Contribution of teachers’ professional development to the quality of public secondary education in Moshi rural district, Kilimanjaro region.
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Date
2018
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Dar es Salaam
Abstract
The study assessed the contribution of teachers’ professional development to the quality of public secondary education in Moshi rural district, Kilimanjaro region. It was conducted in four public secondary schools. The study was guided by four objectives namely, to establish teachers’ understanding of the concept of teachers’ professional development(TPD) and quality education; explore the kinds and contribution of TPD to improve the quality of teachers’ instructional strategies to enhance the students’ academic performance; explore the challenges facing TPD programmes in public secondary schools and the strategies for overcoming them; and to find out measures for improving TPD programmes in public secondary schools. This qualitative used a case study design to achieve the objectives. The study respondents’ composed 40 public secondary teachers, few head teachers and few academic teachers. Data were collected through the use of interviews, focus group discussions and documentary review. The information generated was subjected to content analysis. The study findings revealed that, TPD has improved the quality of teachers’ instructional strategies, hence leading to enhanced students’ academic performance in public secondary schools. Through documentary review the study established that, posting letters for teachers from pre-service programmes posted in all the visited schools from 2011-2015 were present in teachers’ personal files. Also, teachers who attended various in service programmes such as seminars do discuss and present what they have learned to their fellow teachers through staff meetings and prepare reports. The study also found challenges that teachers’ professional development in public secondary schools faced. These challenges are shortage of fund, failure to secure permission for teachers to pursue further studies and shortage of TPD programmes; which affect the effective implementation of TPD. The study also established strategies used by teachers to overcome challenges facing TPD such as borrowing money from various financial institutions for studies, quitting without permission and having extra activities. Measures that could be taken to improve TPD such as provision of loans to teachers who want to pursue further studies, government sponsorship to teachers as well as balance between the provision of seminars to arts and science teachers. Therefore, from the study one can conclude that teachers’ professional development programmes are crucial in improving the quality of public secondary education. As such, the government under the Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MEST) should direct more efforts towards balancing and prioritizing the provision and implementation of TPD programmes to both science and art subjects teachers. Also, district authorities should provide permissions on time to all teachers who want to pursue further studies. Again, MEST should include TPD programmes for public secondary schools in the strategic plan and provide requisite financial resources at the district level. Furthermore, a study could be carried on the contribution of effective induction programmes to improve the quality of teachers’ instructional strategies in public secondary schools. Moreover, a similar study be conducted in other districts, regions and in other education levels such as primary and higher institutions to allow generalization of findings.
Description
Available in print form, East Africana Collection, Dr. Wilbert Chagula Library, Class mark (THS EAF LB1777.T34K542)
Keywords
Secondary school teachers, Professional education, Academic achievement, Secondary education, Moshi rural district, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Citation
Kikari, M. S. (2018). Contribution of teachers’ professional development to the quality of public secondary education in Moshi rural district, Kilimanjaro region. Master dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam. Dar es Salaam.