The professional learning community (PLC) is a platform for teachers to share their opinions and experiences especially with respect to the quality of teaching and learning processes (PdP). This partnership gives teachers more added value because they have the opportunity to improve their self-esteem and to keep in pace with the developments in the education world. This concept paper will discuss a number of issues related to PLCs such as PLC's background and development, PLC definitions, the development of PLC concept, PLC models and the issues and challenges that exist in implementing PLC. The analysis was done in the context of Malaysia and abroad. The paper is written based on extensive secondary data analysis. After examining all matters related to PLC, it can be concluded that PLC is a form of partnership that every school teacher needs to practice either in the context of education in Malaysia or anywhere in order to drive excellence in a school. With a lot of challenges nowadays regarding the implementation of PLC, this issue needs to be addressed so that the quality of teachers can be enhanced and will further influence the students' academic achievement.

This article investigates the level of instructional leadership (IL) of principals and professional learning community (PLC) among teachers in the southern zone of Malaysia which is Johor, Negeri Sembilan and Melaka to analyze the relationship between these two elements. This research also studies which of the IL dimensions can best measure the practice of PLC. This research applied survey research design using IL and PLC questionnaire (KIProQ). The alpha Cronbach value for the pilot study of KIProQ for IL is .962 while for PLC is .930. This study involved 390 teachers that had been chosen using proportional cluster random sampling method. The statistical analysis in this study uses the software IBM SPSS Statistic version 22. The research result found that the principals in the southern zone of Malaysia have practiced IL at medium high level with all three dimensions recorded a mean score value of between 3.796 and 3.965. It was also found that the PLC practice among teachers was at medium high level with the mean score values of all five dimensions being between 3.685 and 4.082. This study also found that the relationship between IL and PLC is statistically significant and positive (r=.658, p<.01) and the relationship is at medium level. A beta correlation coefficient value analysis had shown that two of the three dimensions in IL were identified as the best predictor for the practice of PLC which is the dimension promoting school climate (β=.518, t=7.164 and p=.000) and the dimension managing instructional programme (β=.188, t=2.595 and p=.010). In summary, the practice of IL and PLC has been implemented by the principals and teachers in the southern zone of Malaysia in driving the school towards achieving the stated vision and mission. IL practice is also proven to influence the effectiveness of the PLC practice among teachers and consequently fulfill the effort to make PLC as a culture that must be instilled in schools.

Leadership of school leaders regardless principals or headmasters is among the key factors that can affect the academic achievement of students directly or indirectly. Based on previous research, a strong relationship between student achievement and leadership of school leaders was proven. The Ministry of Education Malaysia (MoE) has outlined three approaches to improving student achievement through the improvement of school leaders' performance. One of the approaches is school leaders should act as instructional leaders who are actively involved in teacher development activities by planning, coordinating and evaluating the teaching and learning process (T&L) at school. This concept paper will discuss several matters related to instructional leadership such as background and development of instructional leadership, instructional leadership definitions, the development of instructional leadership concepts, instructional leadership models and the issues and challenges that exist in implementing this leadership styles. The analysis was done in the context of Malaysia and abroad. The paper is written based on extensive secondary data analysis. After analyzing matters relating to instructional leadership, it can be concluded that instructional leadership is a form of leadership that every school leader needs to practice for excellence achievements in a school. With a lot of challenges nowadays, it needs to be addressed so that the direction of the school is on the right track and students’ achievement can be enhanced.

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This study aims to determine the readiness of State High School counsellors in the city of Makassar who are confronted with organizational change. The assessment is viewed from the aspect of preparedness of counsellors that includes self-esteem, optimism and perceived control. A mixed method was used in this study that was simultaneously embedded. Survey questionnaires were distributed to 68 counsellors of State High Schools in Makassar for purposes of quantitative analysis, while an interview was conducted to five counsellor-coordinators for purposes of qualitative analysis. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to best analyze the quantitative data, while the qualitative data was analyzed manually. The study revealed that the level of readiness of the 68 counsellors' performance was low in coping with organizational change. This implies that there is a need for the counsellors to improve their performance in the future. Through the qualitative analysis, it was found out that the counsellors have numerous difficulties in their ability to cope with organizational change, while the result of good performance was noted in the quantitative analysis that was conducted.