Abstract:
The main purpose of this study is to assess the practices and challenges of school based
teachers‟ continuous professional development in secondary schools of East Hararghe Oromia
Regional State. The study is used four basic research questions. The research employed in the
study was descriptive survey method, which is supplemented by qualitative data. The sampling
techniques used included purposive, availability and simple random sampling. The sample size
was 144 teachers,17 Principals,17schools „continuous professional development facilitators
8woreda education office experts, 8 school supervisors with a total of 194 participants out of 409
study populations. The data gathering tools employed were questionnaire, interview as well as
document analysis. The participants of interview were principals and woreda education office
expert. Questionnaire was administered to144 teachers and CPD coordinator facilitators (of
which 80 of them were properly filled and returned. Then, the information gathered through
closed-ended questionnaire was analyzed using percentage, Frequency, standard deviation, and
mean score while the data gathered through interview and open-ended questions were narrated
qualitatively. Results of the document analysis were also described. The findings indicated that
the extent to which teachers engagement in professional development activities such as
mentoring, portfolio development, conducting action research, facilitating group discussions and
peer observations, and evaluating the overall successes and failures of the implementation
processes were inadequately implemented. The school principals, professional development
facilitators, senior teachers, woreda and zone education office experts were providing
insufficient support for the teachers. The major challenges identified were, lack of training, lack
of action research, lack of fulfilling Continuous Professional Development materials, lack of
trained facilitators, insufficiency of supports provided for teachers growth, insufficient allocation
of budget, lack of peer coaching and peer evaluation, and absence of induction program, were
identified by this research as the serious challenges of Continuous Professional Development
realization in secondary schools of East Harage Zone. To overcome the challenges encountered,
recommendations have been forwarded. These include: orienting teachers in advance with the
overall contents of the professional growth, motivating teachers to willingly take more
responsibilities in the implementation process, employing trained facilitators, and allocation of
sufficient resources to effectively achieve the intended goals. Moreover, Woreda education office
has to allocate the necessary school budget
