Benefits of Continuous Professional Development on Teaching Effectiveness

Abstract

This study sought to examine teachers’ perception on the benefits of continuous professional development (CPD) on their teaching effectiveness in private secondary schools in Mombasa County. The research employed descriptive survey design. The target population consisted of all private secondary schools, all the head teachers and all the teachers of all private secondary schools in Mombasa. The study used both probability and non-probability sampling procedures as per the category of population components. The sample consisted of eleven (11) high cost private secondary schools chosen from an accessible population of fifteen (15) private secondary schools in Mombasa with each school providing ten teachers and the head teachers of the schools. The schools were proportionately stratified on the basis of their category and then they were randomly selected to ensure that all categories were represented. The instruments that were used for this study were questionnaires for teachers and interview schedules for head teachers. The data were analyzed by use of descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages. Inferential statistics was also used for hypotheses testing and making appropriate inferences. Information from the Likert items on perceptions was used to test the hypotheses for independent samples. The study was guided by five research questions that investigated the following aspects: main CDP programmes, teachers’ perception on the benefits of CPD programmes on their teaching effectiveness, challenges to CPD programmes and improvement of CPD programmes to teachers. Three hypotheses were tested by use of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Independent Sample T-test. From the data analysis, the study revealed that a majority of the private secondary schools in Mombasa often participated in various CPD activities and found them beneficial. Teachers became more effective; the students became more interested and enthusiastic about learning; teaching became a more fulfilling profession; teachers were able to relate and collaborate better with their colleagues and students were able to achieve better grades in final examinations. The results of the three tests of the hypotheses showed that there was a relationship between teachers’ perception about the benefits of CPD programmes on their teaching effectiveness and their professional qualification on one hand and on their attendance to CPD programmes on the other but none on the teachers’ gender.The study also revealed that the main challenges facing CPD programmes in private secondary schools in Mombasa in trying to ensure teaching effectiveness. Therefore, the study recommended an adoption of more radical approaches in handling CPD programmes among teachers as an integral element in teaching effectiveness in secondary schools in order to tap high student achievement.