Participation and benefits of continuing professional development (CPD) among public basic school teachers in Nkwanta North District

Abstract

This study focused on continuing professional development (CPD) for teachers in the Nkwanta North District. The objectives are to examine the frequency at which basic school teachers encounter the contents of CPD activities, the benefit of involving in CPD activities, the challenges teachers have with participating in CPD activities and ways to improve CPD programmes for basic school teachers in the study area. The quantitative approach was employed for this study. The population for the study was 286, and a sample size of 86 teachers. The sampling strategy employed was the simple random sampling strategy. The questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection and the statistical analysis was done using IBM SPSS v.26. The study revealed that, majority of teachers participated frequently on school leadership, guidance and career development of teachers, subject areas of specialization and classroom management to improve teacher practice. However, these CPD activities were rarely done; networks through subject specific collaborative to exchange ideas and tap into expertise of ideas from colleagues, and staff retreats to develop goals and action plans targeting specific school needs and contexts. From the teachers' perspective, the major benefits they derived from CPD activities were related to the enhancement of their prestige, improvement of their confidence in delivering lessons in the classroom, and acquisition of new knowledge. The study further revealed that, lack of trained CPD facilitators to coordinate the actions of CPD, lack of resources or budget to implement CPD, and overload the teacher were some of the challenges associated with the implementation of CPD. The study concluded that CPD programme sessions within the study area must be made and emphasise to reflect school leadership, guidance and career development of teachers, subject area specialization, classroom management and curriculum implementation in order to resonate with teachers in the study area. It is thus recommended that, CPD content be based on teachers’ professional and scientific needs, rather than reliance on pre-planned external packages.