Copyright © 2018 Authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7 (3.30) (2018) 449-452 International Journal of Engineering & Technology Website: www.sciencepubco.com/index.php/IJET Research paper Principals’ Instructional Leadership towards Teachers' Self-Efficacy Nitce Isa Medina Machmudi Isa 1 , Azlin Norhaini Mansor 1* , Jamalul Lail Abdul Wahab 1 Bity Salwana Alias 1 1 Faculty of Education, National University of Malaysia *Corresponding author E-mail: azlinmansor@ukm.edu.my Abstract Principals’ instructional leadership practices have proved to be an imperative predictor to teachers’ self-efficacy. Yet, educators are con- cerned about the ability to adapt to new instructional leaderships due to unspoken principal-teacher expectations. This paper discusses the extent of instructional leadership practices by two newly transferred principals at two different schools. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine how their instructional leadership practices affected the self-efficacy of the teachers. Through the use of a cross- sectional survey, responses made by 64 teachers employed in one public school and one privately-run school, were compared. The Prin- cipal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS) Teacher Short Form and the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) were used for data collection. The findings showed a high level of instructional leadership practices and self-efficacy in both schools. The test re- sults indicated a strong and positive relationship between the principals’ perceived instructional leadership practices and the teachers’ self-efficacy. Some of the details even suggested that newly transferred principals enforce specific school goals as their main agenda. Nevertheless, the areas of significance identified by this study may help district school superintendents develop the right knowledge to support newly transferred principals in their instructional leadership, thus enhancing teachers’ self-efficacy at the school level. Keywords: instructional leadership; public schools; principal; private schools; self-efficacy. 1. Introduction There has been a substantial development in instructional leader- ship since the 1980s. Over three decades, instructional leadership has been the subject of research that needs constant enrichment to its findings in order to gain a better understanding. There has been little agreement to define an ideal principal that is agreed by most researchers (1), especially to look into the impact of instructional leadership in an increasingly important area such as in Southeast Asia (2). Nonetheless, research has suggested that the impact of instruction- al leadership on student outcomes is notably greater than that of transformational or other types of leadership (3). Additionally, this has called for more evaluations and trainings to accommodate the role of principals’ instructional leadership in a different context (4) (5) Allio, 2012), as well as research studies related to teachers. How instructional leadership is experienced and instructionally enacted by teachers is much less clear (7). Therefore, the urge to have more findings would bring in useful information on the sub- ject of principal-teacher relationship. The principals’ instructional leadership proved to be an imperative predictor to teachers’ self- efficacy (8,9) which can indirectly contribute to student learning outcomes (10). In retrospect, Bandura (1977) pioneered the use of Social Cognitive Theory which yielded the concept of self- efficacy. The concept, which gained vast attention among re- searchers in educational settings rests on four major sources: emo- tional and physical state, mastery experience, vicarious experience (provided by social models) and social persuasion. Another primary concern related to this issue is how fast teachers adapt to their new principal’s instructional leadership practices. A reason for the link between the principals’ instructional leadership and the teachers’ self-efficacy has to do with expectations from both parties. Enacted in the context of active instructional leader- ship, the teachers’ self-efficacy is nurtured when the principals are providing necessary resources and allowing the teachers to partic- ipate in classroom affairs (12,13). As newly-transferred principals gain more experience and feedback from the schools. their self- evaluations change. The principals can either become more opti- mistic, or more realistic depending on their level of self- evaluation. In other word, less confident principals would gain an inability to lead, while confident principals would have achieved a realistic self-evaluation as a consequence of their time as first-time principals in a particular school (14). 2. Instructional Leadership and Self-Efficacy Many researchers have shown interest in the fields of principals’ instructional leadership and teachers’ self-efficacy by incorporat- ing both variables in their research. The reason for this is because they have found a link between the principals’ instructional lead- ership and the self-efficacy of teachers, but yet both variables strayed into a territory that is less well established by measuring individual efficacy or collective efficacy (12,15). The teachers’ self-efficacy can strongly predict instructional behaviors such as focused instruction, but is less predictive of behaviors such as standard contemporary practice and flexible grouping practice (7). Previous studies have reported that principals’ instructional leadership have a significantly positive effect on teachers’ self- efficacy (9,10,16–18). (8) concluded that a principal who emphasizes more on instructional practice rather than administrative work, will make a difference in a teacher’s ability