Investigating stakeholders views about the importance of professional development practices in enhancing secondary school Teacher's job performance : the case of Rungwe district

The purpose of this study was to investigate stakeholders' views about the importance of professional development practices in enhancing secondary school teachers job performance in Rungwe district. Three research objectives guided the study including: exploring stakeholders' understanding on teachers' professional development practices, to examine the influence of professional development practices on secondary school teachers' job performance and to identify challenges facing the effective implementation of professional development Practices. The study employed a mixed research approach and was conducted in ten secondary schools and in the district education office. Data were collected through interviews, questionnaires and documentary reviews and analysed through both descriptive and statistical methods. The findings of the study show that stakeholders had divergent understanding of professional development practices. These practices were scarcely conducted and not well supported by educational stakeholders. The practices conducted in Rungwe district included: departmental meetings, coaching, advisory practices departmental subject discussions, mentoring seminars, professional group activities and analysis of examination results, staff meetings, attending further education and teachers' development and management strategies. The study also revealed that, administrative problems, scarcity of physical, human, financial and time resources were the challenges facing effective implementation of professional development and could hinder teachers' job performance. It was concluded that stakeholders had partial understanding of the concept of professional development. The school based professional development practices were the most frequently attended by many teachers. Teachers had the view that professional development activities enhanced their job performance by improving their knowledge level, pedagogical and methods of teaching. They also had the view that professional development activities improved cooperation and communication networks among teachers, their leaders and the community and helped them to understand and adhere to the teaching ethics and code of conduct. The main challenges facing effective implementation of professional development practices were the interferences from the school time table. It is recommended that efforts should be made to raise awareness of stakeholders about professional development practices and encourage them to support it. Furthermore, the school based professional development practices should be well administered by all stakeholders and encourage many teachers to participate. The government and educational leaders should budget and allocate funds for professional development practices in their annual budgets. To overcome both the challenge of physical, human and time resources, the government should channel its programmes through school based professional development practices.