Nillsen (2004) defines integrity as wholeness or completeness, the perfection while

there are those who consider the integrity of the soundness of moral principle which refers to
the sincerity and honesty. The importance of integrity in education is to ensure the high
quality of services especially by teachers. The integrity of the teacher as a public
servant means that teachers need to implement trusts and powers entrusted
by the public interest. Teachers should not abuse power for personal interests
and biased second or third party. Malaysian Institute of Integrity (2004)
stated that as a public servant, he must be transparent and sincere, and to
undertake responsibility for his boss, subordinates and to the other party.
Teachers with integrity will be accountable for their pupils especially in
teaching and learning processes. Therefore, it is vital for all teachers to follow
and obey the Teachers Code of Ethics as it can help professional teachers to
take care of their image of profession and reputation. Otherwise, it can affect
negatively on the teachers and other related parties as it arises integrity
issues in education.
One of the issues regarding teachers integrity is the issue of politeness. Politeness
is conduct or behaviour that is able to establish a good relationship with each other that
make a society that is in harmony and friendly. Politeness involves both verbal and
nonverbal behaviour. It is expected from each teacher that they must exhibit courteous
behaviour through his words, able to communicate in appropriate social context and control
his behaviour. It is normal to encounter colleagues that you may admire and respect, and
even encounter someone who is obnoxious. Every teacher has to always portray good
behaviour and be respectful towards each other when working together with other teachers
in school. Even so, there are still cases of teachers showing their act of unprofessionalism
by behaving according to their emotions. In Pahang, there was a case in which a teacher
was recorded in a video having a fight and challenged the Headmaster of SK Jenderak. The
teacher was said to be very emotional and liked causing a scene. Besides that, the teacher
even vented out his rage towards his pupils. The teacher was said to have been reported to
District Education Office by a parent of the pupil whom he threatened to hit. This case
affected negatively on the teachers and the schools reputation. Teachers are carrying the
responsibility of educating the future generation, so, it is advised that teachers work together
harmoniously. They need to cooperate with each other in order to protect the image of the
profession to be accountable towards their colleagues.
Besides that, another issue is business in school. There are many teachers in school
that are doing businesses during school hours even though the school itself forbids any
activity regarding business in the school premise. It shows poor integrity of the teacher as
they cannot be professional at their own workplace. Some businesses that are common
among teachers are selling cosmetic products like Avon, other products like Tupperware and
so on. Hurst & Reding (2006) said that as an educator, you are a facilitator to learning; your
students should always be uppermost in your mind as you plan your lesson plans and strive
to accomplish your goals. Concerns and their worries are not without foundation because
some teachers are enthusiastic businessperson and tend to forget and neglect their
responsibilities. Teachers as such affect the image of the noble profession in the past. The
teacher should perform duties as an educator in the classroom instead of doing business in
school.
Next, another issue is regarding appearance of teachers. Appearance of teachers
refers to the personal characteristics of the teacher, including attitudes, beliefs, interests,
appreciation and values. Stewart (2005) defines the appearance of the character traits and
personality that are considered necessary for a person's success as a teacher include
aspects of responsibility, dependability, creativity, empathy and professionalism. It is the
nature of a teachers job that makes the teacher a role model to the students. It is important
for teachers to practice what they preach. Teachers who are good role models can
encourage accountability, good discipline and willingness in learning among the pupils. Even
so, there are so many cases that showed teachers who disobeyed Teachers Code of Ethics.
Some of the cases include sexual activities with students or teachers, teachers involving in
illegal drug activities and so on. This reflects poorly on the noble teaching profession as it
models in a negative way. Teachers should always show good attitude with firm beliefs and
have good values to be a good role model as it can shape the behaviour of our future
generation.
Last but not least, the issue on the importance of establishing good parent-teacher
relationships. Parental involvement can free teachers to focus more on the task of teaching
students. Also, by having more contact with parents, teachers learn more about students'
needs and home environment. The information about their home environment can be
applied towards meeting pupils learning needs. Besides that, parents who are involved tend
to have a more positive view of teachers, which results in improved morality of teachers. .
Hurst & Reding (2006) said that teachers will need to be the one to make an effort to
communicate consistently, be open about things that are going on in the classroom, and give
parents the reassurance that you are readily available if they have questions or concerns.
Even so, there are many teacher overlooked the importance of having good parent-teacher
relationships and this resulted in many cases where parents do not trust their childrens
teacher and increasing the number of teachers being reported and sued for discipline
actions that taken on the student. There is no trust and this give reasons for the parents to
think negatively on the teacher.
 These types of issues can affect negatively on the credibility of the noble teaching
profession. Teachers who conducted actions that disregard the Teachers Code of Ethics
clearly showed that the teachers are not accountable towards any party and have poor
integrity. Therefore, the authority should acknowledge the problems and implement suitable
actions like frequent observations in school. This also needs to be in line with good values
from every individual involved to achieve excellence in carrying out the responsibility of a
teacher.

References

Institut Integriti Negara (2004), Pelan Integriti Negara, Kuala Lumpur: Kementerian Jabatan
Perdana Menteri.

Hurst B. & Reding G. (2006), Professionalism in Teaching, Pearson Education Inc,Upper

Saddle River, New Jersey, 40-50.

Nillsen, A. (2004), 'The Concept of Integrity in Teaching and Learning', Paper Presented in
Symposium on Promoting Academic Integrity, Newcastle NSW, 24-25 November 2004,
University of Newcastle.

Stewart, P. & Davis, S. (2005), 'Developing Dispositions of Preservice Teachers Through

Membership in Professional Organizations', Journal of Authentic Learning, Vol.2(l),
September 2005.
Data Collected from Observations and Interview on the Schools Academic Excellence

Last July, my practicum partner and I had undergone an internship program in

Sekolah Kebangsaan Samarahan Estate, Serian (SKSES). The school is classified as
Sekolah Kurang Murid (SKM) with a total of only 100 pupils including the preschool children.
According to the Ministry of Education (2013), there are 34% of primary schools in Malaysia
with the enrolment of less than 150 pupils which have been classifies as Sekolah Kurang
Murid (SKM).
There is 17 school staff which consists of 15 school teachers and 2 adminstrative
assistants. The facilities that are available in the school are 6 classrooms, a remedial
classroom, resource center, multipurpose hall, staff room, pre-school, prayer room, school
canteen and a few other rooms for Rancangan Makanan Tambahan (RMT) and so on.
During the internship program in SKSES, I have been doing some observations and
interviews to investigate on the factors that contributed to the schools academic
achievements. After a number of interview sessions with the Headmaster, Encik Mustapha
bin Haji Reli and some other school teachers, I found out that the school is an excellent
school in terms of its academics and co-curricular achievements. All the teachers worked
hard to help their pupils in achieving excellent results in Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah
(UPSR). Even though SKSES is a SKM school, it is not an excuse for the school to achieve
academic excellence. This is proven by a number of information collected from the school
teachers regarding on its performance. The evidences of the schools academic excellence
are as follows:

1. Statistics of Pupils Achievement in UPSR from 2011 to 2015

Based on the statistics of UPSR results from year 2011 to 2015, SKSES have shown good
achievements from year to another year. One of the challenges of having a small number of
pupils is the difficulty in achieving excellent results in UPSR. For instance, if there are only 3
candidates sitting for UPSR in that year, it means that each candidate would contribute
33.33% to the schools UPSR results. Thus, if one candidate fails in any subject, the
percentage of UPSR results will decrease significantly. However, it was not an excuse for the
administrators and school teachers to be able to produce great results for UPSR. This was
proven with the schools academic achievement in UPSR starting from 2011 till 2015. The
school had shown a satisfactory increment in their UPSR results. The percentage of passing
every subject and the overall results were very impressive. The statistics of pupils
achievement in UPSR from 2011 till 2015 are as follows:
Percentage of UPSR Result of SKSES from 2011 till 2015
100

90

80

70

60

Percentage (%) 50

40

30

20

10

0
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Percentage of UPSR Results of SKSES from 2011 till 2015

Based on the above chart, it can be seen that almost all subjects showed increments from
year to year. Even though BM (Comprehension) and Mathematics were decreasing in
between 2011 to 2013, both subjects showed a major increment in 2014 and 2015 with
100%. This shows that the school administration, school teachers and the school community
had come together with full effort in producing excellent pupils in academics, despite being a
small school with a small number of pupils. Good leadership existed in the school
contributed a lot into the schools achievement.

2. Special Recognition in Academics and Co-Curricular Activities

Based on my observation and interview data collected, I found out other achievements aside
from the UPSR results. SKSES were able to obtain a number of special recognitions and
certificates from Serian District Education Office and Sarawak State Education Department.
Some of the recognitions and certificates obtained are as follows:

1) Achieving 100% for all subjects in UPSR 2014.

2) Achieving 100% for all subjects in UPSR 2015.
3) Best achievement in BM (Comprehension) in UPSR 2014 and 2015.
 4) Best achievement in BM (Writing) in UPSR 2014 and 2015.
5) Best achievement in English in UPSR 2014 and 2015.
6) Best achievement in Mathematics in UPSR 2014 and 2015.
7) Best achievement in Science in UPSR 2014 and 2015.

SK SAMARAHAN ESTATE

SK SAMARAHAN ESTATE

Academic Certificates of Appreciation of Sekolah Kebangsaan Samarahan Estate, Serian

Some of the recognitions and achievement in co-curricular activities are as follows:

 1) Winner of Nasyid Competition
2) Action Song Competition representing Zon Taie

3) Football Competition representing Zon Taie

4) Netball Competition representing SKSES

The certificates and recognitions were awarded to the school because they were showing
good results in academic and active participation in co-curricular activities. This clearly
shows that SKSES have good achievement in both academic and co-curricular activities.
This shows that the school administration, school teachers and the school community had
come together with full effort in producing excellent pupils in academics, despite being a
small school with a small number of pupils. Good leadership existed in the school
contributed a lot into the schools achievement.
3. Position of SKSES based on Results of UPSR 2014 and 2015 in Serian District
Sekolah Kebangsaan Samarahan Estate (SKSES) is one of the schools in Serian to be able
to obtain low band. According to the Headmaster of SKSES, the schools with low band are
the high achieving schools with good performance. The assessments were done by the
District Education Office on all primary schools and secondary schools. The purpose was to
acknowledge the level of academic excellence of a school. Academic excellence in UPSR is
every schools target. The table below shows the school average grade of SKSES form 2011
to 2015:

Year School Average Grade (GPS) Band

2011 2.76 3
2012 2.33 3
2013 2.15 3
2014 1.83 2
2015 1.54 1
Average Grade and Band of SKSES from 2011 to 2015

Based on the above table, we can clearly see the increment of the average grade
starting from year 2011 till 2015. The decline in the value of the school average grade
proved that SKSES is consistent in improving its academic achievement. The decline of
school average grade which was as much as 0.32 from 2013 to 2014 made SKSES obtained
Band 2 in 2014. The drastic improvement of SKSES academic achievement was also proven
when the school obtained Band 1 in 2015 with 1.54 school average grade. This shows that
the school administration, school teachers and the school community had come together
with full effort in producing excellent pupils in academics, despite being a small school with a
small number of pupils. Good leadership existed in the school contributed a lot into the
schools achievement.

Teachers'
Teaching Styles
and Pupils'
Learning Styles
Report on Factors and Leadership Contributing to Academic Excellence of SKSES

The academic excellence of SKSES is very impressive and it is not easy to obtain
results as such. The school management like the school administration, the hardworking
teachers and school community must haveFactors
School shown positive
of attitudes in the effort of ensuring
Parent-Teacher
Administrator Academic Relationships
Relationships
the excellence of the school. There are Excellence
a lot of things that amount to the success of an
(Program)
organization, and leadership without a doubt is one of the main reasons for this success.

The academic excellence of a school is influenced by a number of leadership factors

whether it happens directly or indirectly. Based on the observations and interview conducted
Cooperation
between
Teachers
during Practicum Phase 3 and Internship program in SKSES, I found out that the school has
a consistency in achieving its academic excellence. According to the Headmaster, Encik
Mustapha bin Haji Reli, he said that SKSES is one of the most potential school in Serian
District. Therefore, I decided to investigate in depth on the leadership factors that contributed
to the excellence. The evidences of the academic excellence were written in previous
academic writing. These are the summary on the factors contributed to the excellence of the
SKSES:

Leadership Factors Contributed to the Excellence of the SKSES

1. School Administrator

Campbell, Corbally & Ramesyer (1967) observe in Introduction to Educational

Administration that the educational administration consists of facilitating the development of
goals and policies basic to teaching and learning, stimulating the development of appropriate
programmes for teaching and learning and procuring and managing personnel and material
to implement teaching and learning. Every administrator aims to achieve a quality and
excellent school. Every headmaster is first of all a teacher and then an administrator. There
is no organisation without a leader and a headmaster holds the key position in the school.
The headmaster should act as the leader of the team of teachers working with him, seeking
for co-operation and also giving help to them when needed. Every group needs a leader,
even a school must have a leader who would stimulate and direct the work. There will be no
quality or successful school if the teachers work as individuals instead of as a group. The
leadership style that is practiced will affect the excellence of a school.

According to Yukl (2005), he defines leadership as the process of influencing others

to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of
facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives. Northouse
(2007) defines leadership as a process whereby an individual influences a group of
individuals to achieve a common goal. Based on these perspectives, leadership as a
process means that leaders can positively or negatively affect and are affected by their
followers. It emphasizes that leadership is an interactive two way event between leaders and
followers. Leadership operates in groups and this means that leadership is about influencing
a group of people who are engaged in a common goal or purpose. This indicates the
importance of leadership style of the school administrator as it influences the effort in
building an excellent school. The school administrator would be the main leader which is the
headmaster. The headmaster is the main leader in the school administration who will support
and ensure the success of school programs. High quality of leadership is needed to manage
and organise the school to produce a better generation. It is important to have a headmaster
with effective leadership to ensure the effectiveness of implementation of educational
policies in school level.

An effective leadership style was clearly shown by the headmaster of SKSES in

playing his role as a leader. He always makes sure that every school activity or program will
be carried out smoothly without problems and gives positive impact to the pupils. The pupils
were able to obtain excellent results in UPSR and also contributed greatly in their extra co-
curricular activities. The headmaster is a visionary, proactive and willing to take the risk of
changes inclined to the modern world for the importance and the future of the pupils. This
will guide and push the school community to achieve greater success. This means that the
schools success and excellence is in the headmasters hand. The headmaster should have
a lot of skills and abilities besides teaching that can be a role model for every other teacher
in the school. Besides that, he should be able to adjust and interpret the school environment,
apply the most suitable and effective leadership style for various situations.

The Contingency Theory of Leadership Effectiveness by Fiedler (1964) suggests that

leadership is an influence process where the ease or difficulty of exerting influence is a
function of the favourableness of the group task situation for the leader. Even though it has
been recognized that the favourableness of each group task situation may depend on
different variables, the three most commonly acknowledged determinants stated in their
order of importance are leader-member relations, task structure, and position power. Based
on my observations and interviews with the school teachers, the headmaster established a
very healthy relationship with the school community as he is both friendly and professional in
being a leader. The headmaster is smart in reading difficult situations, solving problems and
directs the teachers to be accountable for their actions. The headmaster is able to pay great
attention to leadership aspects such as leadership style, knowledge, co-operation,
motivations, curriculum and able to lead school organisation. The headmasters good rapport
with the school community enables him to create a conducive environment for teaching and
learning and strive in the effort to produce human capital. The attributes of the headmaster
have a relation on the implication of behavioural theory. Blake and Mouton (1964) developed
a "Grid" after researching on the behaviours in a leadership. A leader gives attention to good
relationships with their subordinates. This can be seen in the headmasters leadership as he
takes good care of his relationship with the school teachers. This can results in full support
from the school community in implementing school activities and programs. For example, all
of the teachers were giving full support during the implementation of Semangat UPSR for
Year 6 that can help achieve excellent results. This was proven from the consistent
increment in the passing percentage of UPSR results from 2011 till 2015.

The headmaster of SKSES showed that he practiced democratic leadership style. The
definition of democratic leadership conceptualized by White and Lippitt (1960) emphasize
group participation, discussion, and group decisions encouraged by the leader. Anderson
(1959) defined the democratic leader as one who shares decision making with the other
members. He asserted that democratic leadership is associated with higher morale in most
situations. Hackman & Johnson (1996) stated that democratic leadership is associated with
increased follower productivity, satisfaction, involvement, and commitment. This means that
the leader encourages its followers to be involved in the decision-making process even
though the final decision would be entirely decided by the leader. This leadership style can
help leaders to gain different ideas and creative solutions. This way, teachers will feel
involved and important and directly can increase working productivity. This shows that
democratic leadership is suitable to be practiced as the headmaster and the subordinates
can discuss on ways to improve their teaching practices. This way, teachers can exchange
perspectives and have better understanding of the pupils in catering to their learning needs.
Thus, teachers can support and guide the pupils in their interest and learning so that every
learning objective can be achieved successfully.
2. Teachers Teaching Style and Pupils Learning Style

Teachers teaching style influences the pupils learning style and this can be categorized into
leadership attributes. A teacher should always be committed in mastering pedagogy
knowledge and use it to improve teaching practices to give positive impact to pupils learning
processes. Based on my observations, I found out that the teachers give a significant
consideration in choosing their teaching styles. The teachers were always committed and
dedicated in preparing lesson plans and learning materials to support the pupils learning
processes. The teachers always come out with meaningful visual aids to enhance pupils
comprehension in learning new knowledge. All of the teachers are accountable for their
responsibility in educating the pupils. They carry out their responsibilities in ensuring that no
pupils are left behind in education and help to build good character in every pupil.

The school teachers of SKSES applied cooperative learning in their teaching and learning
processes. Siegel (2005) defined cooperative learning as an educational situation where
learning occurs while two or more students are working together to complete a common
task. For example, in English class, the teacher encourages cooperative learning by giving a
topic and the pupils discusses in groups about their prior knowledge regarding the topic into
graphic organizers like bubble map. There are many benefits of cooperative learning as it
helps to actively engage more children in learning than do teacher-centred methodologies,
encourages pupils to support their classmates in a group rather than to compete against one
another, provides the opportunity for higher-achieving pupils to help pupils who are slower
learners and improve the motivation of many pupils by offering the opportunity to more
students to experience the joy of winning in the case of cooperative activities that require
games.

The leadership shown by the teachers of SKSES is highly related to the Trait Theory of
Leadership. Leader traits are defined in reference to leader effectiveness. Leader traits can
be defined by Zaccaro (2004) as relatively coherent and integrated patterns of personal
characteristics, reflecting a range of individual differences that foster consistent leadership
effectiveness across a variety of group and organizational situations. 10 Traits of Highly
Effective Teachers: How to Hire, Coach, and Mentor Successful Teachers by McEwan
(2001) stated that traits of an effective teacher is a teacher who ensure that the teaching and
learning processes gives a positive impact on the students. Effective teachers master every
pedagogical skills including communicative skills, teaching skills, choosing suitable teaching
methods as well as applying learning theories to make sure every lesson helps pupils to
learn better. Effective teachers also should master good classroom management skills and
encourage active participation in class. The school teachers of SKSES have shown these
effective teachers traits which are admirable.

In my opinion, the leadership of a teacher can be shown by addressing each pupils learning
styles. Every pupil has a different learning style and teachers can optimize every pupils
learning processes by applying different teaching strategies to cater to pupils needs. The
theory of multiple intelligences, developed by Howard Gardner, posits that individuals
possess eight or more autonomous intelligences. It is said that individuals draw on these
intelligences to create products and solve problems that are relevant to the societies in
which they live in. Gardner (1999) stated that the eight identified intelligences include
linguistic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, spatial intelligence, musical
intelligence, bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence, naturalistic intelligence, interpersonal
intelligence, and intrapersonal intelligence. Teachers should be aware of the different
intelligences and use it as a guide in stimulating pupils learning based on their tendency in
how they acquire knowledge. Teachers can acknowledge the different lerning styles and
adjust teaching strategies for every type of learners. The role teachers as reflective
practitioners should always plan and act with full awareness based on the theory and
principles of teaching and learning.

3. Parent-Teacher Relationships (Program)

The next factor that contributed to the excellence of the school is good relationships between
the parents and the teachers. This was mentioned by the headmaster, Encik Mustapha bin
Haji Reli, that one of the schools specialty is the relationship between parents and the
teachers. There were many programs conducted in the school to ensure the existence of the
cooperation in improving the pupils school performance.
 Report Card Day (UPSR Candidates)

Home Teaching Aids Workshop with Parents and Guardians

The first picture was a program called Hari Permuafakatan Bersama Ibu Bapa or
Report Card Day especially with the parents of UPSR candidates. The purpose of the
program was to inform the parents of their childrens academic performance. If there is any
learning or discipline problems, it is discussed with the parents on how to solve the
problems. The good and established relationships between the parents and the teachers
showed that the Teachers Code of Ethics was followed. It is the teachers responsibility to
give relevant information to the parents for their own importance. In return, the teachers can
also gain some insights and information on how to handle the pupils based on their parents
perspectives. Meanwhile, the second picture was a program conducted with the parents and
guardian of the preschool children. Teachers taught and guided the parents on how to create
teaching aids that can be used to teach their children at home. Through activity as such, the
parents and guardian can create an interesting learning environment at home with the
pupils. Besides these two, there are a number of activities that were conducted to help
improve the schools academic excellence such as Permata Pagi, Guru Penyayang,
English on Air and My Favourite Subject. I was very intrigued with the various program that
the school had conducted. It cannot be denied that without the cooperation from the parents,
the pupils school performance cannot be improved. Even with hardworking teachers and full
effort, without the parents cooperation, the objectives to improve pupils performance will be
hard to achieve. Teachers should always lead the parents in contributing to the pupils school
performance.

This factor is closely related to the Ecological Systems Theory by Urie Bronfenbrenner.
According to Bronfenbrenner (1979), a childs development is shaped by the varied systems
of the childs environment and also by the interrelationships among the systems. The
relationship between the child and the environment is reciprocal; the environment influences
the child and the child influences the environment. Human beings can fully develop within a
system of relationships that include family and society. Paquette and Ryan (2001) define the
mesosystem by saying that this layer produces the connections between the child
microsystems, i.e. connections between the childs teacher and the parents or the childs
church and the neighbourhood. For example, what happens in a micro system, such as the
home in which a child lives, can influence what happens in the school or a playground, and
what happens in a school or a playground can influence interactions at home. More
specifically, a parents and a teachers involvement in the childs education, if mutual, will
result in mesosystem functioning. The connection can also be expected to have distal
processes at work because they help the family to provide the necessary support a child
needs. The pupils that are in a functioning mesosystem is believed to have good level of
development especially in their academic. This is resulted from positive communication
between the childrens environment and their parents. This theory emphasized on the
importance of the environment and its implication to childrens development. The
understanding of the theory can help us understand the pupils conditions, conduct
enrichment strategy and intervention to help the pupils in learning. This proves the
headmasters opinion stating that good relationships between the parents and the teachers
contributed to the excellence of the school. There were many programs conducted in the
school to ensure the existence of the cooperation in improving the pupils school
performance. In playing the role as an agent of socialization, teachers should be involved in
community activities organized by the local community as a family day, cultural activities,
gotong-royong and so on. In terms of social relationships, the teacher should be caring and
respect individual differences because teachers may be invited as a coach, speakers or
special guests in particular event of the local community. Teachers can give assistance in
contributing expertise, energy, time and money to ensure the success of these activities.
This way, teachers have the opportunity to socialize with parents, residents and community
leaders and get to know the practice and culture of the local community in depth.

4. Leadership in the Cooperation of Teachers and School Community

Besides the cooperation from parent-teacher relationships, the cooperation between

teachers is very important in effort of improving pupils academic performance. Based on my
observations, the school teachers always discuss among themselves about the teaching
problems that they experienced and exchange ideas on how they can solve the problems.
Some of the problems discussed were on how to encourage active participation of passive
pupils in the classroom, the use of teaching aids to engage pupils in learning and so ob. The
teachers would take the chance to share their problems and embrace criticism and new
ideas for improvement. The school teachers were very disciplined and dedicated in making
sure that the pupils do their best in learning to achieve academic excellence.

This shows the teachers concerns of their responsibility and their pupils, closely related to
the Theory of Thoughtfulness by Fuller. Fuller (1969) defined concern as the impression of
teacher or something that is considered to be a problem and would like to make something
about it. There are three levels of concern for teachers starting from early stages of teaching,
where the teacher is concern about the ability of themselves, the concern of their task and
the third level impacts associated with their teaching to the students. The school teachers of
SKSES showed concern of their task which is the second stage. The focus is on how to
implement and improve teaching and how to master the content of subjects including
discipline, classroom management, assessment, planning and preparation, methods and
strategies of teaching and so on. Teachers who reach the stage of development are starting
to have the confidence to tackle everyday tasks and can overcome the problem of discipline
in classrooms. I believe that it should be done by all school teachers, not only teachers in the
early stages of teaching service. Teachers should always improve their teaching practices for
it to be relevant in todays world.

The role of teachers as practitioner of knowledge and skills carry the responsibility to always
seek knowledge and practice to meet the educational needs of the future generation of the
country. Practitioners of knowledge mean always looking and improving knowledge, use or
apply knowledge in various aspects of life. Teachers should share their knowledge without
expecting any reward and recognition for the advancement of the nation. Teachers of
SKSES have shown the attitude to 'learn to teach', improve the mastery of knowledge and
education content knowledge through reading, discussion with colleagues and attend in-
service courses as the teachers need to be concerned about the development of knowledge
and current skills to provide a meaningful learning experience of pupils. Another thing that I
observed in the working culture was that the school teachers feel responsible to ensure the
quality of their colleagues teaching performance. This directly ensures the quality of the
pupils learning processes. The dedication of all teachers proved to be one of reasons for
their academic excellence, especially shown in their UPSR results. The teachers of SKSES
agreed on monthly observation for every teacher and the observations are scheduled. The
observations act as peer assessment among the teachers to make sure that the teaching
practices are suitable, relevant and cater to the learning needs. Besides, it can help teachers
to be reflective on their teaching practices and give a positive impact to the pupils. The
cooperation between the school teachers is clear when they give each other building
criticism to improve as an educator.

In conclusion, there are a number of factors that contributes to the academic

excellence of a school. Some of the factors are the leadership of the school administrator,
teaching and learning styles, parent-teacher relationships established through programs and
the cooperation among the school teachers. Professional teachers should be able to unite
and work together with school administrators in improving schools achievement. Leadership
style like democratic leadership will be able to involve leader and its subordinates into
healthy discussions to come out with solutions and insightful ideas for improvement. This
way, the productivity in the school community can be fully maximized for better results in the
future.

References
Anderson, R. C. (1959). Learning in discussions: A resume of the authoritarian-democratic
studies. Harvard Educational Review, 29, 201-212.

Blake, Robert R. and Jane S. Mouton (1964), The Managerial Grid, Houston: Gulf Publishing
Company.

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature

and Design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Campbell, R. F., Corbally, J. E., & Ramseyer, J. A. (1967). Introduction to Educational

Administration (3rd Edition). Boston: Ally and Bacon.

Elaine McEwan (2002). 10 Traits of Highly Effective Teachers: N. Colflesh, Ph.D., Colflesh &
Assoc., How to Hire, Coach and Mentor Successful Teachers. Corwin Press.

FIEDLER, F. E. A contingency model of leadership effectiveness. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.),

Advances in experimental social psychology. Vol. 1, New York: Academic Press, 1964.

Fuller, F. F. (1969), 'Conceps of Teachers: A Developmental Conceptualization', American

Educational Research Journal, 6 (2), Hal. 207-226.

Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. (1996). Leadership: A communication perspective (2nd

ed.). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.

Northouse, P. G. (2009). Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practice. Thousand

Oaks: Sage Publications.

Paquette, D. & Ryan, J. 2001. Bronfenbrenners Ecological Systems Theory.

http://pt3.nl.edu/paquetteryanwebquest.pdf. (9.9.2007.)

Siegel, C. (2005). Implementing a research based model of cooperative learning. The

Journal of Educational Research. 98 (6).1-15.

White, R. K., & Lippitt, R. O. (1960). Autocracy and democracy: An experimental inquiry.
New York: Harper & Brothers.

Yukl, G. A. (2005). Leadership in Organizations (6th ed.). Harlow, United Kingdom:

Pearson/Prentice Hall.

Zaccaro, S. J., Kemp, C., & Bader, P. (2004). Leader traits and attributes. In J. Antonakis, A.
T. Cianciolo, and R. J. Sternberg (Eds.), The nature of leadership (pp. 101124).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Appendices