TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TEACHING PROFICIENCY IN SELECTED BRITISH CURRICULUM SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KENYA AND TANZANIA

Abstract

ABSTRACT Educational reforms in East Africa over the years have ignored the importance of teachers’ professional development (TPD). This has brought a challenge in the recruitment and retention of quality teachers in the International school sector in East Africa and, resulting in the need to retrain teachers to develop the required teaching proficiencies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between teacher professional development programs and teaching proficiency in Braeburn secondary schools in Kenya and Tanzania. This study was guided by the following research questions: To what extent do the professional development programmes enhance learner centred pedagogy in the learning and teaching process? How does exposure in the professional development programmes enhance behaviour management in the learning and teaching process? To what extent do the professional development programmes enhance assessment for learning? How do the professional development programmes relate to Teacher’s self-efficacy in the learning and teaching process? What are the challenges faced by School managers when facilitating the professional development programmes to enhance teacher proficiency? In what ways can professional development programmes be improved in order to enhance Teachers ‘content delivery in the learning and teaching process? The study was based on the Human Capital theory (HCT) proposed by Schultz and Becker (1961) who developed it extensively. This study adopted a mixed method design specifically the convergent design. A cross sectional survey research design was used for the quantitative strand and a phenomenological research design was used for qualitative strand. The study population was all the 300 schools offering British Curriculum. However the study on 10 Braeburn Group of schools in Kenya and Tanzania. Target population of the study comprised 240 teachers, 40 mentors’, 10 deputy head teachers and 10 head teachers of Braeburn Group of International Schools in Kenya and Tanzania. The study used purposive sampling to select the schools, head teachers and the deputy head teachers while stratified random sampling was used to select the teachers and mentors in the schools, the stratas were female and male categories to avoid biasness. Primary data was collected using questionnaires which were pretested for reliability and validity to determine it suitability for use in the study. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics and results presented using charts and tables while content analysis was used for qualitative data. Inferential statistics, correlation, multiple regression analysis were used to establish the nature and magnitude of the relationships between the variables and to test the hypothesized relationships. The study findings indicated that Braeburn professional development programmes had enhanced teachers’ proficiency in the teaching and learning process. The study findings indicated that the challenges faced by the school managers when facilitating the professional development programmes to enhance teacher proficiency were inadequate finances, inadequate time, lack of clear school policy. It is therefore necessary for provision of adequate resources, finances and a detailed school policy to ensure smooth facilitation in order to improve teachers’ professional development. The study recommends that teachers should be encouraged to adopt appropriate classroom management techniques to motivate pupils to learn for improved academic achievement. The study also recommends that more opportunities for teachers’ professional interactions and training should be created to ensure that the teachers are better prepared and confident when applying different assessment methods, differentiation and setting assignments.