Teachers’ perspectives on in-service professional development in South African and Nigerian high schools

Abstract

The development of any country is intricately driven by the available education system in such country where teachers are the prominent drivers. This study was conducted to explore teachers’ Perspectives on in-service professional development activities in both South Africa and Nigeria. In-service professional development refers to all activities to improve classroom practices for better learners’ academic performance. Data collection instruments were questionnaire with eighty teachers while six Heads of Departments were engaged in semi-structured interviews and ten teachers participated in focus group interviews. Experiential theory was used to underpin teachers’ views on the IPD. Findings revealed that teachers in both countries were not provided with frequent in-service professional activities on yearly basis, and the contents of these IPD activities were not satisfactory to the teachers. The study therefore recommended frequent IPD activities for the teachers and the IPD activities should focus on teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge for enhanced classroom practices.

Keywords: classroom practices, perspectives, in-service professional development, continuity, appropriateness, regularity