Abstract:
Teacher professional development for teachers has gained prominence for its
role in maintaining and enhancing teacher knowledge and skills required for
teachers’ professional practise. This study explored Continuous Professional
Development and its perceived impact on teacher professional practise in
Ghana. The study adopted a mixed methods approach utilizing an exploratory sequential design. Using multiple sampling techniques, 1 training officer, 3
headteachers and 435 pre-tertiary teachers participated in the study. Data was
collected using interview and questionnaire. Descriptive statistics (frequencies,
percentages, means and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (ANOVA
and MANOVA) were utilised to analyse all research questions and hypotheses.
The study revealed that pre-tertiary teachers conceptualised professional
development as formal CPD initiatives spearheaded by schools and governing
institutions with no clear structure and organised periodically. The study also
revealed that most CPD initiatives available to pre-tertiary teachers were high
in teacher passivity, focused heavily on addressing issues relating to content
areas and impacted teachers’ professional practise in terms of their knowledge
and skills more than teacher efficacy. No difference was found in CPD activities
based on school category. Also, no difference was found in perceived impact of
existing CPD on teacher professional practise based on teaching experience. It
was recommended that pre-tertiary teachers and GES shift from the traditional
model of CPD for teacher learning to more collaborative and informal systems
which should be recognised as mandatory components of teachers’ professional
development.
