BUILDING A SCHOOL-BASED PROFESSIONAL LEARNING MODEL IN MALAYSIAN CONTEXT

Abstract
Teaching is creative, complex and requires high skills. Furthermore, teachers must constantly deepen their knowledge and skills to remain effective throughout their careers. Teachers` knowledge and skills can be enhanced through the effective school-based professional learning. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between school-based professional learning leaders` roles and professional learning models with teachers` practices. This study is conducted at 60 secondary schools in Malaysia where the information is gathered from two phases of data collections by using multi-stage cluster sampling technique. The exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis are used to obtain construct validity. Data from the survey is used to test the relationships among the three dimensions expressed in the proposed model.The findings indicate there is a significant relationship between school leaders` roles and professional learning models with teachers` practices. The source of data collected is Malaysia, hence, the results may not easily generalized to other areas or countries. However, the findings are valuable for school-based professional learning developers` and teacher educators references, especially for those whose circumstances are similar to those in Malaysia. The implications of this study shows that the professional learning leadership and professional learning models have important impact toward teachers` professional development.
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Keywords
School-based professional learning, Teacher development, Factor analysis
Citation