The Effectiveness of School Leaders’ Professional Development Programs in Promoting the Components of Professional Learning Communities in Jordan Public Secondary Schools According to School Leaders’ and Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices

Abstract

ABSTRACT IN ENGLISH This study primarily aims to investigate the effectiveness of school leaders’ Professional Development Programs in promoting the characteristics of Professional Learning Communities in Jordan public secondary schools, through collecting and understanding the School Leaders’ (i.e., Principals’, Vice Principals’) and Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices. Thus, this study included two research questions as follows: What are the school leaders’ and teachers’ perceptions and practice of the effectiveness of school leaders’ Professional Development Programs in promoting the characteristics of Professional Learning Communities at Jordanian public secondary schools? To what extent do demographic differences among participants account for the effectiveness of school leaders’ Professional Development Programs in promoting the characteristics of Professional Learning Communities at Jordanian public secondary schools? The perceptions of the school leaders about the effectiveness of school leaders’ Professional Development Programs in supporting them to promote the characteristics of Professional Learning Communities at their schools showed that the designing process of needs improvement, the delivery of training was appropriate, weakness of evaluation procedures for professional development, the absence of follow up visits for the school leaders, the presence of logistics difficulties and support of the school leaders’ Professional Development Programs related to Professional Learning Communities. Furthermore, the perceptions of the teachers about the extent of practicing the characteristics of Professional Learning Communities illustrated the nonexistence of clear common goals, vision, values and mission for all educators at the school related to the students’ learning, disorganized collaboration among educators, the lack of collective inquiry, the absence of action orientation, teachers commitment to continuous improvement is weak, the randomness of results orientation within the public schools and the weakness of school’s leadership role in promoting some components of the professional learning community. In general, some results indicated to significant statistical differences related to the demographic differences among participants (regarding the effectiveness of school leaders’ Professional Development Programs in promoting the characteristics of Professional Learning Communities at Jordanian public secondary schools.