An Empirical Study on the Levels of Principals’ Distributed Leadership, Virtual Professional Learning Communities, Teacher Motivation, and Teacher Leadership in Secondary Schools in Sabah, Malaysia

This study was conducted with the aim of measuring the levels of principals’ distributed leadership, virtual professional learning communities, teacher motivation, and teacher leadership in secondary schools in Sabah. Principals’ distributed leadership, virtual professional learning communities, and teacher leadership represent relatively new aspects within the Malaysian educational landscape, and there remains a lack of large scale studies measuring these constructs. Teacher motivation, on the other hand, is a key driving force that compels teachers to effectively perform their roles as educators. The research design employed was non-experimental, utilizing a quantitative approach and survey method through the administration of a questionnaire. A total of 3s75 teachers from daily secondary schools participated as the study sample, selected through a combination of stratified, cluster, and simple random sampling techniques. Data collected from respondents were analyzed descriptively using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The descriptive analysis revealed that the levels of principals’ distributed leadership (M=4.072, SD=0.591) and teacher motivation (M=4.23s0, SD=0.668) were high, whereas the levels of virtual professional learning communities (M=3s.611, SD=0.852) and teacher leadership (M=3s.524, SD= 0.805) were moderate. The findings of this study provide valuable insights particularly for the Ministry of Education Malaysia, Sabah State Education Departments, school administrators, and teachers in driving forward the national education system.