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Teacher Perceptions Of Professional Learning Community And The School

Structures/Teacher Leadership Of BED Teachers

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A Research Paper

Presented to the Faculty of Senior High School

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In Partial Fulfilment

Of the Requirements for the Subject

Research Project

APP2

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Nakila, John Bricks

Aranjuez, Mac Kelvin

Fajardo, Christian

Ali, Johaifa

Lopez, EJ

2021
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CHAPTER

1 INTRODUCTION

Rationale

Research Objective

Hypothesis

Review of Related Literature

Theoretical Framework

Conceptual Framework

Significance of the Study

Definition of Terms
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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Rationale

According to Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1999), “the concept of teacher research

carries with it an enlarged view of the teacher’s role—as decision maker, consultant,

curriculum developer, analyst, activist, school leader”. Central to the notion of teacher

research as teacher leadership is the issue of influence. Its advocates argue that

teacher research can “challenge the hegemony of a university-generated knowledge

base for teaching” (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999a, p. 282). As a source of “learning

through doing” it can influence individual teachers’ classroom practices. Moreover,

because of its local nature and its close relationship to practice, teacher research may

be a potentially powerful source of influence in efforts to improve schools (Cochran-

Smith & Lytle, 1999a).

According to Smylie (1997), despite their tendency to focus on Non-curricular

and non-instructional matters, teacher leaders generally found that these roles provided

new opportunities for professional learning and development. These roles were also

associated with the development and adoption of innovations at the school and district

levels, but they did little to promote the implementation of these innovations, particularly

innovations aimed at promoting other teachers’ professional development, improving

classroom instruction, and increasing student learning. Overall, the research indicates

that these teacher leadership initiatives did little to support school-level improvement.
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According to Toole and Louis (2002, p. 274) are correct in their conclusion that

the research findings are clear, “professional learning communities can generally lead to

improved school functioning in most settings,” then harnessing their potential utility

comes from understanding the complexity of professional learning communities from

principals’ perspectives. A school developing a professional learning community is

influenced by principal leadership. Since a great deal of legal responsibility, including

that of teacher evaluation, can reside with the principal, principal leadership can be

regarded as a critical force in a school’s capacity to influence educational outcomes for

all students.

Teacher leadership can be quite challenging as there are overlapping and

competing ideas of what it constitutes, educational scholars (Nafisi, 2002; Ghahremani,

2004; Senjeri, 2005) believe that the education system in Iran is administered in such a

centralized manner that schools have no independence to manage and direct their

affairs.
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Research Objectives

The purpose of this study is to determine the significant relationship between

teacher perceptions of professional learning community and the school

structures/teacher leadership of BED Teachers Specifically, this study has the following

objectives:

1. To assess the level of teacher perceptions of professional learning community in

terms of:

1.1 Historical research

1.2 Public database

1.3 Freedom of Information

2. To ascertain the level of school structures/teacher leadership in terms of:

2.1 Role Clarity

2.2 Physical Structure of the Building (classrooms, hallways, etc.)

2.3 Organizational Structure of the Building (schedules, teams, policies, etc.)

2.4 Effectiveness of Teacher Leader

3. To determine the significant relationship between teacher perceptions of

professional learning community and the school structures/teacher leadership of

BED Teachers.

Hypothesis
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The hypothesis will be tested at 0.05 level of significance:

Ho1 : There is no significant relationship between teacher perceptions of professional

learning community and School Structures/Teacher Leadership.

Review Of Related Literature

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In this topic we will discuss about what’s related to the idependent variable and

dependent variable,(Crow et al., 2002; Toole & Louis, 2002). Toole and Louis (2002)

suggest that 2 cross-cultural research findings indicate that professional learning

communities lead to improved school functioning. The school

structures/teacher leadership has four indicators, Role Clarity, Physical Structure of the

Building, Organizational Structure of the Building, and Effectiveness of Teacher Leader.

The teacher perceptions of professional learning community has a context, process,

and content.

Teacher Perceptions Of Professional Learning Community

Research recommends proficient improvement for teachers is fundamental for

the ongoing need to memorize and change proficient practice (Guskey, 2014). (Olivier &

Huffman, 2016) composed that “the professional learning community

conceptual demonstrate is organized around five dimensions: shared

and strong authority, shared values and vision, collaborative learning and application,

shared individual hone, and strong conditions”. The PLC defined as: “a school

organization in which a group of teachers share and question their practice from a

critical point of view. This questioning happens in an ongoing, reflective, collaborative,

and inclusive way” by (De Neve, Devos, & Tuytens 2015).

Several studies have more explicitly explored teacher collaboration and/or

professional learning communities and efficacy (Goddard et al., 2015). (Gray &

Summers 2015) conducted a quantitative study exploring PLCs, school structures, trust,

and teacher collective efficacy. Based on their analysis of survey data from 193

teachers in international schools using an American curriculum in Central and South

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America, they found that the more established the school enabling structures, trust in

principal, and collective efficacy, the more likely schools developed PLCs. (Lopez-

Flores 2014) recognized four changes that PLCs can make on the guidelines climate of

a school: (1) professional learning, (2) improved teaching strategies/methods, (3) higher

level of student achievement, and (4) improved interventions for students (Abstract).

“Through the analysis of interviews and a review of documents collected from

Professional Learning Communities (PLC) meetings in grades Pre-K through 8, the

investigator was able to extract meaning and code the data into categories that led to an

understanding of the perceptions being researched” (Golden 2017).. The teachers also

suggested that the professional learning communities they had developed through

Twitter had helped them to improve their teaching practices (Carpenter & Krutka, 2016)

Carpenter and Krutka (2014, 2015) surveyed 494 educators about their use of

Twitter for professional purposes and found that they used Twitter to chat, to network, to

collaborate with others, to communicate with parents and students, and to share

resources. Using Twitter helped the teachers to combat a sense isolation, to get

connected with others who shared similar philosophies and interests, and to learn from

a diversity of opinions and perspectives.

In scholastic literature, these groups or systems are as often as possibly depicted as

‘communities’ e signifying a common sense of a bunch of individuals who lock-in in a

joint venture. The past thirty years has seen the growing prevalence of such

communities e including formally organized ‘teacher networks’ instigated as part of

official (government) initiatives, in-school ‘member-oriented communities’ with pre-set

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agendas, as well as ‘formative communities’ with no pre-set goals” (Vangrieken,

Meredith, Packer, & Kyndt, 2017)

School Structures/Teacher Leadership

Some schools are having a hard time getting used to flexible learning especially

or those teachers that are not so used in using technologies, But according to Wasley,

Teachers Who Lead, (1991) “The ability to encourage colleagues to change, to do

things they wouldn’t ordinarily consider without the influence of the leader”. As a person

that got a high position it’s their responsibility to help their colleagues to make them feel

comfortable and enthusiastic, without the leaders' guidance it’s colleagues will get left

behind and improve nothing.

For the last three decades, the sheer volume of literature on the subject is

confirmation of its ubiquity and its veracity in the confront of some solid resistance.

There are also some suggested the popularity of leadership it is said by Alvesson and

Sveningsson (2003, p. 377) argue: “it seems very difficult to identify any specific

relationship, behavioral styles or an integrated coherent set of actions that correspond

to or meaningfully can be constructed as leadership as important or intended.”

Teacher leadership is “the process by which teachers, individually or collectively,

influence their colleagues, principals, and other members of school communities to

improve teaching and learning practices with the aim of increased student learning and

achievement” (York-Barr & Duke, 2004, p. 288). ”teachers who seek to accomplish the

goal of school improvement not only by continuing teaching students, but also through
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influencing others within their schools and elsewhere.” (Danielson, 2006; Wenner &

Campbell, 2017).

York-Barr and Duke (2004) took an integrative approach towards the concept of

teacher leadership. They developed a “theory of action for teacher leadership” (p. 289),

by identifying the concepts’ antecedents and outcomes within one conceptual model.

This framework is valuable, as it serves as guideline for present and future research.

Role Clarity. Role clarity is the process of defining the scope and goals of our

relationships with students, and then maintaining boundaries that allow us to focus on

that scope (Venet, 2019). The transformational style of leadership energizes

subordinates and inspires them to work for the responsive achievement of

organizational goals (Pahi, Ahmed, et al., 2020). A significant viewpoint of trauma-

informed work is giving a caring, safe environment that supports all understudies, in any

case of our information around each student’s history. This is not uncommon trauma

which disrupts healthy attachment to caregivers can cause youth to “bond too easily

with anyone who shows a passing interest in them” (Craig 2017, 59). “Coaching

contains of communicative interaction between two or more people with the aim of

unlocking the individuals’ potential to maximize their own performance.” (Whitmore,

2002). “Coaching is not a unified approach or method, rather it is a collection of various

practices, approaches, and perspectives.” (Bachkirova, Spence, & Drake, 2017; Palmer

& (Whybrow, 2007)

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Effectiveness of Teacher Leader. According to (Bellibaş,Gümüş, Kılınç, 2019 )

“teacher leadership has attracted scholarly interest over the past decade because of its

potential to build internal capacity for sustainable school improvement. However, the

existing studies have mostly been descriptive and limited to qualitative studies, lacking

in terms of showing whether and to what extent principal leadership might influence

teacher leadership ".The conditions which facilitate or limit teacher leadership practices

have also been discussed in the literature. Based mostly on qualitative research, the

literature suggests that contextual factors, specifically school administration, can play an

important role in fostering teacher leadership in schools (Nguyen, Harris, & Ng, 2019).

Organizational Structure of the building. The Management Tools and trends

2015, a research conducted by Bain & Company consultants, once again demonstrates

that the strategic planning process is one of the most used management tools and has

one of the highest rates of satisfaction in relation to other tools (RIGBY; BILODEAU,

2015). In any case, like several organizational device,

the key arranging handle has gotten a parcel of feedback over time, among them is the

trouble in executing procedures due to

the division between definition and usage of procedure
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Theoritical Framework

This study was anchored on the "Social-cognitive theory" that focuses on

learning by observing others is that the focus of Study. The social-cognitive theory is

grounded by several basic assumptions. One is that individuals can learn by observing

others and will acquire new behaviors and knowledge by simply observing a model. A

model demonstrates behavior for somebody else. (Albert Bandura 1986) inline with this,

teachers may become a good model for the learners and improve themselves in

teaching the students which is important.

This study is supported by the theory "Transformational leadership" which is a

relatively new approach to leadership that focuses on how leaders can create valuable

and positive change in their followers and leaders works with teams or followers beyond

their immediate self-interests to spot needed change (James MacGregor Burns 1978).

Inline With this, the educators must be working with the scholars and become good

leaders for the learners which are necessary for the sake of the scholar's learning

experience and will elaborate a decent relationship with the scholars.

The two studies have parallel insights wherein it involves teachings that provides

help, support, and nurture towards scholars in order for them to become great and

successful people in the future. For this to happen, the teachers should become decent

leaders for the learners, the theory of Blanchard and Hersey (1969)" Situational Theory

of leadership" suggests that there exists no best leadership styles. Instead, it'll depend

upon which styles and tactics are best suited to the task. With this information, a

teacher may choose upon a method towards a way to teach and approach the students

properly.
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Conseptual Framework

Shown in Figure 1 is the conceptual framework of the study. It presents the

interplay of the variables, Teacher Perceptions of professional learning community and

Teacher Leadership.

The variable A was the Teacher Perceptions of professional learning community

and its indicator Context, Process and Content. The professional learning community

concept was an area which allowed teachers to increase their knowledge and ability on

a variety of areas that allowed them to become more effective in the classroom. “The

very essence of a learning community is a focus on and acommitment to the learning of

each student” (Dufour, Dufour, & Eaker, 2008, p.15).

On the other hand, the variable B was the dependent variable which was the Teacher

Leadership and its indicator Role Clarity, Physical Structure of the building,

Organizational Structure of the building and Effectiveness of Teacher Leader.

Role Clarity is a vital key to helping students understand the relationships

between topics and make connections between what is taught and their own

experiences. Organizational Structure of the building Minterzberg (1972): Organizational

structure is the framework of the relations on jobs, systems, operating process, people

and groups making efforts to achieve the goals. Effectiveness of Teacher Leader is the

qualities demonstrated by teacher leaders, such as integrity, commitment, strong

communication skills, expertise, courage, discernment, focus, generosity, initiative,

passion, positive attitude, problem-solving abilities, and responsibility align consistently,

Maxwell (1999). These indicators will be used to identify the relationship of Teacher
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Perceptions of professional learning community and Teacher Leadership. The arrow

indicates the correlation of the independent variable A towards the dependent variable

B to determine the relationship of the existing variable of the study.

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A B

Teacher Perceptions of Teacher Leadership

professional learning
community
 Role Clarity

 Context  Physical Structure of the

building

 Process
 Organizational Structure of
the building
 Content  Effectiveness of Teacher
leader

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of the Study

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Significance Of The Study

This study is to understand better the teacher and principal perceptions of the

professional learning communities as identified through reporting data collected using

the Professional Learning Community Assessment Revised This study seeks to report

teacher and principal perceptions of to identify more learning communities. For the

students to keep their focus on effective professional learning, any improvement of

classroom management will be effectively learned through communities assessment.

School Administrator - This study will help the school administrator to know what is

the lacking or what is needed to be done, it will also help them to know the right

decisions and right action for them to help their employees to improve and have a better

environment to grow.

Human resource management - This study will show the human resource

management on how they should establish actions and why they should know about the

employees well.

Supervisor - The supervisors will know how they should improve the the teacher-

learning situation, especially today we have the flexible learning and it will help them in

improving the teacher-learning situation.

Employees - This study will help the employees to re-evaluate themselves about what

should they improve and in-order for them to know what they should improve.

Future Researchers - This study will serve as a stepping stone if ever they try to

conduct a research the same as our study this will help them be more informative in the

near future.
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Definition Of Terms

The following terms were defined operationally to further understand the study:

Teacher Perceptions of Professional Learning Community - The thoughts or mental

images which teachers have about their professional activities and their students, which

are shaped by their background knowledge and life experiences and influence their

professional behavior.

Teacher leadership - It is widely thought to be critical to the success of local school

improvement efforts,  these leaders are teachers who have significant teaching

experience, are known to be excellent educators, and are respected by their peers.
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Chapter 2

METHOD

In this chapter we will describe the methods that are used in the studied in order

for the researchers to come up with an answer to the questions that will rose in the

formulation of the problem. These methods are: research design, research locale,

population and sample, research instrument, data collection, and statistical tools of the

study.

Research Design

This research was conducted through the use of descriptive- survey research

which allows us to gather quantitative data and emphasize the significance of what is

described. It also includes studies that give info regarding the present state of the

involved variables (Yazon et al.,2019) The researcher utilized a survey design to collect

the quantitative data for this study.

Due to the nature and length of the survey, observation and face-to-face

interviews would not have provided the honesty enabled by anonymous surveys. In

addition, observations, interviews, or focus groups increased the likelihood of

inconsistencies in the management of bias and research equipment, and the data

collected did not provide the specific data needed for statistical analysis.
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Research locale

The map of Davao City, this is where the Assumption College of Davao is

located, it is presented in figure 2.

The Assumption College of Davao is a private school and Catholic institution of

higher education. The Daughters of Mary the Assumption founded it in 1958. It is said

that this school was established to provide a city-based branch of the first Assumption

School which is founded by the FMA sisters, originally called Assumption College of

Davao. The school is providing a kindergarten classes in 1967, and it later became co

educational as well. The organization is at present, run by the Missionaries of the

Assumption. Davao's Assumption College develop activities and advocacies that could

help students and indigenous people. However, This school is mainly for the girls only

with primary and secondary education. But the college department opened for

admission in 1961 and the administration admitted the school boys three years later.
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Figure 2. Map of the Philippines, pointing Davao City

Population and Sample

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In this study our respondents would be the employees of the Assumption College

of Davao, specifically the Basic Education Full-time teachers. The study used the

universal sampling technique in order to determine the sample size of the respondents.

The researchers used universal sampling technique because according to

Richard & Margaret (1990), that the use of universal sampling refers to the selection of

the sample where not all the people in the population have the same profitability of

being included in the sample and each one of them, the probability of being selected is

unknown. Also, Wilson (2014) stated that in the purposive sampling you can choose our

own people/respondents by interest,qualification, and typicality. And by doing that we

might be able to seek the best of the best and use them for your interviews. The

researchers came up with this sampling technique to select the respondents from the

employees of Assumption College of Davao, since they are the one who will be

providing the important datum to test the research hypothesis.

Table 1.
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Distribution of Respondents

Unit/Department Population

Junior High School Faculty 17

Senior High School Faculty 25

Total: 42

Research Instrument
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The researchers used survey questionnaires that was adopted from two different

studies; the study of Johnson, (2011) entitled “Teacher perception of professional

learning community and structures” and the study of Galland, (2008) entitled” teacher

leadership of BED of teachers.

The first survey questionnaire was adopted from the study of Johnson, (2011). It

is used to measure the teacher leadership to collect the needed data to prove the level

of teacher leadership. The teacher leadership survey questionnaire is composed of 62

questions ; each indicator has 4 questions which are the role clarity, physical structure

of the building, organizational structure of the building, and effectiveness of teacher

leadership.

The second survey questionnaire was adopted from the study of Galland, (2008).

It is used to measure the Teacher perception of professional learning community to

collect the needed data to prove the level of Teacher perception of professional learning

community. Teacher perception of professional learning community survey

questionnaire is composed of 60 questions; each indicator has 3 questions which are

the Historical research, Public database, Freedom of Information.

In addition, the panelist had also validated the research instrument to be able to obtain

valid and positive responses from the respondents. However, the draft of these

questionnaires were presented to the research adviser for the correction as well as to

the panel of experts in order to prove the legitimacy, reliability, and validity of the

questions.
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Table 2.

Range of Means of Teacher Perceptions of professional learning community

Range Descriptive Level Interpretation

This means that the level of Teacher

4.20-5.00 Very High
Perceptions of professional learning
community is always observed.

This means that the level of Teacher

3.40-4.19 High
Perceptions of professional learning
community is oftentimes observed.

This means that the level of Teacher Perceptions

2.60-3.39 Moderate of professional learning community is sometimes
observed.

This means that the level of Teacher

1.80-2.59 Low Perceptions of professional learning
community is rarely observed.

This means that the level of Teacher

1.00-1.79 Very Low Perceptions of professional learning
community is never observed.
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Table 3.

Range of means of Teacher Leadership

Range Descriptive Level Interpretation

This means that the level of Teacher

4.20-5.00 Very High
Leadership is always observed.

3.40-4.19 High This means that the level of Teacher

Leadership is oftentimes observed.

2.60-3.39 Moderate This means that the level of Teacher

Leadership is sometimes observed.

1.80-2.59 Low This means that the level of Teacher

Leadership is rarely observed.

1.00-1.79 Very Low This means that the level of Teacher

Leadership is never observed.
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Data Collection

The following steps were observed and applied by the researchers to collect data

needed to know the relationship between teacher perceptions of professional learning

community and teacher leadership:

The researchers first step is to produce a letter of approbation addressed to the

head of human resource to ask for permission to conduct a study towards the

employees of Assumption College of Davao. Secured, when the request is

approved.the researchers will proceed to providing questionnaires the suits best the

variables of the study.Quantitative methods are used to examine responses acquired

through closed-ended questions with multiple choice answer possibilities, which may

include pie charts, bar charts, and percentages. The responses to open-ended

questionnaire questions are studied using qualitative methods, which include debates

and critical assessments without relying on statistics or computations. third,after having

or creating the questionnaire, it was subjected to content validity testing with teacher

education professionals. a questionnaire will be consulted on the subject teacher for

validation and to assure that the questionnaires are accurate to be used as a survey

tool for the study. However,before conducting the survey.the researchers will perform a

Pilot testing procedure to guarantee questionnaires reliability.But the researchers will

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ask for the respondents consent before conducting it.After the Pilot Testing Procedure

to guarantee questionnaires reliability.But the researchers will ask for the respondents

consent before conducting it.After the pilot testing.the researchers will distribute to the

respondents of this study specific instructions on how to answer the given survey

questionnaires.Then,The data that has been answered by the respondents will be

gathered together.Lastly,the result will be tallied and handed over the statistician for

interpretations..

Statistical Tools

The following statistical tools were used in processing to gathered data:

Mean. This was used in determining the level of Teacher Perceptions of professional

learning community and Teacher Leadership.

Standard Deviation. This was used in measuring the amount of variation or dispersion

of a set of a data values. It also tells the results of how its spreads out the responses

and concentrated. Furthermore, standard deviation will be use after the collection of

data wherein it indicates the result whether it is high or low.

Pearson r. This was utilized in ascertaining the significant relationship between the

Teacher Perceptions of professional learning community and Teacher Leadership.

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Table 4.

Table of Pearson-r

Pearson r Descriptive Equivalent

+1 Perfect

+0.75to<+1 Very High

+0.5to<+0.75 Moderately High

+0.25to<+0.50 Moderately Low

>0to<+0.25 Very Low

0 No Correlation
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