School principals’ leadership behaviors vis-à-vis teachers’ instructional practices

Abstract

This article focuses on school principals as leaders tasked with significant roles in attaining quality instruction. It is a descriptive study designed to investigate their instructional and technology leadership behaviors being related to teachers’ instructional practices, namely: reflective thinking, development of learners’ 21st Century Skills, and utilization of pedagogical approaches. The 420 respondents comprised 60 school principals and 360 teachers selected through multi-stage cluster sampling among public elementary schools, Department of Education, Schools Division of Iloilo. Results of the survey revealed that school principals’ self-perception of their leadership behaviors and as perceived by their teachers were “highly practiced.” Moreover, teachers have “highly practiced” reflective thinking, the development of learners’ 21st Century Skills, and the utilization of pedagogical approaches. Also, no significant relationship existed between the school principals’ instructional leadership behaviors and the teachers’ instructional practices. Furthermore, no significant relationship existed between the school principals’ technology leadership behaviors and the teachers’ reflective thinking. Meanwhile, a positive and significant relationship existed between the school principals’ technology leadership behaviors and the teachers’ development of learners’ 21st Century Skills and utilization of pedagogical approaches. Consequently, it appears that the school principals are performing their instructional and technology leadership functions very well. Additionally, the results suggest that as reflective practitioners, teachers: (1) constantly review their teaching practices for effective instruction; (2) are well-versed in equipping students with 21st Century Skills; and (3) are knowledgeable of the various pedagogical approaches that fit 21st century learners’ development and learning stages.