External relations management of Malaysia principals

The concept of school management has been extensively studied, however only a few focused on the external relations management. Due to the statement in Malaysian Education Development Blueprint 2013-2025 that school managers are required to build a good collaboration with communities, this study aims to identify principals’ competency in managing external relations by measuring their knowledge and skills in those areas. This survey study involved 314 principals, 720 senior assistants, and 611 senior teachers all over Malaysia. The quantitative data were collected through questionnaire and were analyzed by SPSS to determine mean score and standard deviation. Finding shows that, in overall principals’ knowledge and skills are at a high level with the mean score 4.27 and 4.40 respectively. Principals’ knowledge on external sources that can benefit schools achieves the lowest (mean score 4.23), followed by knowledge on concept of cooperation between school and school/home/community (mean score 4.25), and knowledge on strategy to improve relationship between school and community (mean score 4.25). The lowest mean score for skills is influencing outsiders to contribute to the school fund (4.23), followed by handling criticism in a positive way (mean score 4.37), and showing appreciation to the communities’ involvement in school activities (mean score 4.37). This study concludes that principals’ competency can be at the best level if knowledge and skill in those aspects can be increased

Prácticas de directores en gestión co-curricular

Principal’s disability in managing co-curricular activities effectively and efficiently can affect student achievement. Nowadays it will also affect students’ application to further study at a higher level since it has become a compulsory requirement for the application to be approved. Co-curricular activities management is also often being handed over to the senior assistant, whereas as a school manager, the principal should be able to do their best in managing it. Hence, this qualitative study is conducted with the aim of exploring principals’ practices in managing co-curricular activities. The instrument is interview protocol. The total number of respondents are 7 principals, 4 senior assistants, and 3 senior teachers, from 7 schools selected for the study. The qualitative data from interviews is manually analyzed to obtain an explanation of the principals’ practices in managing co-curricular activities. Overall, this study found that principals did the best practices in terms of management, however, in certain areas such as limited school compound, inadequate equipment, and physical facilities, and unskilled teachers to train students, principals need to find a better strategy. Therefore, principals are encouraged to practice lifelong learning to ensure that their practices in co-curricular are at their best consistently.La discapacidad del director en la gestión efectiva y eficiente de las actividades co-curriculares puede afectar el rendimiento de los estudiantes. Hoy en día también afectará la solicitud de los estudiantes para seguir estudiando en un nivel superior, ya que se ha convertido en un requisito obligatorio para que la solicitud sea aprobada. La gestión de actividades co-curriculares a menudo también se entrega al asistente principal, mientras que, como gerente de la escuela, el director debe ser capaz de hacer lo mejor en su gestión. Por lo tanto, este estudio cualitativo se realiza con el objetivo de explorar las prácticas de los directores en la gestión de actividades co-curriculares. El instrumento es el protocolo de entrevista. El número total de encuestados son 7 directores, 4 asistentes superiores y 3 maestros principales, de 7 escuelas seleccionadas para el estudio. Los datos cualitativos de las entrevistas se analizan manualmente para obtener una explicación de las prácticas de los directores en la gestión de actividades co-curriculares. En general, este estudio encontró que los directores hicieron las mejores prácticas en términos de gestión, sin embargo, en ciertas áreas, como un complejo escolar limitado, equipos e instalaciones físicas inadecuados y maestros no calificados para capacitar a los estudiantes, los directores deben encontrar una mejor estrategia. Por lo tanto, se alienta a los directores a practicar el aprendizaje a lo largo de toda la vida para asegurarse de que sus prácticas en co-curricular estén en su mejor momento de manera consistente

Prácticas de directores en gestión co-curricular

Principal’s disability in managing co-curricular activities effectively and efficiently can affect student achievement. Nowadays it will also affect students’ application to further study at a higher level since it has become a compulsory requirement for the application to be approved. Co-curricular activities management is also often being handed over to the senior assistant, whereas as a school manager, the principal should be able to do their best in managing it. Hence, this qualitative study is conducted with the aim of exploring principals’ practices in managing co-curricular activities. The instrument is interview protocol. The total number of respondents are 7 principals, 4 senior assistants, and 3 senior teachers, from 7 schools selected for the study. The qualitative data from interviews is manually analyzed to obtain an explanation of the principals’ practices in managing co-curricular activities. Overall, this study found that principals did the best practices in terms of management, however, in certain areas such as limited school compound, inadequate equipment, and physical facilities, and unskilled teachers to train students, principals need to find a better strategy. Therefore, principals are encouraged to practice lifelong learning to ensure that their practices in co-curricular are at their best consistently.La discapacidad del director en la gestión efectiva y eficiente de las actividades co-curriculares puede afectar el rendimiento de los estudiantes. Hoy en día también afectará la solicitud de los estudiantes para seguir estudiando en un nivel superior, ya que se ha convertido en un requisito obligatorio para que la solicitud sea aprobada. La gestión de actividades co-curriculares a menudo también se entrega al asistente principal, mientras que, como gerente de la escuela, el director debe ser capaz de hacer lo mejor en su gestión. Por lo tanto, este estudio cualitativo se realiza con el objetivo de explorar las prácticas de los directores en la gestión de actividades co-curriculares. El instrumento es el protocolo de entrevista. El número total de encuestados son 7 directores, 4 asistentes superiores y 3 maestros principales, de 7 escuelas seleccionadas para el estudio. Los datos cualitativos de las entrevistas se analizan manualmente para obtener una explicación de las prácticas de los directores en la gestión de actividades co-curriculares. En general, este estudio encontró que los directores hicieron las mejores prácticas en términos de gestión, sin embargo, en ciertas áreas, como un complejo escolar limitado, equipos e instalaciones físicas inadecuados y maestros no calificados para capacitar a los estudiantes, los directores deben encontrar una mejor estrategia. Por lo tanto, se alienta a los directores a practicar el aprendizaje a lo largo de toda la vida para asegurarse de que sus prácticas en co-curricular estén en su mejor momento de manera consistente

Prácticas de directores en gestión co-curricular

Principal’s disability in managing co-curricular activities effectively and efficiently can affect student achievement. Nowadays it will also affect students’ application to further study at a higher level since it has become a compulsory requirement for the application to be approved. Co-curricular activities management is also often being handed over to the senior assistant, whereas as a school manager, the principal should be able to do their best in managing it. Hence, this qualitative study is conducted with the aim of exploring principals’ practices in managing co-curricular activities. The instrument is interview protocol. The total number of respondents are 7 principals, 4 senior assistants, and 3 senior teachers, from 7 schools selected for the study. The qualitative data from interviews is manually analyzed to obtain an explanation of the principals’ practices in managing co-curricular activities. Overall, this study found that principals did the best practices in terms of management, however, in certain areas such as limited school compound, inadequate equipment, and physical facilities, and unskilled teachers to train students, principals need to find a better strategy. Therefore, principals are encouraged to practice lifelong learning to ensure that their practices in co-curricular are at their best consistently.La discapacidad del director en la gestión efectiva y eficiente de las actividades co-curriculares puede afectar el rendimiento de los estudiantes. Hoy en día también afectará la solicitud de los estudiantes para seguir estudiando en un nivel superior, ya que se ha convertido en un requisito obligatorio para que la solicitud sea aprobada. La gestión de actividades co-curriculares a menudo también se entrega al asistente principal, mientras que, como gerente de la escuela, el director debe ser capaz de hacer lo mejor en su gestión. Por lo tanto, este estudio cualitativo se realiza con el objetivo de explorar las prácticas de los directores en la gestión de actividades co-curriculares. El instrumento es el protocolo de entrevista. El número total de encuestados son 7 directores, 4 asistentes superiores y 3 maestros principales, de 7 escuelas seleccionadas para el estudio. Los datos cualitativos de las entrevistas se analizan manualmente para obtener una explicación de las prácticas de los directores en la gestión de actividades co-curriculares. En general, este estudio encontró que los directores hicieron las mejores prácticas en términos de gestión, sin embargo, en ciertas áreas, como un complejo escolar limitado, equipos e instalaciones físicas inadecuados y maestros no calificados para capacitar a los estudiantes, los directores deben encontrar una mejor estrategia. Por lo tanto, se alienta a los directores a practicar el aprendizaje a lo largo de toda la vida para asegurarse de que sus prácticas en co-curricular estén en su mejor momento de manera consistente

Prácticas genéricas académicas: nivel de integridad

Previous studies show that there are still issues of integrity among academics. Therefore, the focus of this study is to identify academics’ level of integrity in practicing their generic tasks. Based on the data collected via questionnaires, 164 academics evaluated themselves at a high level of integrity in their generic task with the mean score of 9.45 over 10.0. Academics also evaluated themselves as at a high level for all integrity values with the mean score of 9.41 to 9.54 that are for prudent, sincerity, accountability, credibility, self-discipline, and trustworthy. The implication is that, academics need no training to upgrade their integrity. However, from time to time, it is good to have a reminder of good deeds specially to ensure integrity becomes a culture among academics.Estudios previos muestran que todavía hay problemas de integridad entre los académicos. Por lo tanto, el objetivo de este estudio es identificar el nivel de integridad de los académicos al practicar sus tareas genéricas. Sobre la base de los datos recopilados a través de cuestionarios, 164 académicos se evaluaron a sí mismos con un alto nivel de integridad en su tarea genérica con un puntaje promedio de 9.45 sobre 10.0. Los académicos también se evaluaron a sí mismos como de alto nivel para todos los valores de integridad con un puntaje promedio de 9.41 a 9.54 que son prudentes, sinceridad, responsabilidad, credibilidad, autodisciplina y confianza. La implicación es que los académicos no necesitan capacitación para mejorar su integridad. Sin embargo, de vez en cuando, es bueno tener un recordatorio de las buenas acciones, especialmente para garantizar que la integridad se convierta en una cultura entre los académicos

The validity and reliability of professional learning community instruments in small schools peninsular Malaysia

A professional learning community (PLC) instrument was developed to determine the level of PLC practice in small schools in Peninsular Malaysia. This study was conducted in Perak and Negeri Sembilan to determine the instrument's reliability and validity. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and item reliability analysis were used to determine the questionnaire’s reliability and validity. Next, the average congruence percentage (ACP) is used to determine the reliability test between expert assessors. Experts approved the validity and reliability of the instrument before the EFA test was conducted. All five constructs have high-reliability index values between 0.86–0.95. Next, the EFA analysis shows five dimensions in the PLC instrument with factor loadings ranging from 0.61–0.84. The findings also show that the variance explained in the data is 68.99% with an Eigenvalue greater than 1. This result indicates that all items are received with high approval. In addition, a very high-reliability coefficient value, α=0.96. The results prove that this PLC instrument has high validity and reliability and can measure the level of PLC implementation practices in small schools in Peninsular Malaysia

Kepimpinan maya guru besar dan kesediaan guru terhadap perubahan di sekolah program TS25

Perkembangan teknologi semasa dan perubahan iklim kerja pasca pandemik Covid 19 menjadikan kepimpinan maya semakin relevan dan penting. Kajian ini bertujuan mengenal pasti tahap amalan kepimpinan maya guru besar, tahap kesediaan guru terhadap perubahan, menguji hubungan antara kedua-dua pemboleh ubah serta menentukan tahap kepimpinan maya dan kesediaan guru terhadap perubahan berdasarkan faktor demografi. Kajian tinjauan ini melibatkan 303 sampel guru daripada 1100 populasi. Analisis deskriptif yang memberikan nilai min, sisihan piawai, frekuensi dan peratus adalah untuk menentukan tahap pemboleh ubah manakala analisis inferensi melibatkan ujian korelasi Pearson, ujian t serta anova satu hala dibuat untuk menguji hubungan dan perbezaan antara pemboleh ubah. Dapatan menunjukkan tahap amalan kepimpinan maya guru besar (min = 3.97, sisihan piwai = 0.73) dan tahap kesediaan guru terhadap perubahan (min = 3.98, sisihan piawai = 0.60) adalah pada tahap yang tinggi. Dapatan juga menunjukkan terdapat hubungan positif yang kuat antara tahap amalan kepimpinan maya dengan tahap kesediaan guru terhadap perubahan (r = 0.65). Analisis juga menunjukkan tidak terdapat perbezaan yang signifikan tahap amalan kepimpinan maya guru besar berdasarkan faktor jantina tetapi terdapat perbezaan yang signifikan berdasarkan faktor umur. Seterusnya dapatan menunjukkan terdapat perbezaan yang signifikan dalam tahap kesediaan guru terhadap perubahan berdasarkan faktor jantina dan tempoh perkhidmatan. Antara implikasi kajian ialah latihan kepimpinan perlu mempunyai komponen kepimpinan maya, manakala untuk kajian akan datang dicadangkan agar kaedah kualitatif digunakan untuk memperjelaskan lagi faktor-faktor dalam kepimpinan maya yang boleh meningkatkan kesediaan guru untuk melakukan perubahan di samping melibatkan sampel yang lebih menyeluruh

The validity and reliability of culturally responsive leadership practice instruments in small schools peninsular Malaysia

A culturally responsive leadership instrument was developed to determine the level of culturally responsive leadership practice of headmasters in small schools in Peninsular Malaysia. This study was conducted in Perak and Negeri Sembilan to determine the instrument’s reliability and validity. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and item reliability analysis were used to determine the questionnaire’s reliability and validity. Next, the average congruence percentage (ACP) is used to determine the reliability test between expert assessors. Experts approved the validity and reliability of the instrument before the EFA test was conducted. All four constructs have high-reliability index values between 0.88–0.93. Next, the EFA analysis shows four dimensions in the culturally responsive leadership instrument with factor loadings ranging from 0.62–0.88. The findings also show that the variance explained in the data is 65.16% with an eigenvalue greater than 1. This result showed that all items are received with high approval. In addition, the reliability coefficient α=0.93 is very high. The results prove that this culturally responsive leadership instrument has high validity and reliability and can measure the level of culturally responsive leadership implementation practices in small schools in Peninsular Malaysia

Role of principal in promoting teachers unity: evaluation in Malaysian secondary schools

The inability of teachers to accept cultural, linguistic, and religious differences caused by racial differences can have a negative impact on unity. The literature suggests that principals can play a role in addressing this issue. Thus, the purpose of this study is to determine the principal’s role in promoting teachers’ unity and to determine the relationship between the principal’s role and teachers’ unity. This study is a survey design and a quantitative method was used to collect data from 578 teachers in a population of 236,748 teachers in secondary school. The data collected was analyzed descriptively to produce mean value and standard deviation, therefore the level of principals’ role in promoting unity and the level of teachers’ unity can be interpreted. Inference analysis by Pearson correlation was done to determine r-value, therefore the hypotheses on the relationship between the two variables were tested. Overall, principals’ role attained a high level in promoting unity with a mean score of 3.85, whereas the teachers’ unity level was also at a high level with a mean score of 4.37. The result also shows that there was a positive relationship between the two variables but at a weak level with r = 0.20. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge that principals’ role in promoting unity has had an impact on the teachers’ unity level. This finding also shows that the Malaysian Education System Aspiration focusing on promoting unity is relevant and should be continuously implemented. Apart from having theories implication, the findings bear positive input for principals’ training, and also provide input for the teaching fraternity to be more respectful towards each other’s differences, thereby avoiding racism and discrimination amongst them

Model, instruments, and unity index and their impact on the unity policy

The discussion on unity has never come to an end. To date, various actions have been taken to strengthen unity. Yet the direction of strengthening unity is still blurry whereas the measurement of unity in Malaysia remains a challenge. In 2014, the Education Planning and Research Division (EPRD), Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE) through Unity Level Measurement Survey led to the success of developing instruments to produce an index as well as in developing a Unity Model of Teachers and Student. The index can be interpreted to determine unity level of students and teachers. To date, KPM has succeeded in producing the unity index for 2014, 2016, and 2018. Besides sharing KPM’s achievements, this paper discussed on student unity index for 2014, 2016, and 2018 as well as the impact of the index on the unity initiative under the Malaysia Education Blueprint (PPPM) 2013-2025. The unity index and model are also referred by the other Divisions at MOE to streamline the Student Integration Plan for Unity, developing Guideline Book to Strengthen Unity through Islamic Education Subjects and Moral Education, developing Guidelines for Unity Practices in Schools, Conducting Yearly Unity Practice Inspections at Schools, and developing Unity Roadmap in Education. Various parties also refer to these models and instruments in conducting their studies on unity