¶ … drafted in a more generous and open manner than questions in surveys should be, there would be greater difficulty in coding them, and more less commonly used methods may have to be found to code some of the questions. How long have you been part of the new principal program?

(a) 1-3 years = 1 (b) 3-5 years = 2 (c) 5-7 years = 3 (d) 7-10 years = 4; (e) 10 years + = 5 (f) unreadable answer or 0 years =

Tell me about your job.

This is an open-ended question that cannot be coded. Seeking a measure that converts open-ended response to quantitative coding, I selected Newman, Webb & Cochrane's (1997) approach that was initiated for critical thinking within an online discussion forum...

These codes are also useful since they seem relevant to our study. We can leave Newman et al.'s (1997) concept 'critical thinking' as it is since its sub-terms seem relevant to the principal's experience. Imitating Newman et al.'s (1997) method, we append a plus (+) or a minus (-) to indicate whether the respondent's sentence contributes to (+) or detracts from (-) his enthusiasm and feelings of accomplishment as principal. Using Newman et al.'s (1997) example, neutral sentences will be eliminated from analysis. The job satisfaction ratio will be worked out in the following way: Satisfaction= (x+-x-) divided by (x++x-) where x+ is the count…