This paper examines the effects of instructional leadership on the change in teachers’ classroom practices, with the mediating role of shared practice and learning effectiveness. The study employed a cross-sectional survey design, using quantitative methods. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data collected from 350 teachers in primary and secondary schools in various provinces of Turkey. The results provided evidence consistent with the previous research from western English-speaking societies, suggesting an indirect relationship between leadership and teachers’ instructional practices with the full mediation roles of shared practices among teachers and their sense of agency in learning effectiveness. This work concludes that teacher learning and collaborative practices among teachers, influenced by principals’ instructional practices, can facilitate a significant change in several diverse components of classroom instruction, such as the quality of grouping, questions, homework, instructional strategies and differentiated practices.
BanduraA (1977) Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
2.
BellibasMSBulutOGedikS (2017) Investigating professional learning communities in Turkish schools: the effects of contextual factors. Professional Development in Education43(3): 353–374.
3.
BellibasMSBulutOHallingerPWangWC (2016) Developing a validated instructional leadership profile of Turkish primary school principals. International Journal of Educational Research75(1): 115–133.
4.
BellibaşMŞÇalışkanÖGümüşS (2019) Validity and reliability of teacher agency scale. Trakya Journal of Education9(1): 1–11.
5.
BellibasMSLiuY (2017) Multilevel analysis of the relationship between principals’ perceived practices of instructional leadership and teachers’ self-efficacy perceptions. Journal of Educational Administration55(1): 49–69.
6.
BiestaGTedderM (2007) Agency and learning in the life course: Towards an ecological perspective. Studies in the Education of Adults39: 132–149.
7.
BlaseJBlaseJ (2000) Effective instructional leadership: Teachers’ perspectives on how principals promote teaching and learning in schools. Journal of Educational Administration38(2): 130–141.
8.
BossertSTDwyerDCRowanBLeeGV (1982) The instructional management role of the principal. Educational Administration Quarterly18(3): 34–64.
9.
BrykACamburnELouisK (1999) Professional community in Chicago elementary schools: Facilitating factors and organizational consequences. Educational Administration Quarterly35: 751–757.
10.
BrykASSchneiderB (1996) Social trust: A moral resource for school improvement. In: 1996 meeting of the American Sociological Society, Washington, DC, USA, 16–20 August.
11.
BrykASSebringPBAllensworthELuppescuSEastonJQ (2010) Organizing Schools for İmprovement: Lessons from Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
12.
BurchPSpillaneJP (2003) Elementary school leadership strategies and subject matter: Reforming mathematics and literacy instruction. Elementary School Journal103(5): 519–535.
13.
CohenLManionLMorrisonK (2013) Research Methods in Education. New York, London: Routledge.
14.
ColdrenAFSpillaneJP (2007) Making connections to teaching practice: The role of boundary practices in instructional leadership. Educational Policy21: 369–396.
15.
ColemanJSCampbellEQHobsonCJ, et al. (1966) Equality of Educational Opportunity. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
16.
Darling-HammondL (2000) Teacher quality and student achievement: A review of state policy evidence. Educational Policy Analysis Archives8(1): 1–44.
17.
Darling-HammondL (2010) The Flat World and Education: How America’s Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future. New York: Teachers College Press.
18.
Darling-HammondLHylerMEGardnerM (2017) Effective Teacher Professional Development. Palo Alto: Learning Policy Institute.
19.
DuFourR (2004) What is a professional learning community?Educational Leadership61(8): 6–11.
20.
DuyarIGumusSBellibasMS (2013) Multilevel analysis of teacher work attitudes. International Journal of Educational Management27(7): 700–719.
21.
ElmoreRF (1996) Getting to scale with successful educational practices. Harvard Education Review66: 1–26.
22.
EmirbayerMMischeA (1998) What is agency?American Journal of Sociology103(4): 962–1023.
23.
FrostD (2006) The concept of ‘agency’ in leadership for learning. Leading & Managing12(2): 19–28.
24.
FuGClarkeA (2017) Teacher agency in the Canadian context: Linking the how and the what. Journal of Education for Teaching43(5): 581–593.
25.
GoddardRDGoddardYLSook KimEMillerR (2015) A theoretical and empirical analysis of the roles of instructional leadership, teacher collaboration, and collective efficacy beliefs in support of student learning. American Journal of Education121(4): 501–530.
26.
GoddardYLGoddardRDBailesLPNicholsR (2019) From school leadership to differentiated instruction: A pathway to student learning in schools. Elementary School Journal120(2): 197–219.
27.
GümüşEBellibaşMS (2016) The effects of professional development activities on principals’ perceived instructional leadership practices: Multi-country data analysis using TALIS 2013. Educational Studies42(3): 287–301.
28.
GümüşSApaydınÇBellibaşMŞ (2018) Adaptation of teacher professional learning scale to Turkish: the validity and realibility study. Journal of Education and Human Sciences: Theory and Practice9(17): 108–124.
29.
GumusSBulutOBellibasMS (2013) The relationship between principal leadership and teacher collaboration in Turkish primary schools: A multilevel analysis. Education Research and Perspectives40(1): 1–29.
30.
HairJFBlackWCBabinBJAndersonRETathamRL (1998) Multivariate Data Analysis. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.
31.
HallingerHBickmanLDavisK (1996) Principal leadership, and student reading. Elementary School Journal96(5): 527–549.
32.
HallingerP (2003) Leading educational change: Reflections on the practice of instructional and transformational leadership. Cambridge Journal of Education33(3): 329–352.
33.
HallingerP (2011) A review of three decades of doctoral studies using the principal instructional management rating scale: A lens on methodological progress in educational leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly47(2): 271–306.
34.
HallingerPHeckRH (1996) Reassessing the principal’s role in school effectiveness: A review of empirical research, 1980–1995. Educational Administration Quarterly32(1): 5–44.
35.
HallingerPHeckRH (1998) Exploring the principal’s contribution to school effectiveness: 1980–1995. School Effectiveness and School Improvement9(2): 157–191.
36.
HallingerPMurphyJ (1985) Assessing the instructional management behavior of principals. Elementary School Journal86: 217–247.
37.
HallingerPWangWC (2015) Assessing Leadership for Learning with the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale. Dordrecht: Springer.
38.
HallingerPGümüşSBellibaşMŞ (2020) ‘Are principals instructional leaders yet?' A science map of the knowledge base on instructional leadership, 1940–2018. Scientometrics122(3): 1629–1650.
39.
HallingerPLiuSPiyamanP (2019) Does principal leadership make a difference in teacher professional learning? A comparative study China and Thailand. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education49(3): 341–357.
40.
HarrisA (2009) Distributed Leadership: Different Perspectives. Studies in Educational Leadership Vol. 7. Dordrecht: Springer.
41.
HayesAF (2018) Partial, conditional, and moderated mediation: Quantification, inference, and interpretation. Communication Monographs85(1): 4–40.
42.
HordSM (1997) Professional Learning Communities: Communities of Continuous Inquiry and Improvement. Austin: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.
43.
HuLTBentlerPM (1999) Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal6(1): 1–55.
44.
IngersollRM (2001) Teacher turnover, teacher shortages, and the organization of schools (Document R-01-1). University of Washington, Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy, Seattle.
45.
KalmanMArslanMC (2016) School principals’ evaluations of their instructional leadership behaviours: Realities vs ideals. School Leadership & Management36: 508–530.
46.
LeithwoodKHarrisAHopkinsD (2008) Seven strong claims about successful school leadership. School Leadership and Management28(1): 27–42.
47.
LeithwoodKAPattenSJantziD (2010) Testing a conception of how school leadership influences student learning. Educational Administration Quarterly46: 671–706.
48.
LeithwoodKSunJSchumackerR (2019) How school leadership influences student learning: A test of “The four paths model”. Educational Administration Quarterly. Epub ahead of print 8 October 2019. DOI: 10.1177/0013161X19878772.
49.
LijuanLHallingerP (2016) Communication as a mediator between principal leadership and teacher professional learning in Hong Kong primary schools. International Journal of Educational Reform25(2): 192–212.
50.
LiuSHallingerPFengD (2016) Supporting the professional learning of teachers in China: Does principal leadership make a difference?Teaching and Teacher Education59: 79–91.
51.
LockheedMEKomenanA (1989) Teaching quality and student achievement in Africa: The case of Nigeria and Swaziland. Teaching and Teacher Education5(2): 93–113.
52.
LuytenHBazoM (2019) Transformational leadership, professional learning communities, teacher learning and learner centred teaching practices: Evidence on their interrelations in Mozambican primary education. Studies in Educational Evaluation60: 14–31.
53.
McEvanEK (1994) Seven Steps to Effective Instructional Leadership. New York: Scholastic.
54.
MarksHPrintyS (2003) Principal leadership and school performance: An integration of transformational and instructional leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly39(3): 370–397.
55.
MarzanoRJPickeringDJPollockJE (2001) Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement. Alexandria: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
56.
MayHSupovitzJE (2011) The scope of principal efforts to improve instruction. Educational Administration Quarterly47(2): 332–352.
57.
MillerRJGoddardYLGoddardRLarsenRJacobR (2010) Instructional leadership: A Pathway to teacher collaboration and student achievement. In: University Council for Educational Administration convention, New Orleans, USA, 28–31 October.
58.
OlivierDFHippKKHuffmanJB (2003) Assessing schools as PLCS. In: HuffmanJBHippKK (eds) Reculturing Schools as Professional Learning Communities. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, pp.67–74.
59.
ÖzdemirN (2019) Principal leadership and students’ achievement: Mediated pathways of professional community and teachers’ instructional practices. KEDI Journal of Educational Policy16(1): 81–104.
60.
PariseLMSpillaneJP (2010) Teacher learning and instructional change: How formal and on-the-job learning opportunities predict change in elementary school teachers’ practice. Elementary School Journal110(3): 323–346.
61.
ParkJHHamSH (2016) Whose perception of principal instructional leadership? Principal–teacher perceptual (dis)agreement and its influence on teacher collaboration. Asia Pacific Journal of Education36(3): 450–469.
62.
PiyamanPHallingerPViseshsiriP (2017) Addressing the achievement gap: Exploring principal leadership and teacher professional learning in urban and rural primary schools in Thailand. Journal of Educational Administration55(6): 717–734.
63.
RecepoğluEKılınçAÇ (2014) Raising and selecting school administrators in Turkey: Present problems and solutions. Turkish Studies9: 1817–1845.
64.
RileyKSolicK (2017) ‘Change happens beyond the comfort zone’: Bringing undergraduate teacher-candidates into activist teacher communities. Journal of Teacher Education68(2): 179–192.
65.
RossJAGrayP (2006) School leadership and student achievement: the mediating effects of teacher beliefs. Canadian Journal of Education29(3): 798–822.
66.
ŞahinİKesikFBeycioğluK (2017) Chaotic process in the assignment of school administrators and its effects. Elementary Education Online16: 1007–1021.
67.
Seashore LouisKDretzkeBWahlstromK (2010) How does leadership affect student achievement? Results from a national US survey. School Effectiveness and School Improvement21(3): 315–336.
68.
SebastianJAllensworthE (2012) The influence of principal leadership on classroom instruction and student learning: A study of mediated pathways to learning. Educational Administration Quarterly48(4): 626–663.
69.
SebastianJAllensworthEHuangH (2016) The role of teacher leadership in how principals influence classroom instruction and student learning. American Journal of Education123(1): 69–108.
70.
StrongeJHWardTJTuckerPDHindmanJL (2007) What is the relationship between teacher quality and student achievement? An exploratory study. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education20(3/4): 165–184.
71.
SupovitzJSirinidesPMayH (2010) How principals and peers influence teaching and learning. Educational Administration Quarterly46(1): 31–56.
72.
ThoonenEESleegersPJOortFJPeetsmaTTGeijselFP (2011) How to improve teaching practices: The role of teacher motivation, organizational factors, and leadership practices. Educational Administration Quarterly47(3): 496–536.
73.
VescioVRossDAdamsA (2008) A review of research on the impact of professional learning communities on teaching practice and student learning. Teaching and Teacher Education24(1): 80–91.
74.
WahlstromKLouisKS (2008) How teachers experience principal leadership: The roles of professional community, trust, efficacy, and shared responsibility. Educational Administration Quarterly44(4): 458–495.
