Current Search: Confidence (x)
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- Title
- AN INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECTS OF SPEAKERS' VOCAL CHARACTERISTICS ON RATINGS OF CONFIDENCE AND PERSUASION.
- Creator
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Montrey, John, Pryor, Albert, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This experiment furthered previous research on perceptions of speakers as a function of various vocal characteristics. A low relevance passage was recorded by male and female speakers, simulating voices of orotund, thin, thoaty, flat, breathy, as well as rate and pitch variations, so as to determine effects on persuasiveness and confidence. Main effects were found regarding gender across all vocal characteristics. While an orotund voice produced predominately positive effects of ratings of...
Show moreThis experiment furthered previous research on perceptions of speakers as a function of various vocal characteristics. A low relevance passage was recorded by male and female speakers, simulating voices of orotund, thin, thoaty, flat, breathy, as well as rate and pitch variations, so as to determine effects on persuasiveness and confidence. Main effects were found regarding gender across all vocal characteristics. While an orotund voice produced predominately positive effects of ratings of speakers' confidence and persuasiveness, a breathy effect elicited negative ratings. The male speaker was judged more harshly than the female speaker when the vocal characterization departed from the norm.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2005
- Identifier
- CFE0000902, ucf:46750
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000902
- Title
- DEFINING RISK ASSESSMENT CONFIDENCE LEVELS FOR USE IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATIONS.
- Creator
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Johnson, Gary, Pet-Armacost, Julia, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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A review of the literature regarding risk management and effective risk communications identified that very few researchers have addressed risk assessment confidence levels when using risk scoring methods. The focus of this research is to develop a definition of risk assessment confidence levels for use in internal project management communications and to evaluate its usefulness. This research defines risk assessment confidence level as "The degree of certainty that the likelihood or...
Show moreA review of the literature regarding risk management and effective risk communications identified that very few researchers have addressed risk assessment confidence levels when using risk scoring methods. The focus of this research is to develop a definition of risk assessment confidence levels for use in internal project management communications and to evaluate its usefulness. This research defines risk assessment confidence level as "The degree of certainty that the likelihood or consequence score (assigned by the risk assessor) reflects reality." A specific level of confidence is defined based on the types of analyses that were conducted to determine the risk score. A survey method was used to obtain data from a representative sample of risk assessment professionals from industry and academia to measure their opinion on the usefulness of the defined risk assessment confidence levels. The survey consisted of seven questions related to usefulness--four questions addressed the importance of stating confidence levels in risk assessments and three addressed the usableness of the proposed confidence level. Data were collected on the role and experience level of each of the respondents and the survey also included a comment section to obtain additional feedback. The survey generated 364 respondents representing a broad variety of roles associated with decision making and risk management with experience levels from fairly new to experienced risk assessors. The survey data were analyzed by calculating the proportion of respondents who gave negative, neutral and positive responses to the survey questions. An examination of the roles of the survey respondents indicated that no single group was dominant. A non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test generally failed to reject the hypothesis that the means of the survey response distributions were identical. There was one exception which indicated that there are differences based on role and by inspection of the responses, it appears that decision makers, academics, and others more strongly support the need for confidence level information to reduce the difficulty in making risk based decisions in projects. The survey responses at a confidence level of 95% have a range of errors from 3.84 to 4.97%. Based on the results of the survey, 77 83% of those surveyed indicated agreement that knowing the confidence the assessors have in their assessment is important and would improve a management decision. The survey showed that 60 86% of the respondents agreed that the confidence levels and their definitions as presented in the survey were usable. The question with the lowest agreement (60%) was related to the way in which the individual levels were defined. The ad-hoc comments provided in the survey were divided into eleven groups based on similarity of the subject of the comment and then examined for common themes. These added additional insight into the results and useful information for future research efforts. This research validates that the use of risk assessment confidence levels is considered to be useful in project risk management. The research also identified several potential areas for future work, including determining the appropriate number of confidence levels that should be defined, refining the definition of the individual confidence level definitions, examining historical perspectives of whether the risk assessments were accurate, examining the concept of shiftability of risk assessments, further research on communication of variability of risk assessments, and research into the usefulness of risk matrices.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2008
- Identifier
- CFE0002352, ucf:47791
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002352
- Title
- A Study of Confidence in Individuals who Actively Work with Returning Military Personnel.
- Creator
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Slayter, LaDonna, Hirumi, Atsusi, Gunter, Glenda, Campbell, Laurie, Brophy-Ellison, James, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This study sought to explore if training significantly increased community workers' perceived level of confidence and their ability to provide services to returning military personnel in two locations. To measure community workers' perceived level of confidence, participants N = 143 (n = 63 Norfolk, VA) and (n= 80 Fayetteville, NC) responded to an instrument containing 40 items. Inferential and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the study variables. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) were...
Show moreThis study sought to explore if training significantly increased community workers' perceived level of confidence and their ability to provide services to returning military personnel in two locations. To measure community workers' perceived level of confidence, participants N = 143 (n = 63 Norfolk, VA) and (n= 80 Fayetteville, NC) responded to an instrument containing 40 items. Inferential and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the study variables. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) were used to compare the reliability of means between the groups from 2011 to 2012 (i.e., pre-intervention to post-intervention). A Bonferroni Correction was applied to control the familywise error rate. A one-tailed p-value for each analysis was used based on the hypothesis that the intervention produced greater agreement with each item. Means for each item and range of ratings for each item were also calculated. To examine community workers' ability to provide improved service to veterans, qualitative data from (n=81) participants were analyzed. Comments were transcribed and grouped into clusters, then the data were themed and categorized according to participants' reported change in the way they thought about themselves as community service workers. Themes related to the study of confidence for better service to veterans were included in the results.The results of the hypothesis were that overall statistically significant improvement was found for individuals who actively work with military personnel in Fayetteville, NC. Results for the Norfolk, VA site demonstrated statistically significant improvement in confidence on 7 survey questions, but statistical significance was not found overall. Overall practical significance for the community provider setting in both cities was surmised from the results.Results of the data analysis for the research question indicated participants were applying knowledge acquired to their work with reintegrating veterans and their families. The study and the resulting information can inform instructional designers, instructors, course developers, and the research community. Opportunities for future research are briefly discussed.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0007100, ucf:51960
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007100
- Title
- EXPLORING CONFIDENCE INTERVALS IN THE CASE OF BINOMIAL AND HYPERGEOMETRIC DISTRIBUTIONS.
- Creator
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Mojica, Irene, Pensky, Marianna, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The objective of this thesis is to examine one of the most fundamental and yet important methodologies used in statistical practice, interval estimation of the probability of success in a binomial distribution. The textbook confidence interval for this problem is known as the Wald interval as it comes from the Wald large sample test for the binomial case. It is generally acknowledged that the actual coverage probability of the standard interval is poor for values of p near 0 or 1. Moreover,...
Show moreThe objective of this thesis is to examine one of the most fundamental and yet important methodologies used in statistical practice, interval estimation of the probability of success in a binomial distribution. The textbook confidence interval for this problem is known as the Wald interval as it comes from the Wald large sample test for the binomial case. It is generally acknowledged that the actual coverage probability of the standard interval is poor for values of p near 0 or 1. Moreover, recently it has been documented that the coverage properties of the standard interval can be inconsistent even if p is not near the boundaries. For this reason, one would like to study the variety of methods for construction of confidence intervals for unknown probability p in the binomial case. The present thesis accomplishes the task by presenting several methods for constructing confidence intervals for unknown binomial probability p. It is well known that the hypergeometric distribution is related to the binomial distribution. In particular, if the size of the population, N, is large and the number of items of interest k is such that k/N tends to p as N grows, then the hypergeometric distribution can be approximated by the binomial distribution. Therefore, in this case, one can use the confidence intervals constructed for p in the case of the binomial distribution as a basis for construction of the confidence intervals for the unknown value k = pN. The goal of this thesis is to study this approximation and to point out several confidence intervals which are designed specifically for the hypergeometric distribution. In particular, this thesis considers several confidence intervals which are based on estimation of a binomial proportion as well as Bayesian credible sets based on various priors.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2011
- Identifier
- CFE0003919, ucf:48740
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003919
- Title
- KNOWLEDGE, CONFIDENCE, INTENTION, AND MOTIVATION: HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY'S INFLUENCE UPON NUTRITIONAL HABITS OF MALES.
- Creator
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Chizmar, Sara, Rovito, Michael J., University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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With the increasing incidence of chronic diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and cardiovascular disease and the growing obesity epidemic, the need to increase nutritional literacy amongst the general public is paramount. Men tend to lack a strong base of nutritional knowledge. Masculinity is one of the factors preventing many men from making good nutritional choices. The aim of this study was to investigate hegemonic masculinity in relation to current level of nutritional knowledge as...
Show moreWith the increasing incidence of chronic diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and cardiovascular disease and the growing obesity epidemic, the need to increase nutritional literacy amongst the general public is paramount. Men tend to lack a strong base of nutritional knowledge. Masculinity is one of the factors preventing many men from making good nutritional choices. The aim of this study was to investigate hegemonic masculinity in relation to current level of nutritional knowledge as well as perceptions and attitudes regarding dietary behaviors and intention to eat a healthy diet among a sample of males. A convenience sample of males 18+ (n=87) was categorized according to hegemonic masculinity level by the Masculine Role Inventory. An amended survey gathered information regarding nutritional knowledge level. An original survey gathered information on confidence in one�s nutritional knowledge, intention to eat healthier, and motivation to expand nutritional knowledge. Analyses examined the association between hegemonic masculinity and nutritional knowledge, confidence in nutritional knowledge, intention to change dietary behavior and motivation to learn new nutritional knowledge. No significant association was found between hegemonic masculinity level and nutritional knowledge, confidence, intention, or motivation. The null results can be attributed to the low hegemonic status of the majority of participants. Analyses also examined the relationship between actual nutritional knowledge and confidence in nutritional knowledge. A positive association between higher confidence level and greater nutrition knowledge was found to be significant, p < 0.006. A positive association between higher confidence level and higher levels of motivation to learn new nutritional information was also found to be significant, p < 0.000. The results of this study suggest that an increased level of confidence in nutritional knowledge may be necessary to encourage accumulation of new nutritional knowledge.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFH2000050, ucf:45533
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH2000050
- Title
- STUDENT ATTITUDES TOWARDS CAMPUS LAW ENFORCEMENT: EXPLORING ISSUES OF CONFIDENCE AND UTILIZATION.
- Creator
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Ortiz, Vivian, Ross, Lee, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The assessment of citizen attitudes has, in recent decades, become standard practice within the criminal justice system. However, in assessing the criminal justice system, most research has gathered data on the attitudes and perceptions of specific populations within society (i.e. older citizens) and has not really focused on younger age groups, or more specifically, students enrolled in colleges and universities. The present study examined attitudes of college students in the areas of...
Show moreThe assessment of citizen attitudes has, in recent decades, become standard practice within the criminal justice system. However, in assessing the criminal justice system, most research has gathered data on the attitudes and perceptions of specific populations within society (i.e. older citizens) and has not really focused on younger age groups, or more specifically, students enrolled in colleges and universities. The present study examined attitudes of college students in the areas of confidence and utilization of campus police. Utilizing a non-random convenience sample of undergraduate and graduate students (N=393) at a large four-year research institution, participants completed a 21-item survey to measure their confidence and utilization of campus police, resources, and services. The results suggest that confidence does not affect utilization of police and students stated they would utilize police despite their confidence level. However, more significantly, students also indicated that while they would utilize police, they reported they had not. As a result, various recommendations were made to improve communications between students and campus police and directions for future research were also noted.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2010
- Identifier
- CFE0003126, ucf:48638
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003126
- Title
- PARAMETER ESTIMATION IN LINEAR REGRESSION.
- Creator
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Ollikainen, Kati, Malone, Linda, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Today increasing amounts of data are available for analysis purposes and often times for resource allocation. One method for analysis is linear regression which utilizes the least squares estimation technique to estimate a model's parameters. This research investigated, from a user's perspective, the ability of linear regression to estimate the parameters' confidence intervals at the usual 95% level for medium sized data sets. A controlled environment using simulation with known...
Show moreToday increasing amounts of data are available for analysis purposes and often times for resource allocation. One method for analysis is linear regression which utilizes the least squares estimation technique to estimate a model's parameters. This research investigated, from a user's perspective, the ability of linear regression to estimate the parameters' confidence intervals at the usual 95% level for medium sized data sets. A controlled environment using simulation with known data characteristics (clean data, bias and or multicollinearity present) was used to show underlying problems exist with confidence intervals not including the true parameter (even though the variable was selected). The Elder/Pregibon rule was used for variable selection. A comparison of the bootstrap Percentile and BCa confidence interval was made as well as an investigation of adjustments to the usual 95% confidence intervals based on the Bonferroni and Scheffe multiple comparison principles. The results show that linear regression has problems in capturing the true parameters in the confidence intervals for the sample sizes considered, the bootstrap intervals perform no better than linear regression, and the Scheffe method is too wide for any application considered. The Bonferroni adjustment is recommended for larger sample sizes and when the t-value for a selected variable is about 3.35 or higher. For smaller sample sizes all methods show problems with type II errors resulting from confidence intervals being too wide.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2006
- Identifier
- CFE0001482, ucf:47081
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001482
- Title
- APPLICATION OF STATISTICAL METHODS IN RISK AND RELIABILITY.
- Creator
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Heard, Astrid, Pensky, Marianna, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The dissertation considers construction of confidence intervals for a cumulative distribution function F(z) and its inverse at some fixed points z and u on the basis of an i.i.d. sample where the sample size is relatively small. The sample is modeled as having the flexible Generalized Gamma distribution with all three parameters being unknown. This approach can be viewed as an alternative to nonparametric techniques which do not specify distribution of X and lead to less efficient procedures....
Show moreThe dissertation considers construction of confidence intervals for a cumulative distribution function F(z) and its inverse at some fixed points z and u on the basis of an i.i.d. sample where the sample size is relatively small. The sample is modeled as having the flexible Generalized Gamma distribution with all three parameters being unknown. This approach can be viewed as an alternative to nonparametric techniques which do not specify distribution of X and lead to less efficient procedures. The confidence intervals are constructed by objective Bayesian methods and use the Jeffreys noninformative prior. Performance of the resulting confidence intervals is studied via Monte Carlo simulations and compared to the performance of nonparametric confidence intervals based on binomial proportion. In addition, techniques for change point detection are analyzed and further evaluated via Monte Carlo simulations. The effect of a change point on the interval estimators is studied both analytically and via Monte Carlo simulations.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2005
- Identifier
- CFE0000736, ucf:46565
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000736
- Title
- The Effect of Visualized Student's Self-Set Learning Progress Goals on East Asian Chinese Student's Motivation and Self confidence In Learning.
- Creator
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Ao, Yu, Sivo, Stephen, Gunter, Glenda, Beverly, Monifa, Martin, Suzanne, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This study was conducted to determine if visualized goal achievement can help enhance East Asian Chinese students' motivation in learning and elevate their confidence in reaching their goals thus improving their performance. The goal achievement was visualized on a goal achievement progress chart that was self-created and self-managed by the East Asian Chinese students and the goal creating was under the supervision of their instructor. In this study, literature reviews on the theories,...
Show moreThis study was conducted to determine if visualized goal achievement can help enhance East Asian Chinese students' motivation in learning and elevate their confidence in reaching their goals thus improving their performance. The goal achievement was visualized on a goal achievement progress chart that was self-created and self-managed by the East Asian Chinese students and the goal creating was under the supervision of their instructor. In this study, literature reviews on the theories, previous research studies in the perspectives of East Asian students' motivation in learning, goal setting on motivation, self-determination, self-efficacy, and expectancy theories are conducted to provide theoretical ground and legitimate evidence for this particular research. The researcher conducted an experiment in which students were given a learning task and required to set their own learning goals for that learning task under the supervision of their instructors. In this specific experiment, a total of 106 students from a university that was funded by American Educators in a central province in China agreed to participate in stages one, and two of the study, but some students withdrew from this research and some did not participate in both research stages therefore their data were take out from the data to make research result more consistent. Therefore eventually 72 students were considered eligible to go through the whole process of turning in the questionnaires and participating in the performance test. In this particular goal setting research study, the students were given the freedom of setting their own learning pace and managing their own progress on a visualized progress chart. The progress chart was visualized as a climbing/progressing line, which goes from bottom to top (see appendix C) once students achieved their learning goals. At the same time, the instructor provided feedback concerning the students' progress. Although some of the research results displayed no statistical significance for motivation and self-confidence during the pre and post session of the research, there is a positive correlation among motivation, self-confidence, and performance outcome. One research result did corroborate the previous research study that goal setting strategy would improve learning outcome.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2012
- Identifier
- CFE0004512, ucf:49270
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004512
- Title
- APPLICATION OF THE EMPIRICAL LIKELIHOOD METHOD IN PROPORTIONAL HAZARDS MODEL.
- Creator
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HE, BIN, Ren, Jian-Jian, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
In survival analysis, proportional hazards model is the most commonly used and the Cox model is the most popular. These models are developed to facilitate statistical analysis frequently encountered in medical research or reliability studies. In analyzing real data sets, checking the validity of the model assumptions is a key component. However, the presence of complicated types of censoring such as double censoring and partly interval-censoring in survival data makes model assessment...
Show moreIn survival analysis, proportional hazards model is the most commonly used and the Cox model is the most popular. These models are developed to facilitate statistical analysis frequently encountered in medical research or reliability studies. In analyzing real data sets, checking the validity of the model assumptions is a key component. However, the presence of complicated types of censoring such as double censoring and partly interval-censoring in survival data makes model assessment difficult, and the existing tests for goodness-of-fit do not have direct extension to these complicated types of censored data. In this work, we use empirical likelihood (Owen, 1988) approach to construct goodness-of-fit test and provide estimates for the Cox model with various types of censored data.Specifically, the problems under consideration are the two-sample Cox model and stratified Cox model with right censored data, doubly censored data and partly interval-censored data. Related computational issues are discussed, and some simulation results are presented. The procedures developed in the work are applied to several real data sets with some discussion.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2006
- Identifier
- CFE0001099, ucf:46780
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001099
- Title
- Principals' Perceptions and Self-efficacy in Relation to School Security.
- Creator
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Jones, Julian, Taylor, Rosemarye, Doherty, Walter, Kennedy, Mary, Wolf, Ross, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Principals in the nation's schools have been tasked with managing crisis incidents that may occur with students and others on their campuses on a daily basis. The purposes of this study were to determine the differences, if any, that existed in Central Florida public school principals' perceptions regarding school security, their perceived confidence to address critical crisis incidents on their campuses, their perceptions of the likelihood critical incidents would occur, their perceptions of...
Show morePrincipals in the nation's schools have been tasked with managing crisis incidents that may occur with students and others on their campuses on a daily basis. The purposes of this study were to determine the differences, if any, that existed in Central Florida public school principals' perceptions regarding school security, their perceived confidence to address critical crisis incidents on their campuses, their perceptions of the likelihood critical incidents would occur, their perceptions of interaction with law enforcement, the critical incidents they fear the most, and their perceptions of factors impacting the incidents they fear the most. Principal subgroup mean responses to the Principal Safety and Security Perceptions Survey in the three areas of Bandura's (1997) triadic reciprocal causation were examined in the context of principals' gender, longevity, student enrollment, grade configuration, free and reduced lunch rate, presence of a law enforcement officer, and presence of a security plan. Findings revealed significant differences between categorical groups of principals in multiple areas. It was determined that significant differences in principals' perceptions warrant further study. Recommendations for practice include security policy development and practical application of noted trends.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- Identifier
- CFE0005636, ucf:50217
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005636
- Title
- An Analysis of the Readiness and Confidence of High School Administrators to Provide Instructional Leadership in Digital School Environments.
- Creator
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Shepherd, Andrew, Taylor, Rosemarye, Doherty, Walter, Johnson, Jerry, Border, Harold, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The purpose of this study was to analyze the perceived knowledge and confidence of high school administrators to lead in a digital school environment. This study utilized an exploratory mixed-methods case study analysis along with the 62-item Digital Instructional Leadership Readiness Instrument (DILRI)(&)copy; to measure school administrators' knowledge and confidence to lead in a digital school environment. High school administrators within the target school district were requested to...
Show moreThe purpose of this study was to analyze the perceived knowledge and confidence of high school administrators to lead in a digital school environment. This study utilized an exploratory mixed-methods case study analysis along with the 62-item Digital Instructional Leadership Readiness Instrument (DILRI)(&)copy; to measure school administrators' knowledge and confidence to lead in a digital school environment. High school administrators within the target school district were requested to complete the DILRI(&)copy; at two separate points in time: September 2016 and June 2017. Based on these two administrations, this study's six Research Questions were answered. Research Questions 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 were addressed quantitatively using descriptive statistics, along with two MANOVA analyses for Research Question 6. Research Question 5 was answered qualitatively by examining open-ended responses found within the DILRI(&)copy;. Based on the data collected, Experience Supervising Others and Colleagues were two factors ranked highest by administrators as influencing their knowledge and confidence. Additionally, high school administrators perceive themselves to be knowledge and confident in recognizing Student Engagement and Student Collaboration, and in developing digital school culture factors of Leadership Teams, Empowering Teachers, and Shared Vision. Overall means increased for knowledge and confidence on each scale between the September 2016 and June 2017 DILRI(&)copy; administrations. Much research relating to the digital school environment has only focused on the preparation required of teachers; therefore, this study provides administrators, directors, school boards, superintendents, and other school district leaders with relevant information relating to the self-reported readiness of high school administrators to lead in a digital school environment.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- Identifier
- CFE0007295, ucf:52173
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007295