Principals’ leadership behavior and its relationship to teachers' professional development at governmental schools from the point of view of teachers at Hebron governorate during the academic year 2012-2013.

This study aimed at identifying the degree of principals’ leadership behavior and its relationship to teachers' professional development at governmental schools from the point of view of teachers at Hebron governorate during the academic year 2012-2013. The population of the study consisted of all teachers in Hebron (7962); a stratified random sample of 5% was chosen (399). However, statistical analysis was applied on 381 teachers. To achieve the objectives of the study, a questionnaire consisted of (33) items was developed to measure the principals’ leadership behavior distributed on three domains namely: administrative, technical and humanitarian. Another questionnaire consisted of (29) items was developed to measure professional development of teachers distributed on three domains: methods of teaching, evaluation and scientific materials. Validity and reliability of the study were verified by appropriate statistical methods. The results revealed that the estimates of teachers about the degree of the principals’ leadership behavior is medium at a mean of (3.56) and of a standard deviation (0.511). The administrative domain was the highest while the humanitarian was the lowest, and there were no significant statistical differences due to the variables of gender and experience while there were significant statistical differences due to the variable of qualification in the domains of administrative and technical in favor of teachers holding a degree of less than BA and directorate in favor of the north Hebron. Also it revealed that the estimates of teachers about the degree of professional development for teachers in government schools, came with a high degree a mean of 3.87 and a standard deviation of 0.80, and there were no significant statistical differences due to the variable of gender and qualification and experience, while there were differences due to the variable of directorate in the domain of scientific material in favor of the north Hebron. There was a weak positive correlation-i.e., Berson correlation coefficient (0.20) -between the variables of principals’ leadership behavior and the degree of their professional development. the researcher recommend that setting up criteria for choosing principals based on their leadership characteristics, and the necessity of continuing the process of development forteacher, especially in the field of teacher Evaluation by doing training courses for teachers and the school principal together