| ABSTRACT
IDENTIFYING TALENTS IN PRIMARY READING TEACHERS IN RURAL EAST
IDAHO SCHOOLS
Dissertation Abstract—Idaho State University (2016)
Decreasing funding for staff and increasing expectations for teachers place
additional pressure on schools to hire and retain the highest quality teachers. Recent
studies have identified effective strategies for teaching, but little research has been
conducted to identify those innate characteristics or talents unique to effective teachers.
The purpose of this quantitative descriptive study was to use the Clifton StrengthsFinder
2.0 (CSF 2.0) to determine which talents appeared most frequently in a sample of primary
reading teachers from rural schools in east Idaho. This study also determined which
talents appeared most frequently in teachers whose classes performed higher than the
state average proficiency levels on the winter administration of the Idaho Reading
Indicator (IRI).
The researcher created a homogeneous purposeful sample by compiling a
randomized list of all elementary schools in east Idaho, contacting the building principals,
and requesting that the teachers participate in the study by taking the Clifton
StrengthsFinder 2.0 and reporting their top five signature themes. A sample of 55
respondents from six rural elementary schools completed the assessment and reported the
results, including student achievement on the winter administration of the Idaho Reading
Indicator (IRI). The researcher compiled the data, identified nineteen teachers whose
students performed higher than the State median on the IRI, and analyzed the signature
themes. The results suggested that primary elementary teachers reported certain signature
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themes more or less frequently that the general population. The signature themes reported
by teachers of higher achieving reading classes were also different than the general
population and varied slightly from the sample of primary teachers.
After analyzing the results, the researcher identified a list of expectations for
teachers that may be unrealistic given their individual innate talents. From this
foundational research, a list of recommendations for future inquiry and research was
developed that could lead to potential applications for using the Clifton StrengthsFinder
2.0 in schools to develop a strengths-based organization. |