Tools for Principals to appraise their own work activities

This article describes a recent observational study done on four Head Teachers/Principals in the act, Australia. The study attempted to discover what activities preoccupy a Head/Principal during a ‘typical’ working week. The study further attempted to devise instruments which could show a Principal the relationship between the observed time he/she spent on activities undertaken with the time the Principal desired to spend on each activity. It was hypothesized there would be considerable difference between the two. The instruments or tools proposed are ‘Matrix’ and ‘Scattergram’ methods of providing Principals with the means to reflect on the relationship of observed and desired time durations and were developed as a suggested approach for Principals to identify those tasks which were preoccupying too much time now relative to how they would desire to use their time.