A study of the role of the principal in schools with open-concept instruction

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the principal in schools with open-concept (OC)- instruction as perceived by the principal, and as it was advocated by the literature. Four specific questions were researched: (1) What role is advocated, for the OC administrator by the literature? (2) What is the perceived role of the OC administrator as indicated by the Administrative Task Inventory (ATI)? (3) What is the nature of the differences, if any, between the perceived role of the OC administrator and the non-OC administrator? and (4) What is the nature of the differences, if any, in the reported perceptions of elementary and secondary open-concept and nonopen-concept principals? Two research hypotheses were developed to test questions three and four. These were: H1: There is a significant difference between principals of open-concept schools and principals of traditional schools as determined by factors identifying time spent and impor- tance attributed to various administrative tasks. H2: There is a significant difference between principals of elementary schools and principals of secondary schools as determined by factors identifying time spent and importance attributed to various administrative tasks. The research was conducted in two phases. A summary review of the literature focusing upon implications OC presented for the priincipal's role was undertaken as the initial phase of the study. A survey of the principal’s perceived role constituted the second phase of the study.[...]