School Head’s Competence and Teacher’s Performance in the Light of Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers

School Head’s Competence and Teacher’s Performance in the Light of Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers

Mary Joy A. Estrada & Joey L. Gumban

La Consolacion College-Bacolod City

DOI : https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.803232S

Received: 21 July 2024; Accepted: 27  July 2024; Published: 03 September 2024

ABSTRACT

School heads’ competence and teachers’ performance play vital roles towards the school’s overall performance which includes the students’ academic performances. Hence, the purpose of this study was to find out the factors which influenced teachers’ ratings and performances in school. This descriptive-comparative-correlational research design aimed to investigate the level of school heads’ competence and teachers’ performances. The study was conducted to 180 Grade 6 students of the Division of Cadiz City to assess teachers’ performances.  Mean and standard deviation were used for descriptive analysis, Mann-Whitney, Krustal Wallis, and Welch Anova Test for comparative analysis, and PPM Person Product Moment of Correlation was utilized to determine relationship among variables. Self-made questionnaire based from the domains of the PPST was used. The results revealed that there was a significant relationship between the school heads’ competence and teachers’ performance. In conclusion, teachers’ performances are influenced by school heads’ competence.

Keywords: School Head’s Competence, Teacher’s Performance, , Descriptive-Comparative-Correlational, Division of Cadiz City

INTRODUCTION

The leaders of educational institutions, commonly known as school heads, are regarded as custodians of schools, entrusted with the pivotal task of fostering an environment conducive to effective teaching and learning (Philippine Professional Standards for School Heads (PPSSH) – NQESH Reviewer, 2021). Central to their responsibilities is the direction of teachers and the provision of support to address educational challenges (Aquino et al., 2021). Likewise, teachers’ performance directly influences school effectiveness by attaining educational objectives at the institutional level (Özgenel, 2019). Alyahyan Düştegör (2020) emphasize the significance of student success as a critical metric for educational institutions, underscoring the continuous efforts of teachers to enhance educational processes despite the multifaceted differences in students’ development – encompassing academic, behavioral, and socio-emotional facets (Arrascue, 2023).

The rules that govern the roles of school heads are governed by regulations such as DepEd Order No. 24, s. 2020, which mandates adherence to the Philippine Professional Standards for School Heads, delineates their functions as administrative managers and instructional leaders across five domains, notably “Focusing on Teaching and Learning,” which emphasizes promoting quality education (Onyango & Ogola, 2019). Correspondingly, the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (PPST) delineate the domains, strands, and indicators essential for teacher quality within the K to 12 Reform, aiming to guide educators toward competence and improved student learning outcomes (Saira et al., 2021). Salmah (2020) highlights the direct influence of school heads’ competence on teachers’ performance, echoing the provisions of RA 9155 – emphasizing the creation of conducive environments for teaching and learning alongside staff development. Despite these established frameworks, scant attention has been directed toward understanding the correlation between school heads’ competence, teachers’ performance, and student’s academic achievements in public elementary schools. Moreover, observations within the researcher’s locale reveal a discrepancy between the standards set by the Department of Education and teachers’ ratings, potentially influencing students’ academic performance.

Motivated by these observations, the researcher embarked on a study to evaluate the competence of school heads, teachers’ performance, and Grade 6 learners’ academic performance in selected public elementary schools in the Philippines during the school year, 2022-2023. The findings of this study serve as the foundation for proposing a training engagement focusing on the domains outlined in the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers, aimed at enhancing teachers’ productivity and efficiency and, ultimately, improving learners’ academic outcomes.

Framework

The emergence of Frederick Taylor’s Scientific Management Theory (1909) aimed at enhancing productivity proves instrumental in this study as it elucidates the direct correlation between the supervisory competency of school principals and teachers’ performance. Similarly, David McClelland’s Achievement Theory suggests that leaders can motivate subordinates by understanding their needs and facilitating their fulfillment, which is pertinent to this investigation. Moreover, teachers’ performance is also contingent upon the competence of their school principals.

Furthermore, this study is underpinned by Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development (1936), which delineates the evolution of human intelligence and knowledge acquisition, emphasizing sequential developmental stages. Piaget asserts that cognitive development proceeds in a fixed order, with each stage characterized by acquiring new intellectual skills and a deeper comprehension of the world. However, children may exhibit traits from multiple developmental stages simultaneously, and individual differences in cognitive competence lead to varied task performance, suggesting varying levels of cognitive development among individuals.

In the methodological context of this study, meticulous selection of appropriate tools and data ensures the accuracy of concept analysis across variables. Consequently, the scientific management theory is implicated in understanding teachers’ performance in relation to the competence of school principals. Similarly, Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development underscores differences in Grade 6 students’ academic performance based on demographic variables such as gender, parental education, and socioeconomic status. The study’s findings shed light on the needs of both teachers and students, informing strategies aimed at enhancing their performance.

DepEd Order (DO) No. 2, s. 2015 provides legal support for this study, which outlines guidelines for the Results-based Performance Management System (RPMS) in the Department of Education. This study conceptualizes the correlation between teachers’ and students’ academic performance, considering demographic profiles such as gender, socioeconomic status, and parents’ educational attainment.

Furthermore, this study seeks to conceptualize school heads’ competence level based on their Office Performance Commitment and Review Form (OPCRF) ratings aligned with the Philippine Professional Standards for School Heads domains. The results are then correlated with teachers’ performance, assessed through grade 6 students’ surveys based on the Individual Performance Commitment and Review Form (IPCRF) objectives aligned with the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers domains.

The study was focused on the school heads, teachers, and Grade 6 students in the Division of Cadiz City. School heads’ competence were measured through their Office Performance Commitment Review Form (IPCRF) which has six (6) components; Instructional Leadership, Learning Environment, Human Resource Management and Development, Parent’s Involvement and Community Partnership, School Leadership Management and Operations, and Support Services. The school heads’ competence was believed to be connected to the teachers’ performances which were measured through the self-made questionnaire based from the domains of the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers in the Individual Performance Commitment Review Form. Teachers were evaluated by the learners based from the various components; Content Knowledge and Pedagogy, Learning Environment and Diversity of Learners, Curriculum and Planning, Assessment and Reporting, Personal Growth and Professional Development, and Plus Factor. In response to the results consolidated, it has been concluded that Training Engagement on the Domains of the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers is needed.

METHODS

This chapter presents the research design used in this study, the research environment, the study’s respondents, the research instrument to gather data, the data-gathering procedure, and the statistical tools to analyze and interpret the data.

This study utilized the descriptive, comparative, and correlational research design, intended to describe the differences among groups in a population without manipulating the independent variable in the study, and the researchers considered the demographic profile of the respondents (Cantrell, 2011). Moreover, descriptive correlational research is a research design that explains the relationship between two or more variables without claiming cause and effect. It includes collecting and analyzing data on at least two variables to see if there is a link between them (Bhat, 2018). Additionally, this statistically measures variables to answer theory-guided research problems and hypotheses and provides a numerical description of the population’s trends, attitudes, opinions, and associations (Creswell & Creswell, 2017).

In the study context, the descriptive approach was employed to profile the Grade 6 students at the selected schools in the Division of Cadiz City during the school year 2022-2023 and to get the final list of teachers to be evaluated. Also, it also utilized to the level of school heads’ competence and teachers’ performance.

A correlational approach was also employed to determine the relationship between the school heads’ competence to teachers’ performance.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter includes the presentation, analysis, and interpretation of the gathered data about the statement of the problem. This is the order of the presentation of this investigation.

The study’s primary concern was determining the level of the school head’s competence and teacher’s performance in light of the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (PPST) and student’s academic performance. It also seeks to determine the significant difference in students’ academic performance according to sex, socioeconomic status, and parent’s educational attainment. Furthermore, it aimed to determine if significant relationship between the school head’s competence in teachers’ performance and the latter students’ academic performance existed.

Table 1: Level of School Heads’ Competence

Table 1 revealed that the school head’s level of professional competence in all key areas: Instructional Leadership, Learning Environment, Human Resource Management and Development, Parent Involvement and Community Partnership, School Leadership Management and Operations, and Support Services (DepEd Order No. 32.s.2010) was interpreted as outstanding with the mean of 4.527. This signified that they performed extraordinary achievement and commitment in quality and time, technical skills and knowledge, ingenuity, creativity, and initiative. Employees at this performance level should have demonstrated exceptional job mastery in all areas of responsibility. Employee achievement and contributions to the organizations are of marked excellence. School heads accomplish the Office Performance Commitment and Review Form or OPCRF to reflect the accomplishment of his or her office’s actual performance (Caballes, 2021). The result implied that school heads met the standards set forth by the Philippine Professional Standards for School Heads, which are vital to the school’s achievements and success.

It also signifies effective leadership, which, for Grissom et al. (2021), is the expertise that drives the school head’s contribution and impact on school needs, gaging, focused interactions with teachers, building a productive school climate, facilitating a productive collaboration and professional learning communities, and strategically managing personnel and resources. This professional expertise is vital to what DepEd Order No. 42, s. 2017 entails that quality leadership and management can develop quality teachers and holistic learners who are steeped in values, equipped with 21st-century skills, and able to propel the country to development and progress.

A similar study by Aquino et. Al. (2021) shows that school heads have been found to regularly show impressive leadership strategies in planning, organizing, regulating, directing, and unifying teachers. He also claimed that leadership practice is the mode of conduct the leader embraces in affecting the teacher’s performance because educational success can only be accomplished by fulfilled and inspired teachers. Furthermore, school heads are crucial for improvement because of active teaching and learning. Various factors affect the professional competencies of school heads. These factors include the increasing demand for administrative and instructional roles to ensure school effectiveness and performance quality (Cabigao, 2019).

Moreover, their position is significant to the learners’ educational development, academic growth, and performance because the school heads are usually the primary source and the driving force that upholds the organization’s welfare (Oco, 2022).In support of this, school heads are agents of change who contribute a significant impression on the educational milieu through information-sharing methods, creating supportive social connections, participating in mentoring programs, and fostering progress (Aquino et al., 2021).

Furthermore, on management behavior, they may focus on changing administrative behaviors and habits of school heads, which is necessary for education actions for better teachers, students, and the school (Tansiongco & Ibarra, 2020). Relative to this, managing conflicts and establishing functional teams are the crucial roles of the school heads for a more successful organization (Villar et al., 2021).

Table 2: Level of Teachers’ Performance According to the Domains of the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers

Table 2 shows the level of teacher’s performance in all key results areas; teacher’s performance in KRA 1 (Content Knowledge and Pedagogy) has the highest mean of 3.968, followed by KRA 5 (Plus Factor) with the mean score of 3.910, next is KRA 4 (Assessment and Reporting) with the mean of 3.868, then KRA 3 (Curriculum Planning) with the mean of 3.728, and teachers performed the least on KRA 2 (Learning et al. of Learners). Considering the six key results areas, the overall mean is 3.824, which is very satisfactory and shows that their performance exceeded expectations. All goals, objectives, and targets were achieved above the established standards.

In this study, the results signified those teachers performed well in terms of content knowledge and pedagogy considering their training engagements every year and their further efforts in teaching on daily interaction with their learners as well as the quarterly classroom observations to them and direct supervision by their school heads. In addition, teachers are also engaging in non-teaching-related functions in school, which they must perform well for, as this is also part of their annual evaluation. Moreover, teachers’ skills in planning and constructing formative and summative assessments are enhanced through their evaluative efforts to sustain their learners’ academic achievements. Curriculum-based planning and instructions are never questioned since they are well-provided with learning resources and guides based on the Essential Learning Competencies. However, due to a lack of training on inclusive education, many teachers are still in awe of how to manage classroom instruction, given that some of their learners have special needs, and this evidently showed in the data presented.

This finding constitutes the K to 12 Reform (R.A. 10533) in 2013, which changed the landscape of teacher quality requirements in the Philippines. The reform process warrants an equivalent supportive focus on teacher quality – high-quality teachers who are adequately equipped and prepared to assume the roles and functions of K to 12 teachers. PPST has a domain called Content Knowledge and Pedagogy. This is at the core of the K to 12 Program and sends a message to teachers that for them to be considered quality teachers, they should know what to teach and how to teach it, among others.

In support of the findings, Ulla (2018) claimed that trained teachers have more skills and techniques to be applied to improve learners’ academic achievements. Furthermore, highly qualified and experienced teachers are more likely to provide high-quality education to students and will significantly positively impact student performance (Ramadan & Julaeha et al.,2019). Additionally, in this modern age, teacher training is a requirement and essential component for all educational activities, including a conducive learning environment, curriculum development, and implementation and assessment (Zulfiqar, 2016).

On the other note, in the book of Stronge (2018), some researchers define teacher effectiveness as student achievement and many external variables affect each potential measure of effectiveness outside. Effective teachers make an extraordinary and lasting impact on students’ lives. It is, therefore, imperative for every teacher to possess these teaching competencies that can be developed through professional activities such as instructional planning skills (lesson planning skills), instructional skills (lesson delivery), knowledge of the subject area (mastery of the subject matter), rapport with the students (teacher-student relationship), and classroom management skills to which according to o Ajayi et. al (2020), good teachers who possess a mastery of content, suitable pedagogical qualification, and a positive attitude towards teaching play a significant role in students’ educational attainment.

Table 3: Relationship of School Heads’ Competence to Teachers’ Performance

Table 3 presents the significant relationship between the school head’s competence level and the teacher’s performance. The Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient Test revealed a significant relationship between the school head’s competence and the teacher’s performance [p=0.022]. Hence, the null hypothesis is rejected.

In this study, it has been revealed that the school head’s performance or level of competence is a factor in the teacher’s performance in school. The direct instructional supervision of the school heads to the teachers can significantly help the latter achieve the standard requirements of the IPRF (Individual Performance and Review Form) tool. As such, the type of management and leadership of the school head imposed on their respective schools are significant determinants of its general success. School heads’ effectiveness influences how teachers will perform and interact with their learners.

The result revealed that the school head’s performance determines the teacher’s performance. Result-Based Performance Management System under DepEd Order 2 Series of 2015 stipulates that the Department of Education is committed to providing the members of its organization with opportunities to link their achievements and make a meaningful contribution to the attainment of the institution’s Vision and Mission, promote individual and team growth, participation and commitment, and grow professionally and personally. Hence, given this, the school head’s performance also depends on the teacher’s performance, just like how the teacher’s performance may depend on the school head’s competence in capturing all the key results areas.

Similarly, supervisory competencies are essential since they can be equated with the teachers’ performance (Salundaguit et al., 2019). In addition, the school’s principal’s leadership significantly affects organizational culture (Arif et al., 2019). Correspondingly, Rester (2020) said that school heads play a severe role in raising standards and expectations in teaching and learning. Elaborately, school performance may be influenced not only by the managerial skills of the school administrator but also by other factors. However, some researchers found that these schools manage influence (Muiruri, 2019).

Moreover, Brissom et al. (2021) presented this assumption that school leadership matters for school outcomes, including student achievement. Additionally, the success and quality of any educational system depend on the quality of teachers’ input.

CONCLUSION

Teachers also need continuous improvement in content and pedagogy to deal with learners’ diversity. The teachers need to focus on maintaining a conducive learning environment, and collaborative efforts must be made by the school head, teachers, and the community.

Hence, strategic efforts by all the school stakeholders are a must to maintain a child-friendly school, which is essential for students’ holistic development.

With the results, it is important to highlight how essential and huge the role of the school, especially the school heads and teachers, in building a good foundation for learners to achieve more academically.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the findings and conclusions of the study, the following recommendations are suggested:

District Supervisors implement and conduct district training related to the domains of the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers and School Heads to ensure the school’s performance and effectiveness.

School Heads conduct a monthly Learning Activity Cell Session for teachers to continuously improve their’ pedagogical skills and other related areas of students’ learning. Furthermore, in crafting the Schools Work Financial Plan, teachers should be continually involved in the planning to suggest priority projects for the sustainable development of the school learning environment. Relative to this, school heads need open communication with all the external stakeholders, especially the parents of the school, to gain their trust and support in all the school’s endeavors.

Teachers plan and design contextualized lessons aligned to the most essential learning competencies, which provide differentiated activities according to the needs and interests of the learners. Additionally, they are involved in planning the school’s priority projects and suggest activities pertaining to the Gender and Development of the learners. Moreover, more training courses and seminars are needed to enhance their pedagogical skills.

Parents collaboratively and actively participate in all school endeavors for the betterment of the school’s services and the support necessary for their children’s holistic development. Furthermore, parents’ support and love for their children motivate them to perform well in school. With such, parents’ presence in schools’ endeavors for at least a half day attending to the school’s needs, specifically on the cleanliness and maintenance of the schools, is essential.

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