Communicative School Climate and Digital Pedagogical Competence in Driving Teacher Performance: Evidence from Malaysia’s TS25 Reform

Abstract

Improving teacher performance remains a central priority within Malaysia’s TS25 reform, which seeks to enhance instructional quality and school effectiveness nationwide. Although leadership and innovation have been widely examined, limited empirical evidence explains how communicative school climates and teachers’ digital pedagogical competence jointly shape professional performance. This study addresses this gap by examining the direct and complementary effects of school climate communication and digital competence on teacher performance in TS25 secondary schools in Sabah. A quantitative survey was conducted with 350 teachers selected through stratified random sampling, and the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the hypothesized relationships. The findings reveal that school climate communication is the strongest predictor of teacher performance, highlighting the importance of transparent dialogue, collaborative culture, and supportive leadership in strengthening instructional effectiveness. Digital pedagogical competence also demonstrates a significant positive effect, particularly in enhancing teachers’ capacity to implement innovative and adaptive instructional practices. Furthermore, a supportive communicative climate amplifies the contribution of digital competence, indicating a complementary interaction between organizational and individual resources. Theoretically, the study advances organizational communication and teacher effectiveness literature by situating digital competence within the Job Demands–Resources framework, emphasizing the synergy between contextual and personal resources in shaping performance outcomes. Practically, the findings underscore the need for policymakers and school leaders to cultivate supportive communicative environments while sustaining continuous digital professional development, especially in reform-driven and resource-diverse contexts such as Sabah where teacher performance is critical to long-term educational transformation.