A Comparative Study of Instructional Leadership Practices and Collective Decision Making in Public Secondary Schools in Morogoro Municipal, Tanzania (Published)
This study aims to provide an in-depth understanding of strategies for enhancing the implementation of instructional leadership practices for collective decision-making in Public Secondary Schools in Morogoro Municipality. This study adopted the Distributed Transformational leadership theories propounded by James Spillane and Bernard Bass. The study adopted a convergent research design under a mixed research approach. Probability and non-probability sampling techniques were employed to sample respondents in this study. The study collected data from five (5) Heads of Schools (HoSs) and fifty (50) Teachers using an interview guide and questionnaire. The study found that instructional leadership encompasses the actions and strategies undertaken by school leaders to promote effective teaching practices, curriculum development, and student achievement. Nevertheless, the study also found that instructional leadership is a critical factor influencing teaching quality and student achievement. There is limited understanding of how these practices manifest and interact with collective decision-making structures within school settings. The hypothesis test indicated no significant relationship between instructional leadership practices and collective decision-making in public secondary schools. This study concluded that school administrators should work on improving instructional leadership practices to enhance collective decision-making. The study also resolved that instructional leadership and collective decision-making jointly create an effective collaborative school environment that focuses on improving teaching and learning outcomes for all students. Therefore, the study recommended Ministry of Education to organize capacity-building programs for HoSs focusing on instructional leadership skills and effective decision-making.
Keywords: Instructional Leadership, Public Secondary Schools, collective decision making
Assessing Pre-primary Teachers’ Involvement in Decision Making in Tanzanian Public Pre-primary Schools: A Look of Implementation of Structured Play Activities in Longido and Monduli Districts (Published)
This study examines the extent to which school administrators involve pre-primary teachers in decision making related to implementation of structured play activities in Tanzanian government pre-primary schools where Longido and Monduli were used as study cases. Collegial Models of educational leadership and management developed by Tony Bush guided the study. The study adopted Convergent design of mixed methods approach. Sample of the study included 268 respondents where 34 were head teachers, 34 were academic teachers, 136 were internal school quality assurance team members, and 64 were pre-primary teachers who were obtained through stratification, purposive, and simple randomly respectively. Data were collected through structured questionnaire and semi-structured interview. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively and through inferential statistics while qualitative data were analysed thematically. Findings show that teachers’ involvement in school administrative decision making related to structured play activities is very low. Hypothesis testing shows existence of significant relationship between low level of teachers’ involvement in school administrative decision making and those teachers’ inadequate implementation of structured play activities in pre-primary classes. The study concludes that low level of implementing structured play activities by the pre-primary teachers is associated with low level of teachers’ involvement in school administrative decision making. The study recommends that administrators should involve pre-primary teachers in decision making so as to improve implementation of structured play activities.
Keywords: Instructional Leadership, decision making and structured play activities, instructional supervisor, school administrators
Correlation between Instructional Leadership and Students’ Academic Achievement in Public Secondary Schools in Baringo County, Kenya (Published)
The significance of instructional leadership as it relates to students academic performance has assumed greater importance in education today as stakeholders demand for greater accountability. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between instructional leadership and student achievement, considering the dismal academic performances of students in public secondary schools in Baringo County. The study adopted the cross sectional survey research design. The target population of the study was 1070 secondary school teachers from 122 public secondary schools. A sample size of 291 teachers was selected using stratified and simple random sampling techniques. Data was collected by use of questionnaire and Document analysis. Frequencies and percentages were used to summarize and describe data whereas the Spearman correlation analysis was used to establish relationship of the variables in the study.
Keywords: : Academic Performance, Instructional Leadership, Secondary Schools, Students, Teachers
Instructional Leadership In Higher Education: How Does It Work? (Published)
Instructional leadership is in a separate place from the other forms as it has a key role in the effective teaching and learning processes together with the changing social structure and idea. The roles of the faculty members in the higher education institutions are one of the important factors for the success within the institution. In this study it is aimed to determine the opinions related to the instructional leadership of the faculty members working in higher education institutions. Within the scope of the study, thirteen faculty members were interviewed. The data of the study was obtained through qualitative research method. In addition, the study was carried out with phenomenological method which is one of the qualitative research methods and in the study semi-structured interview technique was utilized. As a result of the study, it was understood that the faculty members’ opinions about the instructional leadership are based more generally on some ideas such as attributing importance on using visual materials and method variety in their courses, trying to participate in the national and international activities in order to obtain a professional development, keeping in touch with their colleagues for raising the students’ success level and being a role model for students through their behavior and attitudes.
Keywords: Faculty members, Higher Education, Instructional Leadership
Time Flies: A Statement that Best Applies to School Principals (Published)
The purpose of this study was to investigate how do principals of a sample of private schools (N= 60) utilize and manage their time on daily-basis. A survey consisting of three sections attempted to collect data pertaining to demographic characteristics of participants, how they spend time on organizational/management tasks versus time expenditure on instructional tasks. SPSS 18.0 was used to analyze data. Results indicate that principals lacked basic time management skills and that the time they spent on organizational/management was far more than that they consumed on instructional tasks. Implications and recommendations are provided at the end of the stud
Keywords: Instructional Leadership, Principals, School Management, Time Management