Purpose: Leadership coaching is an increasingly popular development tool for school principals. However, specific coaching behaviors are rarely conceptualized or examined in prior research. This study presents a coaching behavior framework and then analyzes actual coaching conversations between principals and coaches to illustrate how specific…

While the significance of principals' roles is widely recognized, and the impactful behaviors of principals are empirically delineated, little is known about whether principals spend time in an impactful way, whether principals' time use varies across different school contexts, or whether principals' time use is related to critical school…

An examination of principals' decision-making patterns indicates that they are essentially reactive in nature and are reached most often on the basis of reports from subordinates without further search for information or guidance. (JMF)

Previous research on principals as instructional leaders has been confined mostly to elementary schools and has disclosed little information regarding the specific behaviors used by principals in instructional leadership roles. This study focuses on high school principals' behaviors and attempts to determine the behavior differences between…

To identify the cultural elements in school principals' problem-solving processes and the differences between experts and their more typical colleagues, this study interviewed 22 elementary principals. From their responses to brief, hypothetical case problems, a problem-solving model was constructed. Differences were most evident in responses to…

As instructional supervisors for their buildings, principals must know how and when to supervise teachers so that the mutual goal of instructional improvement can be attained. This study investigates the differences between public junior high school teachers' perceptions of principals' actual supervisory behaviors and their preferences for…

Explores how principals use some of the discretionary resources at their command to come to an accommodation with problems of resource inadequacy, challenges to authority, and conflicting role expectations. Uses the framework provided by the theory of street-level bureaucracy. (Author/IRT)

Investigates the relationship between principal leadership style and organizational process in secondary schools and identifies effective leadership styles, based on a survey involving 64 secondary schools and 672 teachers in Hong Kong. Results indicate a strong relationship of leadership to organizational process. (37 references) (MLH)

Findings from an exploratory study asking 10 principals and 280 teachers about connections between principals' leadership behaviors and teachers' sense of efficacy in middle schools involved in change indicate that there is a significant difference between general teaching efficacy and personal teaching efficacy. Principal behaviors related to…

This study explores the influence of personal values in problem-solving processes used by elementary school principals responding to the introduction of computers to their schools. Hodgkinson's values hierarchy was used to define actions that more rational frameworks might dismiss or explain inadequately. The hierarchy included three types of…

Based on data from a nationally representative sample of 14,000 elementary school children, this study finds that principal behavior and attributes significantly influence individual student achievement. These results affirm major conclusions of recent case studies and claim that schools make a difference. (Includes 2 tables, 5 notes, and 30…

Research indicates that principals who have clear goals for their schools, provide active, visible leadership, and closely monitor the school's progress in accomplishing the expected improvement, are consistently assessed as more effective, regardless of the criteria for judging. The article stresses the need to distinguish between principal style…

Results from a study with 41 Hawaiian elementary school principals indicate that, although there is no significant difference in visionary leadership scores of principals from varying levels of school climate when covaried with psychological characteristics, there is a significant main effect for "capacity of status" on visionary…

This paper describes a study which compared teachers' actual and ideal perceptions of principals' interpersonal behavior. The instrument developed, the Principal Interaction Questionnaire (PIQ), for the study was based on the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction, which was first devised in the Netherlands and contains eight scales that measure…

Components of effective teaching considered most essential and most difficult for beginning teachers were studied by asking 52 principals, 108 teachers, 16 college teachers, 93 pre-intern teachers, and 292 intern teachers. Differences in opinions among the groups and ways teacher education can address them are discussed. (SLD)