The purpose of the study was to assess school based continuous professional development (CPD) with reference to its practices and challenges in secondary schools of Bale Zone, Oromia. Descriptive survey research design was employed. Simple random sampling technique was used to approach individual samples. One hundred thirty six samples, of which (114 teachers, nine principals, nine school CPD facilitators, three districts education supervisors and one zonal education experts) were used for the study. Questionnaire was employed as data gathering tool. Data gathered through questionnaire was analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation while the data gathered through open-ended questions were analyzed qualitatively by means of narration. The findings of the study indicated that practices of school based CPD activities were found inadequate. Lack of common understanding of partners on CPD, absence of link between CPD and teachers’ career structure, and absence of giving feedback on CPD activities were identified as major challenges hampering implementation of school based CPD in secondary schools. Prior orientation of teachers and all school partners on overall packages of CPD like induction, mentoring, coaching, action research and portfolio activities; allocating adequate resources used for effective implementation of CPD were forwarded as recommendation of the study.

Keywords: Continuous Professional Development, Induction, Mentoring, Coaching, Action research, Portfolio, practices and Challenges.