The Great Challenge of Malaysian School Leaders' Instructional Leadership: Can It Affect Teachers' Functional Competency across 21&lt;sup&gt;st&lt;/sup&gt; Century Education?

Siti Noor Ismail,Mohd Norakmar Omar,Arumugam Raman,Shamsuddin Muhammad

doi:10.13189/ujer.2020.080627

Abstract

Competency is the basis for the combination of teachers' skills, knowledge, and behaviors that must strive to enhance their ability in the education world. Each component should be integrated holistically to support the teachers' effectiveness, administration, and school excellence. Therefore, this study focused on the relationship between school leaders' instructional leadership and teachers' functional competency. It also identified which factors in instructional leadership contributed to teachers' functional competency in Malaysia context. A total of 225 teachers from the high-performance school in the state of Kedah were selected as participants. Meanwhile, the instrument in this research was adapted from the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS) to measure school leaders' instructional leadership. In contrast, the instrument for teachers' functional competency was adapted from the Integrated Assessment Module for Education Officers (PBPPP) and developed by the MOE Curriculum Development Division. The findings showed that there was a very strong and positive relationship between school leaders' instructional leadership and teachers' functional competency (r=.956, p=.00). At the same time, multiple regression analysis revealed that there were three components of the independent variable explaining the variance as 15.1% of teachers' functional competency (r2=.151, F (2, 214)=80.74, p<0.01). Admittedly, the School Learning Climate Promoting component had the most significant impact on teachers' functional competency, followed by Managing the Curriculum and Teaching and ending with the Defining School Mission. In conclusion, the role of instructional leadership has proven to enhance the teachers' functional competency through the current stream of education, teaching, and learning processes. Sustainable leaders can influence teachers towards improving school excellence together to face the 21st century educational challenges.

Highlights

Education is not an easy concept because it requires careful planning
As this study examined instructional leadership, selected participants were asked to give their views based on their perception of their school leaders
Pearson correlation analysis was a test performed to determine the relationship between the two study variables. This analysis served to identify the strengths of school leaders' instructional leadership and teachers' functional competency

Summary

Introduction

Does the education system operate as an agent of knowledge, but it plays a more significant role in developing a nation that can compete internationally [1]. To improve the quality of education in Malaysia, the Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE) has taken one step further by introducing the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025. This situation is a need to strengthen and make improvements to the previous education system plan, which is the Education Development Plan 2001-2010. MOE's priority is to increase teachers' efficiency, competency, and integrity in the areas of education management and administration [2], [3]. There is no denying that education is the foundation for the formation of knowledgeable people who have inherited it for generations

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