Participation in professional programmes and curriculum implementation: perspectives of senior high school french teachers in Ghana

Abstract

Professional development is a sine-qua-non to increasing teachers’ skills and abilities in curriculum implementation. Yet, in recent times, policy makers, school heads and teachers have given it little attention. This study therefore focuses on investigating the impact of teachers’ participation in professional programmes on curriculum implementation at the SHS. The research adopted the concurrent mixed approach in documenting facts about teachers’ professional development and implementation. Evidence was gathered through surveys and interviews on seventy two (72) and eight (8) teachers respectively, drawn using multiple sampling procedures. It was found that teachers of French at the SHS participate in professional programmes such as the ones organised by CREF, GAFT and the GES. However, teachers had negative perceptions about the content of these programmes since they did not in enhance teacher knowledge, skills of teaching and students’ achievement. It was also found that a positive significant relationship [r(72) = .804, p < .05 given α = .05 and p –value =.008] exists between participation in professional programmes and curriculum implementation. Based on these outcomes, the study recommends that for maximum impact, content of professional development programmes be aligned with the curriculum so teachers’ implementation challenges could be addressed for enhanced student learning.