Teachers’ Perception About the Contributions of In-Service Professional Development Activities for Quality of Instructional Tasks in Secondary Schools of Gedeo Zone, SNNPR, Ethiopia

Abstract

The overall purpose of this research was to investigate teachers’ perception on the contributions of in-service professional development to quality of their instructional tasks in secondary schools of Gedeo zone. To this end, mixed research approach was employed with concurrent triangulation design. Quantitative data were collected from 255 teachers selected from secondary schools of Gedeo zone through stratified random sampling technique; whereas qualitative data were obtained from 10 teachers randomly drawn from target schools. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 in percentage, mean, and ordinal regression, whereas qualitative data were analyzed thematically. The results of the study uncovered that the overall contributions of in-service professional development activities for quality of teachers’ instructional tasks was 32.1%; relatively, in-service teachers’ professional development contributed more for quality of instructional assessment (33.7%) followed by planning (32.9%) tasks; and less for teacher as a person (29.1%), followed by instructional implementation (32.6%) and classroom management(32.6%) tasks. Besides, an increase in age was commonly associated with the odds of considering in-service professional development contributed to quality of instructional tasks (p<.05). Furthermore, teachers following induction program, and qualified with diploma were more likely to consider that in-service professional development activities contributed to quality of their instructional planning and implementation tasks (p<.05). Based on the results, it was concluded that in-service professional development activities were not adequately understood as contributing factor for quality of teacher instructional tasks among teachers in the study area. Therefore, school leaders, local education officers, and Dilla University were recommended to re-conceptualize contributions of in-service professional development activities to improve quality of teachers’ instructional tasks in the study area.