POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA IN TEACHING

1 / 2023

HMEF5023

EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP

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TUTOR : DR. MD ROSLI BIN HAJI ISMAIL

LEARNING CENTRE : OUM XXXXXXXX

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

NO. TITLE PAGES

1. PART 1
Journal Article Review 2-6

2. PART 2
In-Depth Interview Report 7-12

3. PART 3
Online Class Participation

 Post 1
 Post 2 13-15
 Post 3
 Post 4
 Post 5
 Post 6

4. APPENDICES & REFERENCES

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1
PART 1 : JOURNAL ARTICLE REVIEW

THE FOCUS OF THE ARTICLE

This research aims to investigate the relationship between Malaysian schools'

levels of effectiveness and accomplishment and the instructional leadership strategies
used by headmasters. Senior assistants of primary schools made up of 141 respondents in
total were studied. A modified version of the Principal Instructional Management Rating
Scale was used to create a set of questionnaires to gauge respondents' opinions on the
headmasters' instructional leadership techniques (PIMRS).

The mean score, percentage, and standard deviation of the instructional practises
were determined using a descriptive statistical analysis. In addition, the Pearson
Correlation was used to assess the relationship between instructional leadership and
band-measured school performance. The ANOVA test was used to gather perceptions
from demographic characteristics.

The results demonstrate that, with a mean of 4.24, instructional leadership practise
is at a high level. The minimal scores for schools in bands 1, 2, 3, and 4 are,
correspondingly, 4.37, 4.23, 4.23, and 4.05. According to Pearson correlation analysis,
there is a slightly significant negative relationship (r = -0.210) between the performance
of the schools and the instructional leadership strategies used by the headmasters.

As a result, researchers draw the conclusion that headmasters of primary schools

engage in a professional rate of instructional leadership activities, which are moderately
correlated with student accomplishment.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY

The headmasters' instructional leadership, which had three components—defining

school goals, overseeing instructional programmes, and fostering a supportive learning
environment—was the independent variable in this study. The practise of headmaster
leadership in defining goals, communicating those goals, monitoring and assessing
instructors' instruction, organising curriculum, tracking student development, and
controlling class size are separated into 10 parts of instructional leadership.

Progress accomplished by students, the keeping of high quality in educational

programmes, the creation of incentives for teachers, the promotion of professional
growth, and the provision of incentives for students. When this independent variable is
changed, the standard deviation instance, success in band class—is also changed. The
school band achievement is the dependent variable in this study, while the independent
variable is the instructional leadership strategies used by headmasters to influence UPSR
exam results.

Three aspects make up the dimension of managing an educational programme:

coordinating the curriculum, supervising and evaluating teachers, and tracking student
development. Controlling instructors' teaching time, preserving visibility, offering teacher
incentives, promoting professional development, and offering student learning incentives
are the five subdimensions included under the dimension of fostering a positive learning
climate.

The researcher firmly believed that a study was required in order to understand
what are the sources of the problem. The leadership of the school is effective if the
scenario or problem continues, and it is also feared that this could ultimately damage the
school's performance. As a result, investigation into the leadership model is required as a
substitute strategy to raise student performance.

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DISCUSSION IN THE STUDY

The Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS), a questionnaire

tool created by Hallinger (2000), categorises principals' instructional leadership into three
aspects. Goals for the school, managing the instructional programme, and fostering a
supportive learning environment make up these three components. Senior assistant
teachers of administration, student affairs, and co-curriculum made up the study's sample.
The researcher discovered 222 senior assistant teachers working in Tuaran District's 74
primary schools.

Therefore, using the calculation of sample size at the significance level of p 0.05
and the sample being chosen randomly for the purpose, Krejcie and Morgan's formula
from 1970 states that just 141 people were chosen as the sample and respondents. A total
of 51 out of 57 questionnaires were received from band 2 schools, band 3 schools and
band 4 schools. Of the 45 sets of questionnaires issued to band 1 schools, 42 sets were
returned. The technique and procedure for gathering samples are continued until there are
enough responses.

Additionally, analysis reveals that several aspects have high means, indicating
that instructional leadership has received significant weight. Fostering professional
development is one of the most common instructional leadership components, with a
mean of 4.44 and a standard deviation of 0.586. Formulating school goals is next, with a
mean of 4.42 and a measure of the spread of 0.589, and communicating with school goals
is third, with a mean of 4.40 and a standard deviation of 0.631.

The study's findings also show that some components have a moderate mean,
indicating that headmasters place less attention on those components. Providing
incentives for teachers, with a mean of 3.91 and a standard deviation of 0.816, protecting
instructional time, with a mean of 4.0 and a standard deviation of 0.735, and maintaining
visibility in all school programmes, with a mean of 4.08 and a standard deviation of
0.744, are among the three less popular aspects of instructional leadership.
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 The discussion findings also show that some components have a moderate mean,
indicating that headmasters place less attention on those components. Providing
incentives for teachers, with a mean of 3.91 and a standard deviation of 0.816, protecting
instructional time, with a mean of 4.0 and a standard deviation of 0.735, and maintaining
visibility in all school programmes, with a mean of 4.08 and a standard deviation of
0.744, are among the three less popular aspects of instructional leadership.

THE KEY RESULTS OF THE STUDY

In reality, the researcher found variations in the quality of instructional leadership

techniques depending on the performance of bands or schools. Since band is used to
gauge school performance, it is obvious that high-performing schools also employ
instructional leadership approaches at a high level. Defining the school's mission is the
most common type of instructional leadership conducted by headmasters. This is
followed by administering instructional programmes and, finally, fostering a supportive
learning environment.

Indeed, the ability of the headmaster to prepare or define the vision and mission
of their schools, then disseminate it broadly to the entire school community, and in turn,
it will support and build a climate of shared goals, is a key aspect of good instructional
leadership. Since the efficiency of schools in terms of academic accomplishment depends
on the quality of teaching and learning in the classroom, the focus of the schools'
leadership should be on two crucial factors: optimising teaching time and placing an
emphasis on academics.

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PERSONAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE ARTICLE

The researcher came to the conclusion that primary school headmasters in Tuaran
District, Sabah, exhibit a high level of instructional leadership practises. They have
carried out their responsibilities as instructional leaders in keeping with the goals set forth
in the PPPM by the MoE, which places high-performing leaders in the service of
educational excellence. The fact that the dimension of defining schools' goals gets the
highest score, which indicates that many headmasters give it significant emphasis, is the
second. The priorities for managing teaching programmes and fostering a supportive
learning environment are in second and third place, respectively.

Lastly, compared to headmasters in Band 2 and 3 schools, the study indicated that
headmasters in Band 1 schools have higher levels of instructional leadership practises.
Each school's excellence is influenced by a variety of factors. Among them, the
leadership element is merely one. The excellence of schools is also influenced by factors
such as geography, socioeconomic position of the parents, and the local environment.
Overall, it was discovered that headmasters should prioritise all three of the previously
described characteristics of instructional leadership, including setting the goals of their
specific schools, administering instructional programmes, and fostering a pleasant
learning environment.

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PART 2 : IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW REPORT

THE PROFILE OF TWO KEY INFORMANTS

In this second task, I have conducted in-depth interview with two senior teachers
from two different schools. This interview was carried out to examine the teachers’
perceptions of their school principal’s leadership qualities. The first informant is Mr Aziz
bin Kiram, 49 years old and he is married. He has completed Bachelor of Syariah (Hons)
from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi and Diploma in Islamic Studies
with Education from local Institute of Teacher Education (IPG). He has been teaching for
more than 27 years in Islamic Studies field and currently teaching in Sekolah Kebangsaan
(SK) Batang Pinang and also responsible as Administrative and Curriculum Senior
Assistant inside the school.

My second informant for this interview is Mr Akmal bin Mohd. He is 35 years old
and married. He finished his Bachelor’s Degree in Islamic Studies (Al-Quran and As-
Sunnah) from Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) before further his study in
Postgraduate Diploma in Education from local Institute of Teacher Education (IPG). He
has been teaching for 7 years in Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Padang Luas in Islamic
Education field as well. These two informants were given set of questions during the
interview session and the information has been recorded.

ANALYSE DESCRIPTIVELY AND NARRATIVELY THE IN-DEPTH

INTERVIEWS

Instructional leadership is the conduct of principals or headmasters who formally

interact with teachers in order to increase their stature and competence in the classroom.
Instructional leadership entails performing the following duties in the capacity of a
principal or headmaster; (a) planning, organising, directing, and developing curriculum
and instruction; (b) interacting and communicating with teachers to enhance the quality
of teaching and learning; (c) focusing on the improvement of student learning outcomes;
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and (d) acting as a change agent who fosters a supportive environment and sets high
standards.

This in-depth interview is carried out to analyse the conduct of principal’s

leadership qualities which revolve around these themes namely; (1) accountability, (2)
communication, (3) decision-making, and (4) time-management. A questionnaire
instrument is used to help gaining the data during the interview session. The
questionnaire provided consists of 10 main parts with total 50 questions altogether which
the parts include; frame the school goals, communicate the school goals, evaluate and
supervise the instructions, coordinate the curriculum, monitor student progress, protect
instructional time, maintain high visibility, provide incentives for teachers, promote
professional development and lastly provide incentives for learning.

In terms of accountability of the principal, the first informant agreed that his
school principal has a good framework of the school goals. He stated that the principal
has developed a focused set of annual school goals. By doing so, teachers and staffs are
clear enough with their own responsibilities to accomplish the mission and goals
throughout the year. The principal also frequently does assessment to ensure staffs and
teachers are keeping track on the goal development. Mentioning about accountability of
the school principal, the second informant also reviewed almost the same score as the
first informant but differently, he added that in developing the goals, his school principal
is using easily-understood framework for the teachers and staffs to practice in the school.
It gives them clearer vision on the school goals itself.

Additionally, the accountability of principal can also be seen through the

coordination of the school curriculum activities, supervision and also the evaluation. This
is one of the main pulses in determining the school effectiveness. Both informants claim
that their principal has encouraged good coordination of the school curriculum. They
make clear who is responsible for coordinating the curriculum across grade levels for
example; the principal, vice principal, senior assistants and teachers/ leaders. Even
though, they are not involved in the teaching and learning process inside the classroom,
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but still they participate actively in the review of curricular matters. That answers why
both informants rated high score in terms of accountability of their principals’ leadership.

Apart from that, another theme to be discussed is about communication. Excellent

communication with teachers utilising a number of channels is a must for principals or
headmasters to provide a successful instructional leadership. This behaviour of principals
or headmaster who formally communicate with teachers and staffs help in enhancing the
credibility and capacity of teachers in the classroom. The first informant, Mr Aziz stated
that his principal applied a good communication in delivering the school mission
effectively to members of the school community. Mr Akmal on the other hand, give
slightly lower score in terms of communication. He suggested that his school principal
should organize frequent meeting with staffs discussing about the school goals and make
it reflected in highly visible displays.

Besides, both informants agreed that communication is also believed could foster
the improvement of teacher’s skills and professionalism. Through good communicating
platform, principal or headmaster can point out specific strengths or weaknesses in
teacher’s instructional practices. From there, they are able to find solution and harmonize
any issues that arise, at the same time keeping the school’s credibility to perform well.
Lack in interaction and communication between principal and teachers triggered harmful
learning climate and negative student learning outcomes, hence destroy the annual school
missions and goals that have been set.

The next highlighted theme in the interview regarding the principal’s leadership
quality is on decision-making. Most of transactions in school has to be decided and
received approval from their principal because apparently, they are the leaders of the
school who have the power in controlling school matters. Principal or headmasters have
the right to choose whether to conquer the decision-making action on their own or to
handle it with their respective teachers and members. Both informants, without hesitation
mention that a good principals’ leadership are those who are not ignorance towards their
team opinions. Principals should take into consideration whatever opinions stated from
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teachers and staffs. Both informants’ principals portray a collaborative decision-making
method in making certain crucial decision, meaning that every decision would not put
aside the teacher’s opinions, which hence resulted a harmony climate inside the school.

Mr Aziz, the first informant said, in certain situation for example with regard to
students learning outcomes, the progress of teaching and learning, the effectiveness of the
curricular activities, these are all aspects that involves teachers’ reviews. It is meaningless
if principals decided to run the decision-making on his personal views ignoring their team
behind. Mr Akmal added, apart from getting the best decision and outcomes through
meeting and discussion, this kind of decision-making – which considers teachers views
and opinions would allow a betterment in achieving the school goals directly or
indirectly. That is because the principal or headmaster does not oversee teaching and
learning in the classroom, so that they are still able to deliver good results. Schools
continue to perform well because principals and headmasters can affect the standard of
teaching and learning in the classroom through instructional leadership practises that
create a positive school climate and environment.

The last theme of informants’ perceptions towards their school principals’

leadership qualities is about time management. Annual goals are set based on a timeline,
which means there are time allocation for each goal to work efficiently and deliver good
result. Both informants, Mr Aziz and Mr Akmal strongly disagree if principal of a certain
school has bad time management and monitoring. School will miss the goals and lose the
game. Mr Akmal figured out that his school principal always practices good time-
management. He protects the instructional time during the curriculum session by limiting
interruptions for students. Mr Aziz mentioned that in his school, the principal is strict in
limiting the intrusion of extra-event and co-curricular activities on instructional time.

Mr Aziz also added, time management is not only limited to protecting

instructional time during teaching and learning process but also in monitoring practice.
This monitoring process is a crucial step in order to achieve the school’s goals based on
given timeline. Given the time constraint, problem arises that teachers failed to perform,
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so principal should take action to meet individually with teachers to discuss students’
progress and their academic performance. Inform teachers to improve their weaknesses if
any or promote their professional development such as training and other supportive
activities that would help in enhancing the students’ academic performance. Principal
should not just sit back and relax, waiting for the outcomes even he/she knew that it
would exceed the given timeline. That is why both informants agree that time-
management is an important aspect in principals’ leadership qualities.

ELABORATE ON KEY FINDINGS AND DRAW A CONCLUSION

For the purpose of interview, two senior teachers were selected from two different
schools. It is believed that these two informants have a strong ability to judge the
leadership styles of headmasters in their individual schools. Their experience and a
lengthy history of employment in the education sector is very helpful in this interview.

In terms of accountability, we see that principals’ instructional leadership is

discussed based on; (1) identify and set framework of the school goals and (2) coordinate,
supervise and evaluate the school curriculum. From the information collected, the level of
instructional leadership practices for the dimension of identifying and setting school
goals framework was strong. This demonstrates significantly that high standards exist for
leadership techniques in these two schools were practiced. The two components of
instructional leadership in this dimension, namely developing school goals and
communicating school goals had been set and follow respectively.

Communication is another major element that is related to principal’s leadership

qualities. This aspect is closely related to the process of communicating the school goals
and monitoring the learning progress. These two dimensions are the key determinants to
schools' achievement. Both schools show average principals’ leadership qualities in the
implementation of good communication which need to be improved in order to foster the
school achievement.

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 The third item to be identified and discussed in the interview is the practice of
decision-making. The school achievement record is also influenced by this aspect in
which the positive decision-making environment gives effect to positive school
achievement. Both the informants’ schools show good score in the dimension of
decision-making hence it influences the good climate and environment for each school.
The results demonstrate these schools actually practice instructional leadership more
frequently than low-performing schools.

Besides that, the interview conducted show analysis that leadership quality of the
principal in terms of time-management also positively related to the results of their
school. In other words, an effective or ineffective in time management has increased or
decreased on the performance of the school band respectively. Both schools show the
impact of positive time management in protecting the instructional time affects the
positive result to the school band and it can be improved by time for the school
enhancement.

In conclusion, based on this findings and analysis, it was discovered that the
dimension of establish school goals framework is the most prevalent one of instructional
leadership performed by headmasters. These four elements and aspects; accountability,
communication, decision-making and time management of principal’s leadership
qualities have positive impact in the achievement of school band.

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PART 3 - ONLINE CLASS PARTICIPATION

POST 1

POST 2

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POST 3

POST 4

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POST 5

POST 6

(3097 words)

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 APPENDICES

REFERENCES

James Ang Jit Eng, & Balasandran Ramiah. (2011). Instructional leadership: A practical
guide. PTS
Professional Publishing.
Mohd. Suhaimi Mohamed Ali. (2004). Instructional leadership practices of rural
secondary school principlas.
Thesis Doctor of Philosophy. University Putra Malaysia.
Mohd. Yusuff Mohd Nor, & Sufean Hussin. (2013). Educational democracy: The
dilemma of small and
centralised schools. Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Publishers.
Hallinger, P. (2011). Leadership for learning: lessons from 40 years of empirical
research. Journal of Educational
Administration, 49(2), 125-142. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578231111116699
Hussein Mahmood. (2008). School effectiveness leadership (2nd ed.). Kuala Lumpur:
Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Jamelaa Bibi Abdullah. (2012). Instructional leadership practices and attitudes towards
change among secondary
school principals in Pahang state. PhD Dissertation. National University of Malaysia.

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