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Indeed, school principals in the small number of schools identified as having reached a sustainable state (take-off) implement the substance of their role as instructional leader: observing classes, evaluating teachers and monitoring pupil results, on a weekly basis. Other school principals carried out these functions on a monthly basis while one third only monitor teachers and pupils every 3 or 6 months which considerably reduces their effectiveness (Table 1.3).
Table 1.3 Number of Sampled School Principals implementing Selected Activities
| |
Weekly |
|
Probo |
B'wangi |
Batang |
Pacitan |
Pati |
Total |
observe PAKEM |
4 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
15 |
|
supervise classes |
3 |
3 |
1 |
4 |
|
11 |
|
Evaluate teachers |
2 |
4 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
11 |
|
monitor pupil results |
1 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
8 |
|
Teach |
3 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
16 |
|
Routine admin ** |
|
2 |
1 |
2 |
4 |
9 |
|
KKG meetings |
|
|
3 |
|
5 |
8 |
|
MKKS meetings |
|
|
1 |
|
2 |
3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Monthly |
Other |
Probo |
B'wangi |
Batang |
Pacitan |
Pati |
Total |
observe PAKEM |
1 |
3 |
2 |
|
1 |
0 |
5 |
supervise classes |
2 |
2 |
4 |
2 |
4 |
14 |
5 |
Evaluate teachers |
1 |
|
2 |
3 |
3 |
9 |
10 |
monitor pupil results |
3 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
3 |
12 |
10 |
Teach |
|
|
|
|
|
0 |
14 |
Routine admin ** |
4 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
|
10 |
11 |
KKG meetings |
3 |
5 |
2 |
4 |
|
14 |
8 |
MKKS meetings |
5 |
5 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
21 |
6 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NB. Others* reported less frequent meetings and activities, eg. every 2 or 3 months, once a semester, or incidental
NB. Routine admin** reported as daily activity
The management role of the school principal needs extending. While there was agreement that school principal were being more inclusive and transparent, increased delegation of responsibility was still in its infancy. It is accepted that the final responsibility for the success or otherwise of an activity has to rest with the school principal - if it is an educational activity, or with the head of school committee when it is not. There is probably a fear on the part of many school principal of sanctions from parents or the community (withholding of fees and funds) which do not allow school principal to relax and delegate more. The frequency of formal meetings also needs increasing for the majority of school principals.
Although many school principal meet informally with individuals, meetings with all teachers together, formal or otherwise, are a means of sharing problems and ideas. They also provide an opportunity for progress or innovations to be praised while fostering the collegial spirit of the school. These internal meetings have probably increased in frequency - one third meet their teachers weekly and 2/3rd on a monthly basis (Table 1.3). However, meetings with the community - parents and school committee - were much less often. Parents were still being sidelined. All but 3 of those school principals sampled reported meeting parents less frequently than on a monthly basis, sometimes every 3 or 6 months or incidentally, as needed.
This is an important area where greater effort on the part of school principals is required. While parents continue to feel that they are financially useful to the school but otherwise unwelcome, then the partnership function of school committee bridging the community and school will not flourish. Even 2/3rd of school committees meet less often than monthly: the other third being restricted to termly or semi-annual meetings. Despite the fact that there may be frequent informal meetings with individual school committee members - possibly the executive, exclusion leads to alienation and/or "boredom", as mentioned by some respondents. It would seem in conclusion that school principals were retaining the divide between in-school and outside school. Only some enlightened ones, or their progressive teachers, actually invite parents across this divide and into the classroom.
Sources of change/ innovation
A majority of the innovations seen during school visits were replicas of those suggested in school based management and PAKEM in-service trainings or seen by various school staff during study tours to other schools or districts known to be implementing changes in school management and classroom practices. In fact, outside sources were the major source of innovations identified by school principals, or their teachers. As one school principal put it "we implement directly what is obtained from the trainings, e.g. asking parents to fill out the home-observation form". And as a member of the research team noted "schools have no experience to implement educational innovation except PAKEM". This comment would appear to also include those schools which have been involved in those programs directly encouraging school changes over a number of years, such as the CLCC one. Meetings such as KKG and KKKS were other, regular venues used by schools to obtain and share ideas. The use of these various methods to obtain and share innovations is the first, vital step towards change.
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The next stage, to which some schools have progressed, is to make small changes and adaptations to the examples of innovations seen. Examples seen included:
Extending the clocking-in system so that the boxes where a child's name is placed as they enter the classroom are filled in sequence.
Pupils having individual display boards on which their best work is displayed. These are regularly changed by the pupils themselves.
Teachers analyzing pupil reflections on their school day as a source of inspiration for possible difficulties which may need changing.
Having paguyuban kelas, where parents and teachers discuss what their class needs, often in terms of consumables. Groups then contribute or raise funds for their respective class.
There were some exceptional schools where either teachers or the school principal had reached the third stage of being able to develop their own innovations. Some examples seen included:
Many people visit one school which now asks for a voluntary donation to the school funds, listing the incoming and outgoing amounts on a prominent board in the office. In addition to being a good fund raiser, this will probably decrease the number of visitors disturbing the school which was stated as a problem by a school committee member.
One school stimulates change by having "different learning themes every week eg. discipline week, health week".
Asking all class 1 pupils to read 2-3 sentences in turn at the close of every school day. This enabled the teacher to track the progress of individual pupils.
An early grades classroom shop - which sadly was no longer used, (had fatigue set in this CLCC school?)
Various strategies were used to stimulate innovation, and included the following:
Holding creativity competitions between classes to create a positive, competitive atmosphere to encourage innovation
Asking teachers to identify their problems, to be shared and discussed in either school or KKG meetings
Through monitoring of class activities by the school principal to identify innovations which the teacher was then encouraged to share with colleagues.
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7 KKG, primary teachers working groups, meetings of varying frequency over one month where teachers from the same cluster of 6-8 schools exchange ideas and share information
8 KKKS, monthly school principal meetings at the sub-district level
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