Purpose Since teaching practice is the most important within-school determinant of student learning outcomes, a deepened understanding of how and why school leadership contributes to effective ...teaching is needed. This article aimed to systematically review the knowledge that has been accumulated about the indirect relations between school leadership and instructional practices. Design/methodology/approach The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guided the selection of relevant articles from the databases Scopus and Google Scholar. Twenty-six published works met the eligibility criteria and were included in the narrative synthesis and content analysis. Findings The most frequently measured mediators of the effects of school leadership on teaching practice were teacher collaboration, professional learning and teacher self-efficacy. Most studies simultaneously modeled multiple mediated pathways from school leadership to teaching practice. However, only a few analyzed studies used time lags when examining relationships between constructs. Originality/value This is the first study to systematically review knowledge on pathways through which school leadership is related to classroom instruction. Thus, this review provides a comprehensive understanding of processes through which school leadership achieves its effects on instructional practices.
The interactive, constructive, active, and passive technology scale (ICAP-TS) is a recently developed measure of qualitatively different modes of educational use of technology. Therefore, this study ...had a two-fold purpose. On the one hand, it aimed to examine the construct validity of the ICAP-TS in the Serbian school context. Additionally, we used multilevel modeling to analyze to what extent the two characteristics of school context, namely principal support and innovative school climate, could predict how teachers use technology measured by the ICAP-TS. The participants were 364 primary and secondary school teachers in Serbia. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the 12-item ICAP-TS has an expected internal structure in a sample of Serbian teachers. Furthermore, the results revealed positive within-school effects of the innovative school climate on all four types of educational use of technology. Contrary to our expectations, the principal support was not related to the integration of educational technology at the individual or school level. Implications for future research and educational practice were discussed.
•Construct validity of the ICAP-TS is confirmed within the Serbian context.•Innovative climate predicts different types of technology integration within schools.•Principal support is not significantly related to the types of technology integration.
Although scholars have acknowledged the role of collaborative relationships of teachers in improving the quality of instruction, teacher collective efficacy continues to be a neglected construct in ...educational research. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relations between transformational school leadership, teacher self-efficacy and perceived collective teacher efficacy, using a sample of 120 permanent secondary-school teachers in Serbia, whose average age was 42.5. The results of the hierarchical regression analysis showed that transformational school leadership and teacher self-efficacy were independent predictors of teacher collective efficacy. The research findings also showed that individually-focused transformational leadership contributed significantly to an explanation of collective efficiency after controlling specific predictor effects of group-focused dimensions of transformational leadership. It is argued that the results have a double meaning. First, this study expanded the understanding of the relationship between different dimensions of transformational school leadership and collective teacher efficacy. Second, a contribution of teacher self-efficacy to collective efficacy beliefs was established, confirming the assumptions of social cognitive theory on reciprocal causality between two types of perceived efficacy: individual and collective.
The present study examined the metric properties of the Delaware School Climate Survey – Student (DSCS-S) using a sample of 1524 Serbian high school students. Of the total number of participants, 764 ...were male and 760 were female with age ranging from 16 to 20 years (M = 17.67, SD = 0.65). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) demonstrated that a seven-factor model of school climate has an adequate fit with the data. Furthermore, measurement invariance of the DSCS-S across gender was supported. Results revealed significant latent mean differences between male and female students on most dimensions of the school climate. Convergent validity of the DSCS-S was established by correlations of its dimensions with students’ academic achievement and attachment to school. Taken together, the findings of the present study indicate that the DSCS-S has the potential to be applied in measuring school climate in the Serbian educational context.
School connectedness is a significant construct that has various positive
outcomes for students, so it is important to investigate its determinants.
Students? connectedness to school depends on their ...interaction with
teachers. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between
teachers? support and students? perceptions of school connectedness.
Participants were 325 students from 29 high school classes. Data were
collected using research tools for assessing students? perceptions of
teachers? support, homeroom teachers? support, and school connectedness.
Multilevel modeling was applied, since students were nested within
classrooms. The obtained results revealed that, after controlling the
effects of gender and type of school, the teacher?s support significantly
predicted the students? connectedness to school at the individual (student)
level. In addition, class-level homeroom teacher?s support was positively
associated with students? school connectedness at the class level. The
relation between teachers? support and students? school connectedness did
not significantly vary across classes. This study indicates that teachers?
support plays an important role in fostering students? connectedness to
school. Implications of this study are relevant for teachers? initial
education and professional development.
Teachers around the world are expected to respect the diversity of students and differentiate instruction. Therefore, it is important to identify factors that are related to the use of differentiated ...instruction. The aim of this study was to examine the indirect effects of transformational school leadership on teachers' use of differentiated instruction. Data were collected from 314 Serbian teachers who work in different school settings. Structural equation modelling with latent variables showed that teacher collaboration and self-efficacy had significant direct effects on the use of differentiated instruction. Transformational school leadership positively predicted differentiated instruction via teacher collaboration. Moreover, the obtained results revealed that both teacher collaboration and self-efficacy mediate the relationship between transformational school leadership and teachers' use of differentiated instruction. Implications for educational policy and practice were discussed.
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