This survey study sought to determine the extent to which teachers' personal belief systems, the leadership practices of the principal, and the nature of the organization as a professional learning community influence their teaching methodologies. The data were contributed by 172 South Carolina science teachers from 65 4 x 4 block-scheduled high schools. The teachers were pre-identified by teaching style as predominantly constructivist or traditional. The online survey consisted of two parts. Part I was the CTBA (Torff & Warburton 2005), which examined teacher beliefs regarding critical-thinking classroom strategies. Part II was the short form of the LOLSO Project Questionnaires (Shins et al., 2002), which examined teacher perceptions of their principal as a transformational leader and of their school as a learning organization.
Logistic regression analysis identified two significant factors differentiating constructivist and traditional teachers. Traditional teachers were more likely to believe that low critical-thinking strategies were appropriate strategies for use in the classroom and constructivist teachers were more likely to perceive their schools as learning organizations. These two factors, when entered into the logistic regression predictive equation, could predict group membership with a 61% accuracy level. While not a differentiating factor, there was also a strong correlation between leadership and organizational learning (r = .86). These findings are consistent with other research that has found that schools which are learning organizations support more constructivist pedagogy and student-centered classrooms and are dependent upon strong support from school leadership.
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