Effects of school administrators' ways of communication on organizational variables and module - based practices

The aim of the research is to reveal the presence of the relationship between communication skills of school administrators and organizational variables (job satisfaction, school culture, stress management, conflict management, communication technologies) and to ensure the development of communication skills of school administrators with module-based practices, in accordance with this relationship. The research was carried out on school administrators, who worked in the city center of Elazığ and were not affected by administrator rotation, and teachers, students and parents in the schools of these administrators in 2014-2015 academic year. Two groups, experimental and control groups, were determined in the research. A total of 12 hours module-based face to face trainings were provided for the experimental group and practices were also maintained over moodle teaching management systems. Quantitative and qualitative designs were used altogether in the research. Quantitative design was discussed in two dimensions both as relational screening model and experimental design. For relational screening model, data were collected by job satisfaction, school culture, stress management, conflict management and attitudes towards technology scales as well as the ways of communication scale. The relationship between school administrators and organizational variables was verified based on these data. Modules were prepared in accordance with this relationship, and these modules were used as basic teaching materials during practices. The achievement test for experimental design was applied to the administrators as pretest and posttest. Ways of communication scale was applied to the administrators, teachers, students and parents as pretest and posttest, and data were collected. In the qualitative dimension, semi-structured interview form was applied to the school administrators in the experimental group after the practices. As a result of the research; it was observed that the success of the school administrators in the experimental group who participated in communication management skills practices increased compared to the school administrators in the control group who did not participate in practices, and that their attitudes regarding their own ways of communication positively changed; and that teachers in the experimental group assessed the communication skills of their managers in a better level compared to the control group of students and parents. Also, the results obtained from the quantitative dimension of the research support the qualitative results. In accordance with these results, the followings were proposed; programs or courses related to communication skills in faculties of education should be introduced, those who will begin work as administrators should start to work after participating the trainings related to communication skills, the communication skills of those working should be developed through in-service trainings, and they should participate in the relevant course-seminar and trainings in this respect.