Teacher Leadership and Classroom Management Practice on Special Education with Learning Disability

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between teacher leadership and classroom management practice on special education with learning disability. There are six dimensions under teacher leadership practice namely creating energy in the classroom, building capacity, securing environment, extending the vision, meeting and minimizing crisis, and seeking and charting improvement. This study utilized quantitative method survey design by using questionnaire as research instrument to obtain data. This sample comprised of a total of 179 special education teachers including elementary and secondary schools in Penang state of Malaysia. The results showed that teacher leadership (mean score = 4.08, SD = 0.50) and classroom management practice (mean score = 4.22, SD = 0.44) were practised very frequently. Furthermore, Pearson correlation analysis indicated that all the six dimensions of teacher leadership, namely meeting and minimizing crisis dimension (r = 0.731, p<.01), seeking and charting improvement dimension (r = 0.726, p<.01), extending the vision dimension (r = 0.697, p<.01), securing environment dimension (0.647, p<.01), building capacity dimension (r = 0.535, p<.01) and creating energy in the classroom dimension (r = 0.531, p<.01) are significantly and positively associated with classroom management practice. Findings also revealed that meeting and minimizing crisis dimension, seeking and charting improvement dimension, creating energy in the classroom dimension, and extending the vision dimension are significant predictors which contributing 53.2 percent, 8.6 percent, 3.9 percent and 3.2 percent of variance on classroom management practice respectively. In conclusion, teacher leadership practice must be adapted to special education teachers in order to create quality and effective classroom management practice.