Information seeking behavior among students of educational administration : a Bayesian normed study
Creators: name: Angus, Fred
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2010

description: The information seeking behaviour of decision makers is an important aspect of the rational decision making process. This study examined the information seeking behaviour of students of educational administration in an attempt to more fully understand the decision making process and thus provide a basis for improving rational decision making. A statistical decision game was devised which utilized a Bayesian norm. The value of information to a decision maker was calculated from the game and then compared to the value defined by the Bayesian norm. The sample consisted of twenty-nine part-time students enrolled in winter session courses in the University of British Columbia (U.B.C.) Department of Educational Administration. This sample included students with various amounts of completed class work and educational administrative experience. Three independent variables were defined. The first variable, administrative experience had two levels. One level consisted of those with at least one year of administrative experience, the other consisted of those with no administrative experience. The second variable, graduate level training, had two levels. One level consisted of those who had completed at least three units of graduate level course work in educational administration. The other consisted of those who had not completed any coursework. The third variable, consisted of three divisions with two levels each and introduced varia tion across the eight games. The dependent variable, information seeking bias, was defined as the difference between the quantified value of information to the decision maker and that value ascribed by the Bayesian norm. The sample was tested in separate groups ranging in size from three to six. Each person in a group viewed the same sequence of eight games, corresponding to the eight treatment levels of factor C; however, each group had a different randomly determined sequence of games. The following five research questions were examined: (1) Do students of educational administration tend to seek the same amount of information as purely Bayesian players in a programmable decision situation? (2) Do students of educational administration with administrative experience behave differently than students with no administrative experience in their tendency to seek information? (3) Do students of educational administration who have completed three or more units of graduate level training in educational administration behave differently than students with no training in their tendency to seek information? (4) Among students of educational administration does varying the prior probabilities and payoff parameters in the statistical decision game effect the tendency to seek information? (5) Does information seeking bias change over the sequence of games? Does learning take place? The experimental design was based on Winer's (1971) three factorial repeated measure design (case II). In research question four a Scheffe Test was to be employed if the previous analysis indicated certain combinations of treatment levels in factor C had resulted in significant findings. Research question five was analyzed by graphing the information seeking bias for the various subject groups over the sequence of games. It was found that the group as a whole showed a strong tendency to seek more information than the Bayesian optimal. The hypothesis that the mean information seeking bias between the two levels of experience and training was the same could not be rejected. However, the interaction effects between factors A (experience) and C (repeated measures) and between factors B (training) and C were found to be significant at the .10 level. Finally, strong learning curves were noted for all subject groups. As the sequence of games progressed, the mean information seeking bias for all subject groups more closely approximated the Bayesian optimal strategy. It was noted, however, that experienced administrators tended to approach the Bayesian optimal strategy at a faster rate than the non-experienced group. The study concluded by recommending that programme developers in educational administration should attend to (1) the previous training and administrative experience of students and (2) the conditions under which decisions are made, when planning for future programs on decision making.