Participation of primary school teachers in professional development programmes in Moshi rural district, Tanzania

The purpose of this study was to examining the participation of primary school teachers in professional development programmes in Moshi Rural District in Tanzania. Specifically the study examined professional development programmes available for teachers to improve their academic skills, numbers of teachers who had participated in professional development programmes in the previous five years and teachers’ perceptions on professional development programmes. The evaluation model by shuffle beam (2002)of context, input, process and product (CIPP) was adopted to guide the investigation. The participants of the study were 63 primary school teachers, 4 head teachers and 1 District Education Officer ( DEO), making a total sample of 68 participants. Head teachers were randomly selected. The study adopted a case study research design using qualitative research approach whereby data were subjected to content analysis. Data collection instruments were interview, focus group discussion and documentary review. The findings revealed that to a great extent professional development programmes were considered by the teachers to be vital in enhancing quality education in the schools. They helped primary school teachers in getting more skills, move with changes in science and technology and improve the standard of performance in their daily work activities. The number of teachers participating in the professional development programmes was limited due to various factors such as lack of financial and material support as well as not getting permission to go for training in time. Poor performance in the ordinary secondary school examinations was among the factors preventing most of them to participate in professional development programmes. The study concluded that professional development programmes helps teachers to update and familiarize themselves with new developments in education in terms of pedagogy, theories and content. This is very important because teachers need to be acquainted with new developments and be able to prepare students who ca functional and succeed in an increasing globalised world. The study recommended that there is a need for the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training to provide requisite human, financial and material support to teachers for attending professional development programmes at all levels. Furthermore the study recommended a need to redesign a policy showing clearly the criteria for selecting students joining teachers training colleges instead of taking “failures” as is currently practiced.