Major responsibilities of future industrial teacher education department leaders

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to forecast the major responsibilities of future department leaders in industrial teacher education. A Delphi research technique was utilized to accomplish this purpose. The Delphi panel consisted of twenty-five experts nominated by one hundred individuals representing four segments within the profession. These experts generated a list of ninety-five major responsibilities in Round I of the Delphi process. Minor editorial adjustments were made to attain consistency, duplications were eliminated, and the sixty-five responsibility statements were grouped by topic. In Round II, the panel of experts rated the importance of each responsibility statement on a 1 to 10 scale (1 low, 10 high). Upon receipt of responses from the Round II questionnaire, interquartile ranges and means were calculated.The Round III questionnaire development was based upon comments made by the panel of experts during Round II. Changes included the consolidation or elimination of similar statements, addition of two new statements, the modification of twenty-nine statements to increase clarity, and the re-grouping of the sixty statements by topic. Round III questionnaires were individualized, where possible, by reporting to each panel member their ranking for each Round II responsibility statement. During Round III, the panel of experts were also provided the pooled data from Round II and given the opportunity to modify their earlier rankings if they wished. Upon receipt of the Round III questionnaires, means and interquartile ranges were calculated. This process resulted in a rank order of the major responsibilities of industrial teacher education department leaders in the year 1990. The following conclusions were drawn from the rankings assigned by the panel of experts on the basis of importance to future department leaders in industrial teacher education. Major responsibilities of future department leaders in industrial teacher education may include: (1) Efficiency in managing the resources of the department to achieve departmental goals; (2) The recruitment of more academically able students into the teacher education programs; (3) Obtaining adequate levels of funding and related support services for laboratories, equipment, and staff from college and/or university sources; (4) Obtaining external sources of funding to increase levels of support for program development, coordinating the establishment of new programs as needed, and funding faculty research endeavors; (5) Motivate the faculty to keep curriculum and courses up-to-date; and (6) Future oriented planning to determine future goals and directions of the profession.