Teacher behaviour

        These focused on change and innovation in the classroom. Of note is the discrepancy in perceptions of teachers' innovative behaviour. All school principals felt that their teachers were very innovative. Teachers, on the other hand, were more restrained when assessing themselves with 16% feeling that they were not innovative. Members of this group may have reached that stage in implementing innovations where, after all the easier and obvious changes have been made, there are fewer innovations left to make and the rate of change slows considerably, or even stops. It is much more difficult to make changes once this state has been reached.

        In fact, some early grade teachers in Probolinggo had reached this point and were searching for ideas. They were frustrated at what they felt had become a slow pace of change and yet were unable to think of other changes which they could make. The idea of consolidating the innovations they had already achieved was new to them. This reflected a mis-conception that innovation should be continuous. Also, an examination of the changes made indicated that they had been able to replicate what had been seen and learnt during training but had not yet reached that stage when they were able to actually create innovations for themselves.

        The daily use of PAKEM teaching methods was reportedly high, although 25% of junior teachers admitted that they did not use them each day. Finally, there was common agreement about teachers "making their own aids and materials" at roughly 2/3rd. While showing that school principals do know the situation of their teachers, it also reveals that few funds are laid aside in the RAPBS for the purchase of consumable materials to enable such production.

Perceptions of pupil behaviour

        School principals were more conservative than teachers on the improved performance of their pupils. Only ¾ of them felt their pupils were achieving higher results. Perhaps they doubted the impact PAKEM methods could have on raising scores, or were just too far from daily events in the classroom to see the changes being achieved by children due to their different expectations and assessment methods. Almost all teachers (95%) felt that their pupils were achieving higher results. This was borne out in the generally high performance of pupils in the same schools on the recently administered alternative MBE tests (in May 2004 ). MBE performance monitoring needs to ask this same question of pupil achievement to all teachers in the sampled schools so that analysis by grade can detect any perceived differences between early and higher grade teacher perceptions.

        It may be that early grade teachers see better results than grade 6 teachers and their school principals, whose expectations and bench mark are higher pupil achievement on the end-of-primary cycle examination alone. The lowest recorded assessments were for "pupils talk more in class" (66% - 69%). This could be an area where teachers were finding it more difficult to set up meaningful activities to encourage pupil discussion and exchange of ideas. Children were also probably still too shy to ask questions in this oral culture which does not attach importance to such conduct. This raises the question of whether the school and its community value this type of behaviour, or are teachers avoiding it?

⁵See seperate MBE proejct report.
⁶ Known as ujian akhir sekolah (UAS)

        There were mixed opinions about whether children were reading more. Senior teachers felt they were (88%) while school principals and junior teachers were more reserved. Possibly senior teachers give their pupils more reading time. The school principal needs to be encouraged to set up a weekly library schedule so that all classes can visit and read quietly in the library. Alternatively, they need to establish a daily silent reading session of a minimum 20 minutes for all classes, grades 1-6. Moreover, schools in the same cluster could exchange library books regularly to ensure a variety of new reading material.

        A similar percentage of senior teachers (88%) perceived that their pupils "wish to learn more". Possibly this group of teachers is more able to use PAKEM methods than junior teachers and this is then reflected in children's enthusiasm and enjoyment of learning. Certainly slightly less junior teachers reported using PAKEM on a daily basis, as noted above.

        Other behaviours by pupils scored high and there was general agreement between the respondents about them. Of note was the perception that pupils like group work (scoring 94% -100%). Grouped seating agreements in many MBE classrooms at least allow pupils to interact informally (ie. chat) even when the lesson does not require pupils to work together or discuss.

Some conclusions

        There were two major discrepancies in the perceptions of school principals and teachers with regard to school principals' role as an instructional leader. One discrepancy was in the perceived time school principals spent observing teachers in class while the other concerned teachers' innovative behaviour. As Table 1.2 below shows, only half of the surveyed school principals observed classes on a weekly basis while another third made monthly visits. It would seem that school principals do in fact need to spend longer time observing classes and moreover, do it more frequently. In this way, they could be more realistic in their assessment of teachers' innovations whilst also being to able to see where the need lay for teacher-made teaching learning materials.

        They could then promote the allocation of funding in the RAPBS for this and encourage its use for self-made, low cost teaching aids and materials by teachers, higher grade pupils or in deed, parents. Furthermore, the experience would give them greater knowledge which could be used to include and promote education programs in the RAPBS which address main stream teaching needs, rather than extra-curricular activities such as competitions. Finally, they would be more able to follow pupil progress and come to appreciate that they are achieving higher results in more intangible areas than test results alone can show, eg. in confidence and enjoyment of lessons.

Table 1.2: Number of Sampled School Heads holding Meetings (n=30)

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