Science Teachers’ Innovative Work Behavior

The aforementioned research objectives have determined the content and structure of this monograph. In the first chapter of monograph, The Theoretical Background of Innovative Work Behavior of Science Teachers, the phenomenon of innovative work behavior is analyzed from a theoretical aspect. This chapter focuses on one theory of innovations – Rogers’ Diffusion theory and three psychological theories: social learning theory, social cognitive theory, and Expectancy-Value theory.

In the first paragraph of Innovations in Science Education: The Issue of Diffusion Theory, we discuss Rogers’ diffusion theory. Diffusion is essentially a social process through which people talking to people spread an innovation (Rogers, 1995). According to Diffusion theory, the decision process is the mental process which consists of five stages: knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation. At different stages, an innovative work behavior is reflected by a series of activities in which individuals generate novel ideas, solve practical problems at work, and achieve positive effects.

We analyzed these activities in the second paragraph, The Concept of Innovative Work Behavior. In the last paragraph of the chapter, Psychological Background of Innovative Work Behavior, we give a psychological background of this concept. In this study, we relied on Social Cognitive theory and examined the role of organizational commitment and organizational leadership in the innovative behavior of science teachers. In addition, we analyzed the links between personal cognitive factors and innovative behavior of science teachers. In this study, we also relied on Social Learning theory, in analyzing the role of personal sociodemographic factors in science teachers’ innovative work behavior. Expectancy-value theory was also critical, helping us to reveal the essence of science teachers’ self-confidence and to discover the associations between science teachers’ self-confidence and innovative behavior.

In the third chapter of the monograph, Empirical Insight of Factors and Actors of Science Teachers Innovative Work Behavior, we describe the results of factors analysis and ordinal logistic regression. The structure of this chapter corresponds to the research objectives.

In the first paragraph, The Internal Structure of Science Teachers’ Innovative Work Behavior, we analyzed the internal structure of science teachers’ innovative work behavior using a Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and path analysis. Taking the TIMSS 2015 data for Lithuania, we created a hierarchical linear modeling according to diffusion theory: (1) knowledge, (2) persuasion, (3) decision, (4) implementation, and (5) confirmation (Rogers, 2003).

In the second paragraph of empirical part of monograph, The Comparative Analysis of Demographic and Educational Factors on Science Teachers’ Trying Out and Sharing New Ideas, we analyzed two innovative activities: trying out new ideas and sharing of new ideas. We performed an ordinal logistic regression analysis of the TIMSS 2015 data for Lithuania. We tested the role of three factors—gender, level of education, and the age of science teacher—on science teachers’ willingness to try out and to share new ideas.

In the third paragraph, The Role of Organizational Commitment on Innovative Work Behavior of Science Teachers, we analyzed the role of environmental factors in innovative work behavior of science teachers of Lithuania. The result of CFA and structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis disclosed different influences of organizational/affective commitment on science teachers’ innovative behavior activities. We detected that organizational/affective commitment had the biggest influence on science teachers’ activity of sharing of innovative ideas and the lowest influence on the application of new ideas in education.

In the section, The Role of Self-confidence in Teaching Science on Innovative Work Behavior of Science Teachers, we analyzed the role of personal and cognitive factors in the innovative work behavior of science teachers of Lithuania. Our SEM results confirmed the influence of science teachers’ self-confidence in teaching science on their innovative behavior activities. The self-confidence of science teachers in teaching science has a greater influence in their applying activities but a smaller influence on the activities of generating and sharing ideas.

In The Influence of Organization Leadership Support on Science Teachers’ Innovative Work Behavior, we analyzed the role of environmental factor—organizational leadership – using confirmatory factor analysis and SEM. The results of our study correspond to social cognitive theory.

In the Discussion section we present the main results of the various sections of the monograph. Our discussion involves a summary of the main findings of the monograph, followed by our interpretation of these results in light of our literature review presented in the introduction and first chapter of monograph. In the discussion section, we examine the results, and draw inferences and conclusions from them.