ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to examine the practices and challenges of school-based teachers’ continuous professional development implementation in secondary schools of Hawassa City Administration. The study employed a descriptive survey design with both quantitative and qualitative method. The sampling technique used in the study was availability and simple random sampling technique. The sample size was 101 teachers (31 females and 70 male), four department heads, four principals, and four continuous professional development facilitators. The data gathering tools were through questionnaires, interview, and document analysis. Principals, senior teachers and Continuous Professional Development (CPD) facilitator were involved in the in-depth interview. The questionnaire was administered to 101 teachers, of which 101 of them were properly filled and returned. The data gathered through the questionnaire were analyzed using percentage, mean and standard deviation while the data gathered through interview and open-ended questions were narrated qualitatively. Results of the document analysis were also substantiating the quantitative analysis. The findings of the study revealed that the extent to which teacher’s engagement in professional development activities such as mentoring, portfolio development, conducting action research, facilitating group discussions and peer observations, and evaluating the overall successes and failures of the implementation processes were inadequately implemented. The school principals, professional development facilitators, senior teachers as a mentor, the City Education Office Experts were providing insufficient support for the teachers. The major challenges identified were, lack of teachers motivation/interest, lack of adequate training, lack of skills in conducting action research, lack of adequate resource in conducting Continuous Professional Development, lack of trained facilitators, insufficient allocation of budget, lack of peer coaching and peer evaluation, and high workload to those who participate in continuous professional development were identified in this study as the serious challenges of Continuous Professional Development realization in secondary schools of Hawassa City Administration. Therefore, conclusions and recommendations were forwarded based on the finding of the study.
Key words: Practice, challenges, continuous professional development, teachers.
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE OF THE STUDY
Education is believed to be one of the most significant motive forces that shape the task of giving the speed of economic, social and political advancements of society. It plays a significant role in establishing suitable conditions for development process by producing a skilled workforce and raising the human capital for national development, and it helps to foster changes in technology (Ministry of Education, 2010). Education plays the most significant role in the development of a nation, and it brings all rounded solution for economic, political, social and cultural problems of society (Anderson and Planning, 1991). According to the Ministry of Education (2015), publication quality education by itself largely depends on the magnitude of school-based teacher's continuous professional development (CPD) in improving student’s achievement. Furthermore, teacher's professional development is a crucial driver of excellence in any school to contribute to not only teacher and school improvement but also the overall improvement of the education system (Dagnew and Asrat, (2016)).
Professional development, in a broad sense, refers to the development of a person in his or her professional role more specifically. Teacher development is the professional growth teacher achieves as a result of gaining increased experiences and examining his or her teaching systematically (Davies and Preston, 2002). Professional development includes formal experience such as attending workshops and professional meetings, mentoring, etc. and informal experiences such as reading professional publication, watching on television documentaries related to academic discipline, etc. (Harris, 2002; Semela, 2007). Professional development, in a broad sense, refers to the development of a person in his or her professional role more specifically, teacher development is the professional growth teacher achieves a result of gaining increased experiences and examining his or her teaching systematically (Glatthorn, 1995).
According to the Ministry of Education (2009, p. 16), CPD is “anything that makes me a better teacher, targeting the improvement of teachers’ performance in schools situation to learners.” The framework document further explained, CPD is a continuous process of enhancing personal growth in order to improve the capability and realize the full potential of teachers at school. This can be achieved by obtaining and developing a wide range of knowledge, skills, and experience which are not normally acquired during initial training or regular work, and which together develop and maintain competence to practice. As Day (1999)puts, school-based teachers continuous professional development is defined as “all informal learning experiences in a school, and those conscious and planned activates, which are intended to be of direct or indirect benefit to the individual, group or school, which contributes to the quality of education in the classroom” (Day, 1999, p. 5). It is the process by which teachers alone and with others, review, renew and, extend their commitment as change agents to the moral purposes of teaching. Also, young people and colleagues throughout each phase of their teaching critically acquire and develop the knowledge, skills and emotional intelligence essential to good professional thinking, planning, and practice with children (Day, 2002).
Due to changing demands and impact of globalization on the new roles of teachers in the 21st Century, traditional approaches to CPD such as formal courses or one-off seminar are criticized for their shortcomings of being unable to get teachers prepared for the new role of knowledge facilitator rather than knowledge transmitter. Instead, two theoretical perspectives lead the alternative approaches to CPD which support teacher learning more effectively (Hustler, 2003). These two perspectives include cognitive psychological and professional development perspectives that are briefly discussed as follows:
Cognitive psychological perspective
Student learning and teaching-learning are the same from a cognitive psychological perspective (Martínez et al., 2009). Teachers are assumed to learn, like what students do, wherein teachers are considered as constructors of knowledge who learn actively in a self-directed way. Such kind of learning occurs when interacting with the learning context and it is strongly affected by prior knowledge of individual learner (Borko and Putnam, 1996). In other words, this kind of learning is situated and influenced by the interplay of the individual’s existing knowledge and the learning environments. Thus, teacher learning takes place when favorable learning environments are provided in which teachers are responsible for their own learning (Bransford et al., 1999), whereas staff developers play an important role in creating favorable learning environments for teacher learning.
FACTORS AFFECTING TEACHERS’ PARTICIPATION IN CPD
Few studies were conducted to examine factors affecting teachers’ participation in CPD activities over the decade in different countries. Hustler (2003)conducted an empirical study about some factors affecting teachers’ participation in CPD in the Netherlands. In her study, three factors, personal factors (that is professional attitudes, appraisals of feasibility, appraisals of meaningfulness, emotion exhaustion, loss of personal accomplishment), task factors (that is pressure of work, emotional demands, job variety, autonomy, participation), and work environment factors (that is, management support, collegial support, intentional learning support) were used to examine the effects on teachers’ participation in CPD. As a result, of these three factors, personal factor seemed to be more significant in predicting teachers’ participation in CPD activities than task and work environment factors. However, this study may over-generalize the factors affecting teachers’ CPD (that is, personal, task and working environment), and some factors may be understated (such as, family factor) and not context-specific to other situations or cultures.
Another study conducted by Lee (2005)identified some factors facilitating and inhibiting effective professional development in Taiwan. Amongst the factors contributing to effective professional development, ‘relevant/realistic content’ was the most important factor (34%), while the least important factors were ‘presenter with recent experience’ (9%) and ‘based on practice’ (9%). He also examined factors inhibiting effective professional development. The most commonly cited factor that inhibits effective professional development was ‘insufficient resources to implement learning’ (21%), while the least frequently cited factor was ‘school not supportive of CPD’ (13%). Some other factors related to CPD providers, including contents, formats, and presentation of CPD activities, should be considered in affecting teachers’ participation in CPD activities, and they should be supplementary to the factors in Hustler (2003)study as mentioned above.
To sum up, the above studies examined some factors that affect teachers’ participation in CPD activities. This study takes an exploratory approach to explore further the factors affecting teachers’ participating in CPD activities in the Ethiopian context
Accordingly, South Nation Nationality Peoples Regional State Education Bureau determine to realize National CPD Program, by giving support to teachers and stakeholders to avoid obstacle of CPD. As indicated in regional education supervision team field report, there is loose coordination among stakeholders and the implementation of the CPD program is poorly practiced. Even though, a great deal of effort has been made by different researchers in investigating CPD practices and challenge, teacher’s perception, principal role, and implementation. Still, there are wide gaps in the implementation of CPD all over Ethiopia in general and specifically in south nation nationality people’s regional state. For instance, many researchers elucidated the challenges and contribution of CPD on teachers professional growth (Davies and Preston, 2002; Day, 2002; Tasissa, 2006; Wan and Lam, 2010). Day (2002)further revealed that a similar but useful concept in professional development by stating that:
Professional development consists of all natural learning experiences and those conscious and planned activities which are intended to be of direct or indirect benefit to the individual, group or school and which contribute to the quality of education in the classroom (p. 4).
Thus, professional development encompasses all activities that cater both for the individual needs of teachers and for the institutional needs of the whole school (Bell, 1991). The teacher, the school and the pupils thus benefit from such a process of professional development (Bell, 1991). However, the challenge of CPD implementation not touched in the above stated researchers in different areas of Ethiopian secondary schools. Since the poor implementation of CPD has a high impact on students’ achievement, this study is targeted to fill the gap of the stated researches in Hawassa City Administration (HCA) of SNNPRS secondary schools.
Moreover, from the researchers teaching experiences and conducting researchers as well as providing pedagogical skill training for secondary school teachers, he observed poor implementation of the CPD program, and he realized that there is no any scientific study conducted in the study area on this aspect. So, in light of the above stated problems, the primary purpose of this study is to investigate the practices and the challenges in implementation challenges of continues professional development in secondary schools of Hawassa City Administration (HCA), therefore, in order to achieve the objective, the following basic research questions were asked to guide this study.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. To what extent HCA secondary schools practiced the CPD program as per its implementation guidelines?
2. To what extent planning of CPD program is carried out in secondary schools of HCA?
3. How do HCA secondary school teachers perceive CPD in contributing to their professional growth?
4. To what extent do the stakeholders contribute to the implementation of CPD in the secondary schools of HCA?
5. What are the major challenges that the secondary schools encounter while implementing CPD program?
THE SCOPE OF THE STUDY
In order to make the study more manageable, it was delimited geographically and conceptually. Geographically, the study was delimited to public secondary schools in HCA. The study considered four secondary schools with 101 teachers (31 females and 70male), four department heads, four principals, four continuous professional development facilitators. Conceptually, the study is delimited to the practices and the challenges of implementation of CPD specifically in the area of defining the schools CPD cycle (analyzing, planning, doing, evaluating) the module progress; promoting school learning climate and promotes teacher’s professional growth and challenges of CPD implementation was examined.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
The research design is the plan of action that links the philosophical assumptions to specific methods (Creswell and Planoclark, 2007). In order to assess the practice and the challenges of CPD implementation descriptive survey design was employed with both quantitative and qualitative methods. This is because it enables researchers to collect and describe a large variety of data related to the roles and practices of secondary school principals and teachers. Creswell (2015)argued that descriptive research design is used to describe the nature of the existing conditions. Kelley et al., (2003) confirmed that descriptive survey method of a research is relevant to collect different types of data form large sample size to attain the aim of the study.
Primary as well as secondary sources of data were used in the study to get factual information in terms of figures or just statements of facts. The primary sources were gathered from HCA sample secondary school teachers, principals, vice principals, secondary school supervisors, school CPD facilitators, and department heads. Whereas, the secondary sources were gathered from school records such as portfolio documents which consist of CPD plans.
The study considered four secondary schools: Alamura, Adare, Tabor and Addis Ketema secondary schools of HCA and
101 teachers (31 females and 70 males) selected by stratified sampling techniques. Whereas using availability sampling techniques four department heads, four principals, four continuous professional development facilitators, and one HCA CPD focal person were selected.
Data collection instruments
In order to gather the required data from the sample respondents, three data collection tools were used namely, questionnaires, interviews, and documents analysis. Given below is a description for each of these instruments.
Questionnaire
The researcher used the questionnaire as the data collection tool because it is convenient to conduct a survey and acquire necessary information from a large number of study subject with a short period (Best and Kahn, 2003). Questionnaires were designed with close and open-ended type question items prepared initially in English, as the researcher believed that the respondents could understand English language and English is the medium of instruction. Accordingly, 5-point Likert scale items were prepared for teacher respondents.
Regarding the content, the two sets of the questionnaires had 39 items (39 closed-ended and 4 open-ended items). The questionnaire had three sections. The first section had three close-ended items on background information of respondents and these section address on an issue related to practice and the challenges of implementation of CPD, which consisted of CPD cycle analyzing, planning, doing, evaluating. The second item consisted two parts item related to support provided by the school principal to CPD implementation and related to support provided by CPD facilitate or for implementation of CPD, and the third item was related with items related to support provided by HCA education office focal person, and the final item is related with challenges of CPD implementation.
The third section, open-ended question employed to obtain detailed responses to complex problems and their dedication to the issue. However, unstructured questions item was fewer in number since it permitted greater depth and insight of responses and hence, many respondents could not take enough time to respond to the items in reasonable attention.
Interview
The interview enables the research to probe the research participants in a greater depth of response, which was not possible through any other means. Thus, the purpose of the interview was to collect more supplementary data to substantiate and triangulate the responses obtained through questionnaires. With this in mind, the interview was conducted in Amharic to make communication easier with four department heads, four principals, four Department heads and CPD facilitator. Semi-structured interview questions were prepared for the above respondents. The reason behind the semi-structured interview questions was the advantage of flexibility in which new questions could be forwarded during the interview based on the responses the interviewees. The interview guide question set for all group of respondents and had one part which targeted to obtain information related to the basic research questions.
Document analysis
To complement data collected all available relevant documents were consulted. The documents examined include modules, CPD plan, minutes of meetings, written documents of schools, files, quarter and annual report of CPD and HCA Education Offices consulted.
Data collecting procedures
To answer the research questions raised, the researcher went through a series of data gathering procedures. These procedures helped the researcher to get genuine and applicable data from the sample units. Thus, after having letters of permission from Hawassa University and HCA Education office for appropriate ethics clearance, the researcher directly went to HCA non-sample secondary schools to pre-test the data gathering instruments. After all aspects related to the pilot test, the researcher contacted the sample Secondary School principals of respective schools for consent. After agreeing with the concerned participants, the researcher introduced the objectives and purposes of the research
to the research participants through the third party not to influence the research participants. Then, the final questionnaires were administered to sample teachers in the selected schools. The participants were allowed to give their own answers to each item independently, and the data collectors were closely assisted and supervised through the third party to solve any confusion regarding to the instrument. Finally, the questionnaires were collected and made ready for data analysis.
The interview was conducted after the participants’ consent was obtained. During the process of the interview, the researcher together with school administrative arranged free and conducive environment to lessen communication barriers that disturb the interviewing process.
Methods of data analysis
On the basis and types of data gathered and the instrument used, both quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis were employed. To get the collected data ready for analysis, the questionnaires were checked for completion. Thus, the data obtained through a questionnaire, which is responsible for quantitative data, were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, frequency and percentages, followed by mean and standard deviation. The data gathered through open-ended questions, semi-structured interviews and documents were analyzed qualitatively through descriptive narration for triangulation.
Quantitative data
With regard to the quantitative data, responses were categorized, and frequencies were tallied. Percentage, mean, standard deviation and frequency tables were used to analyze the characteristics of the sample population as they help to determine the relative standing of the respondents. The items in the questionnaires were presented in Table 1 according to their conceptual similarities. The scores of each item were organized, statistically using frequency and percentages. Likert Scale was employed to identify to what extent the respondents never or rarely. Likert scale is easy to construct; takes less time to construct; is the simplest way to describe the roles and practices of principals as an instructional leader and provides more freedom to respond. The scale consists of five scales: 1=never, 2=rarely3=sometimes 4=often, and 5=always.
Qualitative
The data collected from the semi-structured interview, the open-ended question of the questionnaire and document were analyzed and interpreted qualitatively. The handwritten notes of the interview were transcribed; categorized and compiled into themes. The result of open-ended questions was narrated, summarized, and organized with the related category. To this end, analysis and interpretations were made by the questionnaires, interviews, and documents. Finally, the overall course of the study was summarized with findings, conclusions.
Thus, an internal consistency reliability estimate was calculated using Cronbach Coefficient of Alpha for the questionnaires. The researcher found the coefficient of Alpha(α) to be .812, which is regarded as a strong correlation coefficient by (Jackson et al., 2009). Supporting this, Cohen and Morison (2007) and (Jackson et al., 2009)also suggested that, the Cronbach’s alpha result, greater than 0.8 good, while less than 0.5 poor. Table 2 indicates the computed reliability coefficient of the Reliability Test Results with Cronbach Alpha summarized below.
Ethical considerations
An official letter was written to the concerned schools and Regional Education Bureaus from School of Education, Hawassa University. Based on the official support letter received from the School of Education, the researcher asked permission and began establishing rapport with the concerning bodies for the successful accomplishment of the study. The purpose of the study was explained to the participants through the third party, and the researcher asked their consent to answer questions in the questionnaires or interview guide. He also informed the participants through the third party that the information they provide will be kept confidential and only used for the purpose of the study. Accordingly, the researcher ensured confidentially of the information by making the participants not to write their names on the questionnaire and considered as anonymous.
It doesn't match the information in the abstract. 101 teachers (31 females and 70male)
This section presents the results and discussion obtained through questionnaire and interview from the research participants.
The extent to which Implementation of CPD Practiced
This part deals with the items related to the implementation of CPD practices by secondary school teachers. Each item is analyzed based on the data obtained through questionnaires responded by teachers and further backed by the data obtained from interview and document analysis. Therefore, the five items are interpreted as indicated in the Table 3.
Action research empowers teachers by increasing the individual classroom instructional practices, improved students learning outcomes, commitment to work, supportive workplace and effective school leadership Aga (2017). As indicated in item 1 of Table 3, out of the total only 15 (14.5%) respondents replied that the extent to which teachers’ involved in conducting action research was rated as high. On the other hand, 71 (70.3%) teachers’ respondents replied that the degree to which they were participating in action research is rated low. As stated in the table the mean of the item is 2.25, within the extent of low level. However, in contrary to the literature, the practice of teacher’s involvement in conducting action research to enhance the teaching-learning activities at school is ineffective. Therefore, it is possible to recognize that teachers were less involved in conducting action research to contribute their professional skill to improve student academic performance systematically. However, the HCA CPD focal person stated in the interview as To this effect, one of the HCA experts explained his view as:
I feel that CPD has improved some secondary schoolteacher’s knowledge and skills of applying active learning, continuous assessment in teaching their respective subjects. It also has improved their performances in helping individual students and strengthened their practice of keeping records of students’ progress. Because of the CPD, some of our teachers are also trying to do action research focusing on classroom and student-related problems (E2, October, 2016).
Overall, from the above data one see that CPD program implementation has positive impacts on teachers’ classroom teaching and related activities. However, the issue raised by the CPD facilitator and what is on the ground is quite a paradox. They provide a pretext to the issues instead of striving to support the program
In item 2 of Table 3, the respondents were asked to rate the extent to which the action of organizing portfolio is a compiled complete record of all CPD documents. The portfolio is a compiled complete record of teachers‟ professional collection of documents as evidence to professional learning. It contributes to the enhancement of professional attitude, commitment, and motivation of teachers (Falk, 2001). Accordingly, 24 (22.8%), 13 (12.9%), 64 (63.4%) of teachers rated that the practice of organizing portfolio by recording all CPD documents was high, medium, and low respectively. Hence, the majority 64 (63.4%) of respondents replied that the action of organizing portfolio by recording all CPD documents was rated low. The mean score of the item is 2.42, which is in the range of low level. However, in contrary to the literature one may say that teachers’ preparation of CPD portfolio by recording all relevant documents was not regularly assessed to provide feedback, which has a less significant role in improving the overall learning-teaching process. From the data, it could be said that teachers’ preparation of a CPD portfolio by recording all relevant documents was found to be insufficient. By the document analysis, it was confirmed that teachers were not prepared CPD portfolio by recording all useful actions of CPD. Thus, there was a gap regarding this in HCA secondary schools.
In item 3 of Table 3, various respondents were given regarding the extent to which participating in peer coaching on CPD actions. Coaching is the process where a person with expertise in the field assists colleagues through structured discussion and activities on how to solve their problems (Teacher Training Agency, 1998). Accordingly, 24 (23.7%), 8 (7.9%), and 69 (68.3%) of respondents responded that the involvement of teachers on peer coaching is high, medium and low respectively. Thus, 69 (68.3%) was rated low. The mean and standard deviation of the responses also confirms that (Mean=2.61, SD= 1.06) which are in the range of low level. This indicates that the degree to which participation of teachers on peer coaching on CPD action is low. From this, it can be argued that teachers were not always participating in peer coaching to share experiences with colleagues in order to promote their profession.
In item 4 of Table 3, the respondents were asked to answer the extent to which practicing mentoring other teachers on CPD action. Accordingly, 16(15.8%), 22(21.8%) and 63(62.4) respondents replied that the practice of mentoring other teachers on CPD actions is high, medium and low respectively. Thus, 63 (62.4%) of teachers replied that the practice of mentoring other teachers on CPD actions is at a low level. As stated in the Table 3 the mean and standard deviation of the respondents also confirms that (Mean=2.32, SD= 1.04) which are in the rate of low level of support. This indicates that the mentoring activities of experienced teachers for newly deployed teachers are not practically implemented. This shows that the mentoring activities are not accomplished as the expected level.
In item 5 of Table 3, the respondents were asked to rate the extent to which teachers’ involvement in the selection of the school CPD priorities. Significant numbers 28(27.7%) of respondents replied that teachers’ involvement in the selection of the school CPD priorities is high. On the contrary, the majority, 63 (62.4%) of respondents responded that the participation of teachers in the selection of the school CPD priorities is low and the mean and standard deviation of the responses is that (Mean=2.58, SD= 1.22). This implies that the participation of teachers in the selection of the school CPD priorities is in the medium level of support in Secondary Schools of HCA. The response of the interview held with school principal confirmed that
There was some attempt made in participating of teachers in the selection of the school CPD priorities program. However, it was not conducted to the expected level due to the low attitude of teachers to the CPD Program (P1, October 2016).
In Table 4 item 1, teachers were asked to respond their opinion about the support of school leaders to practice CPD and 72(71.3%) agreed that support given from school leaders to implement CPD activities is inadequate whereas only 15 (14.9%) disagree on the issues. This revealed that the school leaders lack to discharge their responsibility to support teachers to be involved in the CPD program to improve the quality of education through empowering teacher’s professional competence. Moreover, the mean score of this item response is 3.79, which are in the scope of the high level of agreement on the issue. This indicates that the Secondary School leaders of HCA were not well committed to applying the actions of CPD as per the required level.
Regarding item 2 of Table 4, the intention was to find out the shortage of time for teachers is the challenge of the implementations of CPD action. While responding to this item agreed 73(73.3%) with a shortage of time was the challenge of CPD implementation. Additionally, 20(19.8%), teachers said that they disagreed with it. The mean score of this item is 3.71 Thus, one can conclude that a shortage of time for teachers to implement the CPD activity was a moderate level of complexity. This result shows that time constraints because of teachers workload were found to be at the average level of challenge to implement CPD in HCA Secondary Schools.
In item 3 (Table 4) states that the lack of trained CPD mentors and facilitators were the challenges of CPD implementation. Accordingly, the majority of the respondent 59(68.4%) agreed that facilitators and mentors lack training skills on CPD. The mean score also confirms as 3.38, which are in the scope of the high level of complexity. This shows that the lack of trained CPD facilitators is the serious problems in secondary schools. Literature supports the main responsibilities of the CPD facilitator is to promote CPD as a central element of school improvement and performance management, to create and sustain CPD arrangements for all staff, to monitor and report upon the quality and impact of CPD undertaken, to keep up to date with CPD developments and initiatives, both nationally and locally, maintain and develop links with sources of CPD provision (Hustler, 2003).
In item 4 of the same Table 4 was intended to check the absence of teacher’s commitment and motivation on the action of CPD is the challenge of its implementation. Accordingly, 60(59.5%), teachers responded that they agreed. Moreover, significant number 11(10.19) teachers pointed out their disagreement. Moreover, 30(29.7%) respondents could not make a decision. The mean score of the item was 3.74, which show a high level of influence. This implies that the lack of teachers’ motivation and commitment was one of the challenges that hinder the actual implementation of CPD activities. In support of this issue, studies widely declared that low teacher motivation results in poor professional performance to enhance quality education. Teachers with low motivation are characterized by limited effort devoting less time to CPD activities (World Bank, 2004).
With item 5 of Table 4, respondents were asked to give their opinion on the lack of resources or budget or availability of materials for the implementation of CPD activities. Accordingly, the majority 50(59.5%) of teachers showed that they agreed on the issues. On the other hand, 26(25.7%) of respondents replied to their disagreement. However, 125 (24.8%) of teachers could not make their decision. The mean score of this item is 3.390, which are in the scope of a moderate level. This implies that failure to allocate money and avail resource to practice CPD activities was one of the severe challenges in the Secondary Schools of HCA (Table 5). To strengthen the above quantitative analysis, one of the department head in the interview said:
CPD is a program that requires sufficient resources in general financial and materials resources in particular. CPD program implementation requires a regular supply of spaces, secretarial and photocopy services, record keeping materials and incentives for refreshment. Let alone supply these services and resources; our secondary schools are not in a position to consistently supply basic stationery materials.” (D1, October 2016).
Item 6 is intended to find out the lack incentive for the refreshment of teachers to implement the CPD program in the secondary schools of HCA. With regard to this, Majorities of teachers 57(56.5%) agreed that lack of incentives for teachers refreshment during the implementation of CPD program is the severe problem in the secondary schools to motivate teachers towards the program. Moreover, the absence of collegial collaboration among the teachers and School leaders were also one of the challenges for the effective implementation of CPD in
HCA secondary schools.
In relation to this one of the school principal in the interview said:
School level actors or teachers are not serious about the CPD program. Most of them consider it as a routine activity conducted to fulfill requirements. Most experienced teachers want to avoid being assigned as mentors. Even those who accept the assignment do not show commitment to assist the novice teachers (P2,
October 2016).
Another expert from another HCA education office put his view as follows;
The culture of cooperative learning and sharing of experience is not a common practice among teachers in our secondary schools. No as such, culture of dialogue and discussions on important issues of education like the quality of education, modern teaching, action research, quality of the teaching force. On top of this, it is not uncommon to see some teachers who do not want to update themselves with modern ideas and practices of teaching and learning (E1, October 2016)
All the respondents gave their suggestions that the Ministry of Education (2004)and the Regional Education Bureau declared that quality education assurance package containing six pillars of which is CPD (as part of Teachers Development Program) one of them. It was articulated in the document that the program was working in all schools and education offices of different levels. However, there is still a lack of common sense of ownership and various aspects of supports and continuous follow up of the process. According to the respondents, teachers’ perceived school-based CPD as a complex and ambiguous process. Moreover, training was not continuously conducted based on teachers’ needs.
Based on the analysis, the following findings were drawn:
The majority (61.5%) of the teachers and 88.33% of the principal respondents reported that CPD activities were carried out both individually and in groups. The groups engaged in practicing CPD activities once a week for 2 h.
Majority of the respondents (86%) of the teachers and all (100%) of the principals indicated that their participation in the CPD has its impact on their daily teaching-learning activities. In addition, most of the respondents agreed that the program has benefited and helped them to apply active learning method, undertake continuous assessment, properly manage their classrooms and solve students problem and encouraged them to involve themselves in collegial learning and cooperative work as evidenced with mean values ranging from 3.54-3.85. The HCA experts also revealed that the positive influences of CPD on the daily activities of teachers and their competencies.
Majority of the respondents (84.1%) reported that they received training, which enabled them to start the CPD program. Nevertheless, there were also respondents who did not receive training due to lack of trained person and diligence and a deep sense of responsibility from top to lower level.
The majority (60.7%) of teachers and principal indicated that the schools (the experienced teachers and principals) were the primary providers of the supports that received to practice CPD in these secondary schools. Majority of the respondents indicated that there was largely experience sharing in schools among colleagues while there was no data indicating the presence of incentives for teachers and principals. Though a majority (79.1%) of the mentees indicated that their mentors act as an advisor, some mentees (20.8%) revealed that their mentors were acting as a fault finder, as an evaluator, and as a boss.
The findings of the study show that different stakeholders provided the support. Both from inside (within the school) and outside. However, the support provided by insiders seems much higher than the one obtained from outsiders. That is, the participants mostly in the form of general discussions or assessment that takes place at different times and was not adequate, consistent and sufficient in reported the support from sub-city or woreda:
1) HCA education experts related that in different times the experts provided different supports by different concerned bodies were prepared for these secondary school teachers and principals. However, there were not enough; it has limitations.
2) In secondary schools, the CPD program was encountered with many factors that affect its imple-mentation. These include: Unavailability of material resource, lack of financial resource, lack of support from principals and experts, lack of required knowledge from mentors and facilitators, shortage of time, absence of collaboration, absence of effective management, negative attitude towards the program and lack of commitment are the major one as evidenced by mean values ranging from 3.70– 4.35.
3) The workload in the schools, lack of well-trained facilitators or mentors in the schools, lack of consistence support and incentives from concerned bodies and lack of incentives were further added by the respondents as challenges or factors affecting the effective implementation of CPD program in secondary schools.
4) Implementing active learning and conducting action research were the main challenges observed by principals among teachers in practicing CPD activities.
Based on the analysis and summary of the findings, the following conclusion could be drawn. The effective implementation of CPD program in governmental secondary schools of HCA was highly challenged by the unavailability of material, lack of financial resource, lack of support from City administration education experts and supervisors, the absence of collegial collaboration, lack of incentives lack of attractiveness of the program and other similar problems. Unless the concerned bodies tackle these problems, it is difficult to expect much improvement in the day-to-day activities of teachers in general and in teaching learning process in particular. Most of the research participants agreed that the CPD program is essential as it focuses on the core issue teacher professional development and improving the quality of teaching and learning. On the other hand, it was observed that there were participants (respondents) who had a negative attitude in their vision of real contribution of the program to improve teacher competencies in knowledge, skill, and attitude.
Based on the major findings and conclusion drawn concerning practices and challenges of teachers’ continuous professional development program the following recommendations are suggested:
1) Some teachers do not have enough information on CPD. Some of them consider it as a routine activity that has no benefit. Hence, it is important to have awareness creation on teachers’ continuous professional development program HCA Education head officials.
2) Lack of persistent support affected the implementation of the CPD program. Therefore, regular onsite support and feedback provision are essential from the HCA education officials and school principals.
3) To develop the capacity and knowledge of mentoring and facilitating CPD practices, there should be persistent support for mentors and facilitators. Hence, it is essential for HCA Education officials to provide the necessary training and support to school level actors.
4) Assigning CPD coordinators and mentors at the school level should be strengthened with all secondary schools.
It is important for the HCA government secondary Schools to provide the necessary material and financial support for schools in order to smoothly running of CPD program implementation.
5) It is important to involve other stakeholders (NGOs, and higher education institutions) to work closely on training and the development of facilitators’ capacities. HCA education officials shall take the initiative to involve these and other stakeholders in CPD programs.
In general, this kind of research in a wider context is implied for further research in the future a s teacher‘s continuous professional development is an essential component of teacher education program.
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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