An Examination of Teachers' Continuous Professional Development Programmes and Implication for Quality Education in Basic Education Schools, Plateau State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined Teachers' Continuous Professional Development Programmes and the implication for Quality Education in Basic Education Schools, Plateau State, Nigeria.

Quality education is fundamental to the achievement of functional education. With this understanding, the study was built on the premise that teachers, being the heartbeat of quality education, are key to achieving this goal. The research advanced six objectives from which six research questions and two hypotheses were put forward to guide the study. The research methodology was based on survey design. Survey, as a versatile tool, is adaptive to both small and large samples. A self-developed questionnaire, “Teacher Professional Development Programmes Exploratory Questionnaire” (TPDPEQ), was used to obtain the opinions of teachers. The questionnaire was based on a 5-point Likert scale. A test-retest reliability test gave a value of 0.85, confirming internal consistency. The test items were further subjected to face validity. The data obtained was analyzed using frequencies, mean, standard deviation and one–tailed t-test for hypotheses testing. The level of significance was at P<0.05. The findings of the study show that teachers' continuous professional development is closely linked to teacher quality and the quality of students' performance; teachers exposed to professional development programmes report a change in their competency skills and that access to such programmes hinges on overcoming identified hindrances. Teachers expressed the need for further professional development. It is recommended that governments at all levels need to prioritise the continuous professional development of teachers, who also desire to be involved in decisions involving competency skill choices for their continuous professional development. This should be backed by incentives to serve as motivation to participating teachers.