Practices and challenges of school based continuous professional development in secondary schools of kemashi zone

The purpose of this study is to investigate the practices and challenges of school based teachers‟ continuous professional development in secondary schools of Kemashi Zone, Benishangul- Gumuz 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 83 teachers, 14 department heads, seven principals, seven schools „continuous professional development facilitators, four woreda education office experts, four cluster supervisors and one zone education office expert with the total of 120 participants out of 151 study populations. The data gathering tools employed were questionnaire, interview as well as document analysis.The participants of interview were principals, department heads, Continuous Proffessional Development facilitators, cluster supervisors, woreda and zone education office experts. Questionnaire was administered to 83 teachers 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 Kemashi 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.