Abstract
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.
Highlights
Among the responsibilities expected from schools principals are:-preparing training or workshops, organize experience sharing with the nearby schools, arrange induction program for newly deployed teachers, evaluating and giving feedback on continuous professional development (CPD) activities of teachers
From the data of the study, it is possible to conclude that teachers were not encouraged by the school principals to accomplish the school based CPD activities and develop their professional skills in order to bring into the light them with low trends in their respective subjects
The result of this study showed that the main obstacles that operate against the practice and Challenges of school based CPD were less committeemen of school leaders to implement CPD activities, shortage of time for teachers to implement the CPD actions, lack of trained CPD facilitators, lack of teachers motivation on the actions of CPD, lack of arranging training on CPD programs, lack of resources or budget to implement CPD, absence of commitment of teachers to implement the CPD program, lack of awareness of teachers on CPD activities, the absence of career structure with the actions of CPD was found to be the major challenges hampering effective implementation of school based CPD in study areas
Summary
Education is believed to be one of the major forces that speed up economic, social and political advancements in society. It plays a major role in establishing suitable conditions for development process by producing skilled manpower and raising the human capital for national development and it helps to foster changes in technology [1]. There has been an increase in focus on Continuing Professional Development, CPD for teachers worldwide. This is because CPD is continuously viewed as a means of improving learner performance and the production of required skills [2]
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