Full Project – THE IMPACT STAFF DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES ON TEACHERS EFFECTIVENESS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

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THE IMPACT STAFF DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES ON TEACHERS EFFECTIVENESS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Globally, education remains the most important method for societal development in the underdeveloped countries. Many research on human capital development agree that a nation’s human resources, not its capital or natural resources, ultimately determine the rate of its economic and social growth. The formal education system comprising elementary, secondary, and university education is the key institutional mechanism for generating human capital (Nsubuga, 2003). Because education is an investment, there is a strong positive relationship between education and socioeconomic productivity.

A staff development program is a procedure that aims to increase job comprehension, encourage more effective job performance, and set future career goals. It aids employees in understanding their roles. It refers to the chances provided to both new and seasoned teachers, as well as teaching assistants and paraprofessionals. These activities are intended to improve classroom instruction, allow individuals to grow professionally, introduce practitioners to the actual implementations of research-validated methodologies, and assist instructors in meeting their licensing and compensation differentials.

Staff development programs are the procedures and actions that any business uses to develop, enhance, and improve the skills, competences, and overall performance of its employees and workers.

A study discovered that head teachers were highly trained as instructors but not as school administrators. The training provided to head teachers throughout their teacher training is insufficient to prepare them for leadership jobs. As Kyeyune (2008) observed, there is a gap in leadership training that prepares head teachers for their roles. Given the education reforms and the numerous challenges that come with them, educational leadership is becoming a major concern. Today’s secondary schools encounter problems that highlight the need of competent leadership.

Such principals require not just standard education administration training, but also specialized training capable of imparting the requisite management and leadership qualities. Previous research has shown that head teachers cannot increase school performance unless they are prepared with certain information, intellectual, social, and psychological abilities.

It was observed that new head teachers do not get induction. As a result, academic professionals such as school principals, vice principals, head teachers, and subject teachers require ongoing professional development. For example, head teachers have various responsibilities, and in order to meet the profile of principals described by Kyeyune (2008) as change agents, they must not only manage but also lead. For any reform to work, head teachers must be up to the duty as gatekeepers, implying the necessity for ongoing professional development in order to increase teachers’ efficacy in the classroom. Several studies have proposed solutions to a revision of the curriculum for teacher training in order to provide enough emphasis to management and leadership abilities. The present gap between theory and practice necessitates a reassessment of the training program. The researcher discovered, via practice and school observation, that some head teachers who worked hard to get credentials and certifications had no major progress reported at the schools they were in charge of. This means that either the knowledge obtained was irrelevant to the circumstances on the ground or that the theoretical understanding was not translated into practice. All of the instructors have the ability to be leaders (future head teachers). Ministries of education and universities, in collaboration with teacher training colleges, should thus conduct a review of the curricula.

It has also been noticed that universities that train teachers and principals are separate from the schools that act as the delivery point for the services and products of the universities and training institutes. When their products are deemed deficient and incapable of delivering quality work, training institutes cannot abdicate their obligations. According to Kajubi (1992), “the quality of the education system cannot be higher than the quality of its instructors.”

Mkpa (2002) proposed the following changes for in-service programs in Nigeria:

1. Mentoring: This is an approach in which highly experienced instructors at a school are paired with a number of less experienced teachers to act as mentors or professional advisors. This is similar to the Peer In-Service Approach (PISA), a self-help in-service approach that drastically reduces the cost of financing training programs for teachers within local government areas; thus, the services of good/experienced teachers are used to update other teachers in neighboring schools in the same area (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation UNESCO, 1997:30-31).

2. Peer-Tutoring: A colleague contacts another to receive or seek professional aid or guidance on any part of his or her discipline in which he or she is deficient. As a result, one colleague’s area of professional competency helps the other, eventually leading to each member of staff advancing intellectually and professionally.

3. Subject Lead-Teacher Approach: A Senior Teacher of the same subject leads the other teachers, supervising all curricular programs related to that subject.

4. Cluster Lead-Teachers Approach: Teachers from five or fewer schools in a Local Government Area come together to share experiences in specific subjects. A great teacher in a specific subject leads the others. This cluster promotes mutual aid among them, resulting in self-improvement without the need to attend a training school.

In addition to the aforementioned techniques, conferences, workshops, and seminars sponsored by various subject-teacher and disciplinary associations should be supported at the local, state, and national levels. Typically, specialists should be invited to make speeches at these events, following which the issues can be thoroughly debated by all participants.

The second aspect is horizontal integration, which refers to the connection between education and life. Teachers and student teachers must be made aware that most education occurs outside of the official educational system. This awareness will help instructors to combine or link classroom education with out-of-school education. This integration entails bringing society into the school as well as the school into the society. For example, relevant societal resources should be introduced into the school to increase reality and improve classroom instruction. Workshops, art galleries, agricultural facilities, and industrial setups in society should be used to supplement traditional school instruction. Practical teaching activities for students should not be limited to formal classrooms, but should be extended to out-of-school contexts as well. As a result, the teachers will connect classroom instruction to life in general.

Prerequisites for learning are the third attribute. This refers to having the desire to continue learning or learning-how-to-learn in order to be an autonomous learner. Aghenta (1992) advocated for the Nigerian Professors Institute (NTI) distant education model, in which students report to their teachers every weekend.

To gain knowledge, emphasis should be made on the usage of the library and news media (print and electronic). Continuous evaluation and self-assessment should be emphasized so that students may track their progress while pursuing autonomous educational endeavors.

As part of the systemic reform initiatives, teachers are required to take on new duties. Teacher professional development should give chances for instructors to explore new roles, create new teaching strategies, perfect their practice, and widen their horizons as educators and humans. It is critical that educators, parents, policymakers, and the general public understand the new teacher expectations, duties and responsibilities, and contemporary definitions of professional development. Recognizing the complicated nature of the changes required by the entire community is the first step in developing the necessary support to guarantee that teachers can fulfill their critical role in systemic reform.

However, schools are bureaucratic and hierarchical; teachers are separated from one another and have trained to work alone; principals are rarely required to facilitate cooperation; and leadership has traditionally been associated with formal duties. Professional development (PD) has traditionally depended on a deficit model in which an expert teaches knowledge and information to teachers who are presumed to be weak and require outside specialists to educate them new ways of working with children. PD necessitates systemic reforms that alter both the structures of schools as well as the norms and behaviors that exist inside them. According to Fullan (2001), the change process has four stages: active initiation and engagement, pressure and support, behavioral and belief modifications, and ownership. School communities may end up adopting innovation after innovation without seeing any permanent improvement in the achievement of school goals if they do not understand the complex nature of the changes that are required and do not provide professional development opportunities for teachers and others. Professional development must consequently be designed, implemented, and evaluated with attention paid to all stages of the change process. Reform attempts that do not prioritize teacher acceptability are likely to fail. As a result, the emphasis of the staff development program must move from working on teachers to working with teachers to improve teaching and learning for all children.

In the context of Nigeria, teacher professional development refers to the procedures, organizational systems, and practices that help teachers improve and carry out their tasks more effectively. Organizational mechanisms are those in place to monitor the teacher’s ongoing growth. These may take the shape of planned and scheduled short-term training programs and seminars geared at satisfying the teaching force’s diverse professional demands. Practices, on the other hand, include formal mentorship programs formed in settings such as counsel from the head teacher or ward education officer. Other types of practice include meetings held at the school and cluster levels to examine and reflect on practice on a regular basis. The establishment and efficient use of a Teachers Resource Centre is an important component of teacher professional development. Scholars such as Kruse and Luis (1997) and Quinn and Restine (1996) have argued for a cost-effective interactive, on-the-job coaching and mentoring approach to teacher professional development.

Training can be conducted in small school clusters, and skilled senior teachers or university lecturers can be asked to act as trainers and mentors in these clusters. Such formal arrangements for professional development must be supplemented by informal activities such as team teaching and the sharing of experiences and educational materials among teachers, all of which contribute significantly to self-improvement. This strategy has the benefit of enabling healthy conversations regarding various reform initiatives and innovations, as well as encouraging cooperation, peer mentoring, inquiry, collegial study groups, thoughtful discussion, and action (Pounder, 1999).

Teacher professional development is a function of the interaction between and among five main players or stakeholders, according to the Interactive systems model. This includes the ministry in charge of teacher education, as well as universities, schools, the community, and the teachers themselves. The Ministry of Education and Vocational Training is in charge of establishing policies and funding for teacher professional development. Universities and Teacher Education institutions are in charge of providing training, conducting policy-oriented research, and disseminating important literature and tools to help teachers in the classroom. On a daily basis, school administration is expected to give assistance to teachers through consultation, supervision, monitoring, and assessment of teaching and learning activities. The community is responsible for supporting teacher professional development by providing the required budgetary resources through the school committee. It is the teacher’s responsibility to be proactive in exploring chances for professional development.

According to the Rogan and Grayson (2003) professional development model, programs for upgrading teachers from one grade level to another do not qualify as teacher professional development. However, components of professional growth characterized by formal and informal practices established by teachers and their principals at the school/ward level were identified, which must be nourished and supported by all education stakeholders.

The goal of staff development programs is to keep employees up to speed on the most recent developments in their industries and to allow them to “brush up” on their abilities. It is the most effective training offered in the country for middle-level and senior executives. The goal is for a member of staff to complement his or her fundamental knowledge and increase performance in how services are delivered. It is heartening to see both the Federal and State governments of Nigeria are aware of the enormous advantages that can be derived from staff development programs.

In Nigeria, for example, there are organizations such as: 1. The Centre for Management Development

The Nigerian Institute of Management is another name for the Nigerian Institute of Management.

3. Kuru, Jos, National Institute for Strategic and Policy Studies

Nigeria Administrative Staff College (ASCON).

As a result, every staff development program should be able to encourage and aid enhance employee role perception, as well as establish a right attitude toward the public. It is apparent that the necessity for sufficient staff development programs for teachers in Nigeria has been visible in the last two decades, as they have grown aware of it.

Teachers’ living conditions are likely to increase when they are educated since they are enabled to access profitable initiatives, which will eventually lead to an improvement in their livelihoods. Thus, the goal of education is not only to teach information and skills that enable recipients to operate as economic and social change agents in society, but also to convey values, ideas, attitudes, and ambitions that are vital for natural development.

The obvious relationship between education and staff development programs is hence the enhancement of labor skills, which enhances prospects for well-paying productive work. As a result, residents of any nation may be able to fully utilize their potential in a constructive manner.

As a result, this study is critical in addressing key issues such as staff/teacher development programs in the Nigeria context, in order to determine how effective they are, how they have affected teacher service delivery, and the positive impact this can have on the academic performance of secondary school students in Nigeria.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

When one considers the overview in the backdrop of this study, the influence of staff development programs on teacher job performance is worth exploring. As a result, if in-service training fails and is not successful, Nigeria may suffer a setback in its social and economic progress. In Nigeria, there is a dire need for the organization of efficient and successful staff development programs. Many of the instructors employed in Nigeria’s public and private secondary schools are of poor quality. They are typically inefficient in carrying out their responsibilities.

Many institutions in the country who conduct staff training programs have the incorrect concept that staff development programs need placing a few employees with high potentials in a training program while disregarding the rest of the workforce. Of course, identifying the potential of prospective teachers is tough, but relying on a few trainees is also problematic. It becomes considerably riskier when trainees are chosen only on the basis of familiarity or kinship with executives, with no respect for their talents. Aside from that, secondary school pupils’ academic performance has been dismal. Many pupils that sit for the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and the National Examination Council (NECO) in Nigerian secondary schools fare poorly. As a result, it has been determined that the causes for this poor performance were a lack of efficient and skilled teachers.

This study is necessary, however, in order to establish the effects of staff/in-service development programs on teachers’ efficiency in the classrooms and how this might affect students’ academic achievement in Nigerian secondary schools.

1.3 Study Objectives

The following objectives will be discussed in order to tackle the identified problems above. They are as follows:

1. To investigate the impact of in-service training programmes on student‟s academic performance.

2. To examine effect of full-time and part-time training programmes on teachers‟ teaching methods in the classrooms.

3. To determine the various modes of training programmes (full-time and part-time) adopted by the secondary schools in Ibadan South East Local Government Area of Oyo State in training their teachers.

4. To examine the impact of in-service training programmes on teachers‟ teaching methods in the classrooms.

1.4 Research Questions

1. What is the impact of in-service training programmes on students‟ academic performance?

2. What is the impact of in-service training programmes on the teachers teaching methods in the classrooms?

3. What effects do the various modes of training programmes (full-time and par-time) have on teachers‟ teaching methods in the classrooms?

1.5 Scope of the Study

This study investigated the impact of staff development programmes on the effectiveness of secondary school teachers in Ibadan South East Local Government Area of Oyo State. The researcher selected this Ibadan South East Local Government Area of Oyo State. The researcher selected this local government for research purpose alone and no ulterior motive in the selection of the said Secondary Schools in Ibadan South East Local Government Area of Oyo State.

1.6 Significance of the Study

This study is relevant for three reasons. First, the findings will contribute to the existing body of information and discussions concerning the notions of staff development programs and instructors’ teaching approaches.

Second, the findings will contribute to government policies that will encourage in-service training programs in our secondary schools to improve teachers’ teaching methods. Third, findings will account for the influence of teacher in-service training programs on secondary school students’ academic performance in Nigeria.

1.7 OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS OF TERMS

Staff Development

Day (1999) sees staff development of teachers as a process by which teachers review, renew and extend their commitment as change agents to the moral purposes of teaching; and by which they acquire and develop critically the knowledge, skills, planning and practice with children, young people and colleagues through each phase of their teaching lives. Leithwood (1992) „multidimensional description of staff development‟ incorporates three dimensions: the development of professional expertise; psychological development; and career-cycle development. It also appears to be a process involving the generation of ideas that may be applicable to teaching; trying out these ideas; discussing in collegial contexts the viability and implications of the ideas as they emerge as potential practice; and, adopting new practices that emanate from the ideas.

Teacher

Majasan (1995) defines a teacher as one who teaches (especially with young ones), builds up, instructs, trains and guides them for healthy growth and stable adult life. The teacher is also someone who instructs others or provides activities, materials and guidance that facilitate learning in either formal or informal situations. His job goes beyond teaching into moulding young lives, guiding youth, motivating students and general character – training.

A teacher can however be viewed as one whose profession includes teaching, instructing, impacting knowledge and innovations, and guiding learners to pass through the learning process.

Teacher’s Effectiveness

It was recommended by some crop of scholars that all evaluations of teachers should be based on information about teacher effectiveness but they however noted that “because direct information about teacher effectiveness is not available, many teacher evaluations are based on information about teacher competence or teacher performance”. Hence, effective teachers must target consistently goals which either directly or indirectly focus on the learning of their students. Teacher‟s effectiveness could also be seen as a degree to which a teacher achieves the desired effects upon students. Thus, for a teacher to be competent, he must therefore possess the requisite knowledge and skills in the process of teaching.

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