Influence of School Heads' Innovative and Instructional Leadership on the Classroom Practices of Teachers

Inconsistencies in classroom practices and leadership effectiveness remain pressing challenges in Philippine elementary education, particularly in rural districts. These issues often result in varied instructional delivery, uneven student outcomes, and limited teacher support. Resolving these concerns requires a deeper understanding of how school leadership affects teaching quality. This study examined the influence of innovative and instructional leadership of school heads on the classroom practices of teachers in the Montevista District, Davao de Oro Division. Anchored in Transformational Leadership Theory, the research was driven by challenges in instructional consistency and leadership effectiveness in Philippine elementary schools. Utilizing a descriptive-correlational design, data were gathered from 130 elementary teachers through adapted survey questionnaires. Results revealed that school heads demonstrated very high levels of innovative leadership, with mean scores of 3.57 for action patterns, 3.58 for innovative thinking, and 3.60 for strategic thinking. Instructional leadership was also rated very high, particularly in coordinating the curriculum with a mean of 3.59 and framing school goals with a mean of 3.58. Teachers exhibited very high levels of classroom practices, with educational skills scoring the highest with a mean of 3.81, followed by classroom management and subject matter mastery with a mean of 3.77. Correlation analysis revealed a moderate positive relationship between innovative leadership and classroom practices (r-value = 0.400, p < 0.001), as well as a stronger positive relationship between instructional leadership and classroom practices (r-value = 0.468, p < 0.001). Regression analysis identified instructional leadership with a β of 0.459 and a p-value of 0.002 as the most significant predictor of classroom practices. In contrast, innovative leadership showed no significant predictive value, as seen in a β of 0.011 with a p-value of 0.939. These findings emphasized the role of instructional leadership in enhancing teaching quality and suggested that strategic supervision and curriculum coordination are key drivers of effective classroom practices.