| The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the perceived leadership style of principals and their teachers' practice of the five disciplines of learning schools. One hundred forty-four elementary and middle school teachers participated in this study by completing the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5X (Bass & Avolio, 2000) and the Learning Organization Inventory (Wyckoff, 1998). A multiple regression model, the Pearson production-moment correlation coefficient (r), and the t test technique were utilized in this study.; The results of this study suggest that the leadership style of principals, gender of principals, gender of teachers, years of teaching experience of teachers, and years of teaching with the same principal together predicted 34 percent of the variance in teachers' practice of the five disciplines of learning schools. Leadership style of principals, which was the best predictor of teachers' practice of the five disciplines, explained 32 percent of the variance. Further, the unique contribution of each demographic independent variable showed insignificant contribution on teachers' practice of the five disciplines of learning schools.; It was discovered that there is a positive, somewhat high, and significant relationship between transformational leadership style of principals and teachers' practice of the five disciplines of learning schools. Further, the relationship between transactional leadership style of principals and teachers' practice of the five disciplines was found to be insignificant. However, the relationship between laissez fair leadership and teachers' practice of the five disciplines of learning schools was inverse, modest to moderate, and significant. Overall, the relationship between transformational/transactional leadership of principals and teachers' practice of the five disciplines of learning schools was found to be positively significant. Finally, examination of the differences between elementary and middle school teachers in practicing the five disciplines of learning schools showed significant differences in the discipline of shared vision, the disciplines of systems thinking, and the five disciplines together in the favor of elementary school teachers. |
