and an effective instrument to gather extensive information and with the aid of statistics and a good software program it is easy to present it in an explicit manner. The information contained in this thesis may be used in various ways, e.g. the direct statistical findings of the questions and the comparison of the findings for teachers and the principal (frequency tables, cf. the report of the schools). But it may also be viewed as a manual for those who intend to pose this questionnaire in their school or another comparable one and how the findings of such a questionnaire should be read and interpreted. Principals of other schools do not need to carry out the factor analysis but can utilize the findings of this survey, i.e. the 25 questions that came under the five factors (F1-Interaction with the principal, F2-The policy regarding teaching and pedagogy, F3-Collaboration and flow of information, F4-Praise to teachers and pupils and F5-Teachers’ professionalism).