Schools’ readiness towards change


HELVACI M. A.

Anthropologist, vol.19, no.3, pp.723-735, 2015 (SCI-Expanded) identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 19 Issue: 3
  • Publication Date: 2015
  • Doi Number: 10.1080/09720073.2015.11891708
  • Journal Name: Anthropologist
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus
  • Page Numbers: pp.723-735
  • Keywords: Change, Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), Elementary education, Readiness
  • Uşak University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a confirmatory analysis of the Readiness Towards Change Scale (RTC), which uses a four-factor structure to assess schools’ readiness towards change. Moreover, it investigates schools’ readiness towards change in four dimensions and the effect of teachers’ teaching experience and gender on each dimension. A survey method was used because it can describe a large group of people’s opinions about a topic or issue. To begin, the four-factor structure of the 5-point Likert scale used in the RTC was confirmed. Data were collected from teachers (N =257) in different fields. To answer the research questions, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were conducted, and the findings confirmed the four-factor structure of the scale. Items with factor loadings less than.40 were deleted and were not considered in the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The model fit indices yielded a good fit to the four-factor structured model (comparative fit index (CFI) =.89; root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA)=.07; adjusted goodness-of-fit index (AGFI)=.90; standardised root mean square residual (SRMR)=.03). The findings of MANOVA showed that gender and teaching experience did not have a statistically significant effect on readiness towards change. Finally, a descriptive analysis was used to examine the readiness towards change displayed by teachers, administrators, school infrastructure, and parents.