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(2016) conducted site observation in the
selected primary and secondary schools in Gombak district with a focus on the provision of
school facilities in the school. The components of school facilities were identified based on the
Planning Standards and Guidelines of Selangor. The authors contended that financial allocation
is an important factor for the improvement of school facilities and infrastructure and that an
adequate provision of school facilities will improve the teaching lessons in class and directly
have a positive impact students’ academic performance.
There is also an emerging indigenous literature on the subject of principals’ instruction
leadership in Malaysia (e.g. Jamelaa and Jainabee, 2012; Ibrahim and Amin, 2014; Ghani, 2012;
Nashira and Mutaphab, 2013; Ghavifekr et al , 2015). School leadership has an important role in
nurturing professional development and implementing effective leadership in schools. Thus,
transformational leaders are energetic and bring changes for the effectiveness of schools
(Mohammad Sani et al., 2013).
Ibrahim, Ghavifekr, Ling, Siraj & K. Azeez (2013) investigated the impact of transformational
leadership as idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and
individualized consideration on teachers’ commitment towards organization, teaching
profession, and students’ learning. A quantitative survey was administered to a sample of 1,014
trained non-graduate and graduate teachers serving in twenty-seven secondary schools in
Sarawak, Malaysia. The results indicate a moderate level of teachers’ commitment and a low
level of transformational leadership qualities among the respondents. This study found that
inspirational motivation, individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation were the
factors contributing towards teachers’ commitment to teaching profession, and there was no
dominant factor influencing commitment to students’ learning.
Arivayagan and Pihie (2017) examined teacher’s perceptions of principals’ creative leadership
practices for enhancing the effectiveness of secondary schools in Klang District in Malaysia.
Based on the generativity theory, the eight main core skills of challenges, broadening, capturing,
manages teams, models core competencies of creativity expression, provides resources,
provides work environment, and positive feedback and recognition, were examined to explore
the concept of creativity in leaders. The model of High Performing School (HPS) was used to
measure the School Effectiveness. A total of 250 teachers from these ten schools took part in the
survey. The findings showed that a moderate correlation between school principals’ creative
leadership practice and school effectiveness, followed by multiple regressions’ analysis
indicated creative leadership practices dimension; Encourage Capturing received the strongest
weight in the prediction. This study offers a dynamic perspective for school principals to
practice creative leadership as the key factor for transforming school into an effective school.
According to Guskey (2002), professional development aims to bring changes in the classroom
practice of teachers, change in their attitudes and beliefs, and change in the learning outcome of
students. Professional development activities develop an individual’s skills, knowledge,
expertise and other characteristics as a teacher’ (OECD, 2009, p.49) which modify teacher
practices and improve student learning outcomes (Darling-Hammond, Hyler, Gardner and
Espinoza, 2017).
Lastly, while studies have analyzed reasons for differences in student and school performance
in Malaysia, there is a lack of evidence explaining why Malaysia as a country lag behind others
in the region in terms of student performance. One study, Pereira and Asadullah (2017), has