THE ROLE OF THE PRINCIPAL IN STAFF DEVELOPMENT AND APPRAISAL
INTRODUCTION
Every organization needs a leader. The leader basically orchestrates all the activities and efforts of the members of the organization towards the fulfillment of an ultimate purpose. Schools and academic institutions are not exempted from the leadership requirement. Schools are organizations which handle one of the most meaningful functions in society – teaching people so that they would become productive members of the community. This crucial responsibility necessitates competent leadership that would direct equally competent staff and produce knowledgeable individuals.
The academic environment today is not spared from the influences of globalization. Effective schools of the modern world have to be changing and evolving to suit the needs of the staff, students and the society at large. In order to do this, all the authorities of the school have to be aware of their changing roles. Flexibility and continuous improvement should be the mindset. According to (1995) school improvement requires the principal to be enthusiastic and capable of developing a culture where the staff would adopt a mission to modify practices, values and knowledge toward a fruitful end. Two important roles connected to this requirement is staff development and staff appraisal.
THE ROLES OF THE PRINCIPAL IN STAFF DEVELOPMENT AT SCHOOL
The key role of school principals is to advance organizational development through staff empowerment and professional growth. They are to put in place and maintain staff management practices that motivate and support a high level of personnel commitment and teaching performance (1998).
Staff development in school is a process that poses certain expected actions and behaviors from the principal. First, the principal must be a “director”. He must have foresight of the future. He should know what he wants his school to accomplish, how it should be accomplished and what the staff needs to accomplish it. As a director, the principal must conceptualize a “vision” or a defined “end” for all staff performance. This role is founded on the fact that a school without a clear vision or purpose would not be able to acquire any determined direction. The vision must be formulated based on the needs of the students and the staff. Thus, the workability of the vision would only be secured if the principal is able to share it with the staff, student body and the entire school community through solicitation of ideas on a realistic and sincere vision that the school would adopt. The vision must be accompanied by strategies or the means of accomplishing it. The principal has to sit down with his staff to tackle and detail the steps to take for fulfilling the school purpose. Furthermore, the principal should determine and advocate a set of shared values in school. The values refer to the specific behaviors and attitudes necessary to fulfill the purpose. The values describe the standards of conduct that the staff would need in order to effectively carry themselves towards the vision. The principals should be knowledgeable on the necessary attitudes that would make the staff more capable of fulfilling the purpose and give more meaning to their work as educators. Second, the principal must be a “manager” of school practices. Relative to this role are the principal’s responsibility to monitor and oversee every teaching function inside the school. The principal as a manager necessitates monitoring activities like classroom observation, assessment of instructional procedures and evaluation of student performance. These activities are the primary means for the principal to check the things that are going on inside the school premises. The principal can gather information regarding the sufficiency of school materials and the level of staff competence. Staff development takes place if the staff can see that the principal is interested in staff efforts, endeavors and outcomes. Also the role of principal as a manager who monitors teaching processes would help the school to identify any training needs of the staff that would assist them in making their teaching function more responsive to student needs. Third, the principal must be a “motivator”. He should foster and maintain a collaborative atmosphere in school so that all teachers would feel a sense of belongingness. Feeling of isolation among the teachers is not healthy. A teacher who feels isolated would not be encouraged to teach well or to contribute to the fulfillment of the school purpose. Thus, principals must make collaboration the rule of thumb in their schools. Collaboration paves the way for sharing of knowledge, issues and concerns so that everyone can contribute to the steps for resolution and ensure better practice. Corollary to this, school principals must commit to open communication and continuous learning. Teachers must be able to enjoy unrestricted dialogues with their colleagues, whether formal or informal. Open and honest communication makes the staff voice out grievances that may have an impact on the whole school setting. Collaboration can be encouraged by the principal through regular staff meetings, peer observation and coaching. Principals who commit to continuous learning persuade teachers to learn new skills and competence, assist them in the adjustment stage brought about by practicing a new technique, appreciate efforts, and celebrate remarkable improvement. Collaboration, communication and continuous learning make the staff feel free in their work and also give them a chance to share their ideas to others as well as learn from their colleagues in return. Fifth, principals must be “innovators”. They should not be afraid to experiment on new and better ways to deliver education to the students. The principal must adopt the thinking that schools that do not change cannot adapt to the changing environment and are likely to yield incompetent staff and graduates. Innovation means that the principals persuade their personnel in a professional manner to adopt varying perspectives and strategies in the daily performance of their jobs, or identifying teachers who do not deliver expected results. Principals should recognize established and research-based teaching methods but should also value the essence of continuous trainings, action research, and study groups. These activities would expose the school to updated methods of teaching based on new situations in the education setting. The principal must be open minded and must be able to identify the new methods and procedures relevant to the purpose of the school in order to ensure that teachers have contemporary instructional methods. Finally, principals must be “advocating educators”. They should advance individual and collective efficacy as well as confidence. Principals as advocates and educators support teachers’ procedures that are helpful to the school, and display steadfast confidence and faith to the staff’s ability to improve teaching and learning practices. Staff who can see that their principal is not supportive and confident would not be encouraged to pursue continuous professional growth. Moreover, principals must develop and communicate concise and ongoing school practices and development initiatives. School practices and development initiatives should be continuous and focused to the desired outcomes so that the staff would think that they are not mere ad-hoc tasks to be haphazardly accomplished and thus, would motivate them to do more (1995).
THE ROLES OF THE PRINCIPAL IN STAFF APPRAISAL AT SCHOOL
Every academic institution has to establish a teacher appraisal system that would assess teaching performance, identify best practices, and detect any areas of improvement. The principals take the general roles of director, manager, motivator, innovator and advocating educator in staff appraisal. As a director, the principal plans the entire appraisal system. The planning phase requires the effort and intellect of the principal and all personnel. The principal’s key role as director and planner is focused in formulating strategies and procedures for the appraisal system. The principal must be able to seek the cooperation of the staff in conceptualizing the components of the appraisal system including the aspects to be evaluated and the grading system, and how the whole scheme should be executed in the school (1998). The components of the appraisal system and the strategies for doing it must be aligned with the articulated vision and values of the school. The principal has to have a through understanding of the vision and values that govern the vision in order to identify the best strategies that would capture the essential issues of professional evaluation in the school (2003). Second, the principal’s role as a manager and motivator in the teacher appraisal requires him to oversee, lead, coordinate and support the entire appraisal system and negotiate it with all the entities in the school. After the teachers and principal have discussed and approved the components and strategies of the system, the principal must disseminate a concise written outline of the teacher appraisal system to all personnel to guarantee a unified understanding of how the process would be administered and implemented. The principal would set a specific period of doing the appraisal and must communicate it to all staff. He should ensure strict adherence to the schedule and should impart to the staff the thinking that the appraisal is not a means to criticize their performance. Rather, it is a way of recognizing their achievements and identifying areas of improvement so that the school can come up with strategies to help them address their difficulties. The principal can also manage the appraisal system by participating in certain activities life classroom observations in order to monitor teacher’s behaviors inside the classroom, how well he or she delivers the lesson, how he or she answers student inquiries or clarify vague matters, and how he or she effectively solicits the participation of the students in the lesson. Third, the principal’s roles as innovator and advocating educators can come together as he designs actions on the results of the appraisal. All results of the teacher appraisal process must be kept confidential between the staff being evaluated, the supervisor and the principal. The principal’s role as advocate means that he protects the interests of the staff. Thus, he should commit to the confidentiality on the entire appraisal system. He should not compare the performance of the staff with each other to avoid any prejudices or favoritism. Furthermore, since the appraisal can detect areas of improvement, the principal’s roles as innovator and advocating educators come into being in case of teacher inefficiency. The principal should be able to consistently monitor the performance of the staff identified as being inefficient; engage the staff, upon his or her consent, in a formal assistance or improvement program; professionally meet with the teacher in order to explain the whole procedure, schedules and any decisions obtained from the procedures as well as listen to the staff’s responses and opinion regarding the whole thing; and prepare all pertinent documentations, details and reports to the highest school authority regarding the teacher’s situation. The principal must also ensure that all actions derived from the staff’s assessment should be carried out by the staff or the supervisor. The essence of the appraisal system comes to completion when the results are used to support staff development (1998).
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