ABSTRACT
This qualitative study primarily aimed to determine the best practices of outstanding public school principals in remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic for the School Year 2020–2021. A phenomenological research design was utilized through virtual or face-to-face interviews with eight outstanding public school principals in the Division of Negros Occidental. Transcripts of the interview were processed using the thematic analysis approach. Results of the study revealed three emergent themes, which are reskilling teacher competencies, leveraging parent involvement and community partnerships, and employing effective innovations as leaders. Accordingly, reinforcing teacher competence was done through technical support, constructive feedback, motivation, webinars, and virtual training for their professional growth and development. Parental involvement was strengthened through orientation to determine their role and responsibilities as study-buddy of the learners in the new normal teaching. To overcome the challenges in the school operation, best practices of the principals also emerged, such as the establishment of focal areas/persons, online kamustahan (communication), mobile library, home visitation, ICT room for online teachers, reward system, contextualization of the module, integrative performance task, parent-initiated gulayan sa paaralan (school vegetable garden) and shifting schemes in answering the modules. Therefore, the exemplary performance of these principals in remote learning is worth emulating despite the challenges that they go through while ensuring the safety of the teachers, parents, and learners amidst the global pandemic. Learning about their experiences, challenges, and, most importantly, best practices can be used in benchmarking and eventually implemented by other principals in their respective stations.
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