Binary Logistic Regression Analysis of Instructional Leadership Factors Affecting English Language Literacy in Primary Schools

Jarrod Sio,Ramlee Ismail

doi:10.17576/3l-2019-2502-02

Abstract

This paper discusses the factors contributing to student achievement in English language literacy in primary schools within Sibu division, Sarawak, Malaysia. The study involved 694 teachers who taught in 105 lower primary schools. Binary logistic regression was applied to predict the instructional leadership’s influence on student achievement in literacy. The findings revealed that one dimension of instructional leadership - supervising and evaluating instruction - emerged as strong predictors of literacy. The result indicated that schools were more than 17 times more likely to achieve 100% literacy rate when the instruction processes were supervised and evaluated by the headmasters . Supervision and evaluation of instruction had a positive influence on students’ achievement for English language literacy, hence making this a possible course of action for school heads. More comprehensive studies are needed to ascertain its consistency as well as investigating other predictors for literacy. Keywords: Instructional leadership; literacy; binary logistic regression; LINUS2.0

Highlights

Basic literacy in the English language is seen as a necessity to drive Malaysia’s needs for a highly-skilled, creative and innovative workforce in an increasingly competitive 21st century global economic milieu
This study investigated the possible effects of instructional leadership on student achievement
The dimension of instructional leadership - supervising and evaluating instruction emerged as a strong predictor for 100% literacy rate in primary schools

Summary

Introduction

Basic literacy in the English language is seen as a necessity to drive Malaysia’s needs for a highly-skilled, creative and innovative workforce in an increasingly competitive 21st century global economic milieu. There had been investigations into pedagogical aspects of instructional leadership practices, few studies have made formal inquiry into instructional leadership as a predictor for basic English language literacy, especially in Sarawak. This study aims to contribute to the growing corpus of Malaysian instructional leadership literature, in light of the shortage of empirical studies of instructional leadership in non-Western cultural and social contexts (Qian, Walker & Li 2017). This is in line with Harris, Jones, Adams and Cheah’s (2018) recommendation for more empirical enquiries into instructional leadership practices within Malaysia. There is a need for more local studies to look into the research gap where studies related to the English language have only focused on secondary school and

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