The main purpose of this study was to investigate the policy and practices gaps of teachers’ Continuous Professional Development (CPD) in government secondary schools of North Showa Zone, Oromia Regional State. The data required for this study were collected from primary and secondary sources. The primary data were collected from secondary school teachers, principals, school CPD facilitators, cluster supervisors and woreda education officials using questionnaire and interview. Teachers were selected by Stratified random, were as available sampling used to include the rest of the respondents. The questionnaires were initially distributed to 213 respondents. Among these 202(94.18%) of the respondents were appropriately filled and returned. In addition, to supplement the questionnaire, semistructured interview were used for woreda education officials and Cluster supervisors. Data collected from official document were also used in the analysis and interpretation of the data. The collected quantitative data were processed using SPSS V-20, and then analyzed using descriptive statistics, like mean, standard deviation and Percentage. Furthermore, Chi-square test also used to see if there was a statistically significant differences between teachers’ and management organs’ responses on difference variables. Based on the analysis made, the following major findings were obtained. Regarding the extent of CPD practices, only 60.35% of teachers were participated in the program because of pressure from principals and officials. In addition, their involvement in major activities of CPD found at lower level. Moreover, identifying development needs, planning, implementing, and evaluating CPD were poorly practiced. From these, it is possible to conclude that, CPD is not achieving its intended objectives in the study area. The implication is that if certain action is not taken on time, its success in the future will be at risk. Thus, in order to improve the practices of CPD the following measure will be taken to improve the practice of CPD: offering training, designing a system that enables to identify and reward best performing teachers’ in CPD practices; strengthening supervision; arranging annual forum; and conducting in-depth study on related issues were forwarded as recommendations.

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the policy and practices gaps of teachers’ Continuous Professional Development (CPD) in government secondary schools of North Showa Zone, Oromia Regional State. The data required for this study were collected from primary and secondary sources. The primary data were collected from secondary school teachers, principals, school CPD facilitators, cluster supervisors and woreda education officials using questionnaire and interview. Teachers were selected by Stratified random, were as available sampling used to include the rest of the respondents. The questionnaires were initially distributed to 213 respondents. Among these 202(94.18%) of the respondents were appropriately filled and returned. In addition, to supplement the questionnaire, semistructured interview were used for woreda education officials and Cluster supervisors. Data collected from official document were also used in the analysis and interpretation of the data. The collected quantitative data were processed using SPSS V-20, and then analyzed using descriptive statistics, like mean, standard deviation and Percentage. Furthermore, Chi-square test also used to see if there was a statistically significant differences between teachers’ and management organs’ responses on difference variables. Based on the analysis made, the following major findings were obtained. Regarding the extent of CPD practices, only 60.35% of teachers were participated in the program because of pressure from principals and officials. In addition, their involvement in major activities of CPD found at lower level. Moreover, identifying development needs, planning, implementing, and evaluating CPD were poorly practiced. From these, it is possible to conclude that, CPD is not achieving its intended objectives in the study area. The implication is that if certain action is not taken on time, its success in the future will be at risk. Thus, in order to improve the practices of CPD the following measure will be taken to improve the practice of CPD: offering training, designing a system that enables to identify and reward best performing teachers’ in CPD practices; strengthening supervision; arranging annual forum; and conducting in-depth study on related issues were forwarded as recommendations.