University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

An evaluation study of effectiveness of continuous professional development in Ethiopia

(USC Thesis Other)

An evaluation study of effectiveness of continuous professional development in Ethiopia

PDF

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content Running head: CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 1

AN EVALUATION STUDY OF EFFECTIVENESS OF CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT IN ETHIOPIA

by

Seid Aman Mohammed

A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

August 2019

Copyright 2019 Seid Aman Mohammed

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 2
DEDICATION
This dissertation is dedicated to Chip and Shannon Wilson, who generously supported
my longtime dream to earn my doctorate degree in education as well as my mentor and coach
Susanne Conrad, who encouraged me to dream big and made a bold request on my behalf to
make this dream possible. I would also like to thank to Dr. Mary Anna Noveck, who inspired
and envisioned this possibility for me, and has been a great supporter in providing me with the
encouragement I needed during this journey including editing my dissertation.
Additionally, would also dedicate this dissertation to my wife Rabiya Dawud, who was
behind every success that I had. Without her encouragement and support, I would not have
completed this study. My children Fatra, Soreti, Abdurezak, and Aman; this work is dedicated to
you for your patience while you needed my attention and I was not available to you.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First, my praise is to the almighty Allah for giving me the strength and courage to
complete this dissertation. I would like to especially thank my dissertation chair, Dr. Robert
Filback for his encouragement, constructive feedback, and support during my dissertation
journey. I would also like to thank my dissertation committee members, Dr. Jenifer Crawford
and Dr. Heidi Harju-Luukkainen for their precious time in providing me with constructive
feedback that helped me to improve my dissertation. I would also like to thank Dr. Mark
Robison and Dr. Sabrina Chong for allowing me to join this amazing program and for supporting
me to the end.
I also acknowledge; Brett Conrad, Peg Peters, and Scott Elliott for the positive energy
and encouragement they offered me. I am also grateful to all Imagine1day staff who supported
me during my studies. I particularly want to thank Daniel Ataklti, Halefom Gezaei, and Umer
Limu for taking care of my role in my absence during my studies and Hawi Alemu for
sacrificing her weekends to transcribe all of my interviews. I also want to thank Muktar Abdi for
his kind support in translating my interview and survey instruments.
Lastly, I would like to thank the Barbare District Education Office for allowing me to
conduct this study in their schools. I am so grateful to all teachers who participated in my study
and provided me with so much valuable information for this study. I believe that your dedication
and support to your students paired with effective professional development could ultimately
transform the learning for every child in your school.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

4
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication 2
Acknowledgements 3
List of Tables 7
List of Figures 9
Abstract 10
Chapter One: Introduction 11
Background of the Problem 12
Importance of Addressing Teacher Quality Gap 17
Organizational Context and Mission 18
Organizational Performance Goal 19
Description of Stakeholder Groups 20
Stakeholder’ Performance Goals 21
Stakeholder Group for the Study 22
Purpose of the Project and Questions 23
Conceptual and Methodological Framework 23
Definitions 24
Organization of the Project 24
Chapter Two: Review of the Literature 26
History of Education in Ethiopia 26
Teacher Education in Ethiopia 29
Teacher Professional Development 31
Continuous Professional Development 34
Function and Purpose of CPD 35
The Context for CPD in Africa 37
Different Perspectives on CPD 39
Models of CPD 40
Strategies for Delivery of CPD 43
Characteristics of Effective CPD 44
Impact of CPD on Teachers’ Effectiveness and Student Learning 45
Evaluating CPD 46
Teachers’ Knowledge, Motivation, and Organizational Influences 49
Knowledge and Skills 49
Motivation 55
Organizational Influences 57
Chapter Three: Methods 62
Participating Stakeholders 62
Survey Sampling Strategy and Rationale 66
Survey Sampling Criteria and Rationale 66
Interview Sampling Strategy and Rationale 67
Interview Sampling Criterion and Rationale 67
Data Collection and Instrumentation 68
Surveys 68
Interviews 70
Document Review 71
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

5
Data Analysis 73
Credibility and Trustworthiness 73
Validity and Reliability 75
Ethics 75
Limitations and Delimitations 77
Chapter Four: Results and Findings 79
Report of the Findings 80
Research Question 1 80
Research Question 2 85
Results and Findings for Knowledge Influences 85
Declarative Knowledge Influences 87
Procedural Knowledge Influences 99
Metacognitive Knowledge Influences 107
Synthesis of Results and Findings for Knowledge Influences 108
Results and Findings for Motivation Influences 110
Value 111
Self-Efficacy 119
Synthesis of Results and Findings for Motivation Influences 121
Results and Findings for Organizational Assumed Influences 123
Collaborative Learning Culture Influence 123
Supportive Leadership Influences 127
Resource Influences 131
Professional Development Influences 134
Synthesis of Organizational Results and Findings 137
Conclusion 139
Chapter Five: Solutions, Implementation, and Evaluation 144
Validated Influences and Solutions 144
Solutions for Knowledge Influences 147
Develop and provide relevant and quality CPD materials 147
Providing Training and Coaching 149
Utilizing Models and Modeling 152
Solutions for Motivation Influences 152
Teachers Working towards Challenging but Achievable Goals 153
Show Relevance of Action Research 154
Provide Targeted Feedback 154
Link Intangible Incentives with CPD performance 155
Modeling Passion and Enthusiasm for the Action Research 155
Solutions for Organization Influences 156
Creating a Professional Learning Communities 156
Aligning the Organizational Structures and Processes with CPD Goals 158
Active Leadership Involvement and Support 160
Implementation Plan 161
Key Implementation Action Steps 164
Solution 1: Creating and Nurturing Effective Professional Learning Communities 164
Solution 2: Develop and provide relevant and quality CPD materials 168
Solution 3: Aligning the Organizational Structures and Processes with CPD Goals 170
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

6
Solution 4: Link CPD with Teachers’ Incentives 172
Evaluation Plan 178
Level 1: Reaction 179
Level 2: Learning 180
Level 3: Organization Support and Change 180
Level 4: Behavior 181
Level 5: Results 181
Future Research 188
Conclusion 188
References 191
Appendix A: Survey Items 205
Appendix B: Interview Participant Recruitment Sheet 215
Appendix C: Interview Protocol 216
Appendix D: Document Review Checklist 219
Appendix E: University of Southern California Information Sheet for Research 220
Appendix F: Recruitment Letter 221
Appendix G: Influencer and Protocol Table 222
Appendix H: Map of the District for the Study 230

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

7
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Organizational Mission, Global Goal and Stakeholder Performance Goal 21
Table 2: Assumed Knowledge Influences 54
Table 3: Assumed motivation influences 57
Table 4: Assumed Organizational Influences 61
Table 5: The gender of survey respondents (%) 64
Table 6: Age category of survey respondents (%) 65
Table 7: Years of teaching experience of survey respondents (%) 65
Table 8: Survey respondents qualification by gender (in %) 66
Table 9: Knowledge influences validated, partially validated, and new influences 87
Table 10: Validated assumed declarative knowledge influences 88
Table 11: Assumed procedural knowledge influence validated 99
Table 12: Assumed procedural knowledge influences partially validated 102
Table 13: CPD methods experienced by teachers (%) 106
Table 14: Validated assumed metacognitive knowledge influences 107
Table 15: Summary of validated assumed knowledge influences 109
Table 16: Motivation influences validated, not validated. 111
Table 17: Motivational value influences not validated 112
Table 18: Motivational Self-efficacy influence validated 120
Table 19: Motivational influences validated 122
Table 20: Organizational influences validated and partially validated 123
Table 21: Partially validates collaborative learning culture 123
Table 22: Validated supportive leadership assumed influence 127
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

8
Table 23: Validated assumed resource influences 131
Table 24: Validated assumed professional development influence 135
Table 25: Summary of validated and partially validated assumed influences 138
Table 26: Summary of validated knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences and
response to research questions 141
Table 27: Validated influences and proposed solutions 145
Table 28: Solution ranking criteria 162
Table 29: Solutions ranked according to selection criteria 162
Table 30: Summary of solutions and implementation plan 175
Table 31: Evaluation plan 183

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

9
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Survey results: CPD framework as a focus area of teachers’ CPD 90
Figure 2. Survey results: Teachers knowledge of maintaining professional portfolio 95
Figure 3. Survey results: Impact of engaging in CPD activities 114
Figure 4. Survey results: Teachers perceived effectiveness of CPD activities 115
Figure 5. Survey results: Teachers' perceived value of collaborative learning 116
Figure 6. Survey results: Teachers who value engaging in action research 119
Figure 7. Survey results: Confident in ability to conduct action research 121
Figure 8. Survey results: Supportive district leadership/cluster supervisor 130
Figure 9. Survey results: Adequate resource allocated, and Sufficient time provided 134
Figure 10. Survey results: Received professional development opportunity 137
Figure 11. Teacher inquiry and knowledge-building cycle. 152
Figure 12. Core conceptual framework for studying the effects of professional development. 182

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

10
ABSTRACT
The ineffectiveness of professional development programs in improving teacher practices
and student learning has been a major concern worldwide. A national survey conducted by the
Ethiopian Ministry of Education reports that less than 30% of teachers find Continuous
Professional Development a valuable program. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the
degree to which the Barbare District Education Office (BDEO) in Oromia region of Ethiopia is
meeting its goal of all its teachers successfully engaging in effective CPD practices. This study
adapted the Clark and Estes’ (2008) gap analysis model, which helps to identify performance
gaps and its root causes. This study examined teachers’ knowledge, motivation and
organizational influences related to successfully engaging in effective CPD practices. In this
mixed method study, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from teachers in 10
randomly selected Grade 1 – 8 schools in BDEO. Quantitative data was collected from 82
teachers through survey questionnaires and qualitative data was collected from 16 teachers
through interviews and document reviews. The main findings that emerged from the data
analysis were that teachers have a limited knowledge of the CPD program and effective
instructional practices. Additionally, the study found that teachers have low self-efficacy,
experience unsupportive leadership and a limited collaborative culture in the schools they work,
shortage of time, and inadequate funding and supplementary resources to effectively practice
CPD. This study suggested evidence-based solutions that are believed to close identified
performance gap with its’ implementation and evaluation plan such as building effective
professional learning communities, providing relevant and quality CPD materials, aligning the
organizational structures and processes with CPD goals, and linking CPD performance with
teachers’ incentives.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

11
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Effective professional development opportunities have a significant positive influence on
teaching practice and student learning, particularly in a context where a substantial proportion of
the teacher workforce is unqualified for their work (Villegas-Reimers, 2003). Several studies
have also shown evidence that teacher professional development has a positive impact on
education quality (Bubb & Earley , 2007; Yoon, Duncan, Lee, Scarloss, & Shapley, 2007).
Although useful in general, research indicates that traditional forms of professional development
such as workshops, seminars, symposiums and conferences are often inadequate, unrelated to the
needs of teachers, and ineffective in terms of desired results (Darling-Hammond, 2000;
Whitworth & Chiu, 2015). This is a significant problem, especially when one considers that
approximately 250 million children are not learning basic skills, even though half of them have
spent at least 4 years in school (UNESCO, 2014). Therefore, investing in effective teacher
professional development strategies is critical to improve the quality of education. Research
shows that effective models include school-embedded ongoing professional development in
which teachers collaborate with their colleagues and focus on problems of practice (Organization
for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2015).
In this regard, teachers’ Continuous Professional development (CPD) has received a great
deal of attention from policy makers, teachers, and school administrators throughout the world
(Bubb & Earley, 2007; Day & Sachs, 2004). According to Bubb and Earley (2007), CPD is an
ongoing learning opportunity for teachers with the aim to improve the quality of students’
education. Introduced by countries around the world, CPD’s function is to align teachers’
practice with national education reforms, raise the status of the teaching profession, and increase
student learning outcomes (Day & Sachs, 2004). It became a predominant mechanism to retool
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

12
and retain teachers for successful educational reforms (Bubb & Earley , 2007). CPD has been
found to be the most effective process of learning which promotes teachers’ commitment to their
professional development (Bubb & Earley , 2007). As a result, many countries, including
Ethiopia, have introduced CPD as one of the key components of their educational reform
initiatives. In Ethiopia, the first phase of CPD was introduced in 2005. In 2008, Haramaya
University (as cited in MOE, 2009) evaluated this first phase of CPD. The study found that there
was no CPD structure in 80% of schools in Ethiopia and 97% of cluster resource centers (CRCs)
surveyed were not appropriately resourced to run effective CPD. All schools in Ethiopia are
organized into clusters with CRCs being schools tasked with the responsibility to capacitate
teachers in their cluster. On average, a cluster consists of five to seven schools. Recognizing the
importance of effective CPD in improving teachers’ competency, the Ethiopian government
developed a new framework for CPD (Ministry of Education, 2009). Due to lack of rigorous
studies in the area, the effectiveness of the program remains unknown. This study will examine
the effectiveness and successful implementation of CPD from lived experience of selected
teachers in primary schools located in the Barbare District of Ethiopia.
Background of the Problem
The ineffectiveness of professional development programs in improving teachers
practices and student learning has been a major concern worldwide (Barber & Mourshed, 2007;
Darling-Hammond, Hyler, & Gardner, 2017; Villegas-Reimers, 2003). Teacher quality is
considered one of the most important factors in student achievement (Abebe & Woldehanna,
2013; Darling-Hammond, 2000; Gemeda, Fiorucci, & Catarci, 2014; Muijs, Day, Harris, &
Lindsay, 2004). Teacher quality effect on student learning is much bigger than other factors
such as classroom size, education expenditure, and teacher salaries (Darling-Hammond, 2000).
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

13
Signifying the effect of teacher quality, the 2007 McKinesy & Company report stated that, “the
quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers” (Barber & Mourshed,
2007, p. 40). According to Barber and Mourshed (2007), the main factors behind the success of
high-performing schools are that they create a better system that attracts competent people to
teach, develop those recruited into better teachers, and guarantee reliable delivery for all
children. While there is almost a universal consensus on the central role of teachers in
promoting education quality, the quality of education remains a major challenge globally
(Geldenhuys & Oosthuizen, 2015). The United Nations’ (2017) sustainable development goals
progress report indicated that education quality is globally hindered by a teacher quality gap.
Ethiopia, as in many sub-Saharan African countries, is challenged by quality of teachers (Barber,
2017). Teacher quality has been operationalized using inputs, processes, and outcomes in
different types of studies; this study used measures that focus on teachers’ knowledge, skills, and
attitude to engage in collaborative learning, action research, and reflection.
Geldenhuys and Oosthuizen (2015) argue that CPD plays a key role in improving teacher
quality. By doing so, effective professional development could result in improved student
achievement (Darling-Hammond, Wei, Andree, Richardson, & Orphanos, 2009; Garet, Porter,
Desimone, Birman, & Yoon, 2001; Guskey, 2002; Yoon et al., 2007). Though a considerable
number of studies have found the positive effects of professional development on teaching
practice, little research exists on its connection to student learning outcomes (Desimone, 2009).
Available literature indicates that, when attributes of effective professional development are
present, student achievement can be improved (Desimone, 2009; Yoon et al., 2007).
Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa with an estimated population of
100 million people. The country is among one of the poorest countries in the world. However, in
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

14
recent years, Ethiopia has registered one of the fastest growing economies in Africa. As a result,
the proportion of the population living below the national poverty line fell from 38.7% in 2003–
2004 to 29.6% in 2010–2011. In line with its vision to become a middle-income country by
2025, the country has made a significant investment in creating access to education, health
coverage and infrastructural development (National Planning Commission, 2016). Ethiopia has
been investing over 20% of the federal government budget on education, with the goal to achieve
universal primary education and education for all. Due to this national commitment, significant
strides have been made in the education system. Between 1996 and 2016, primary school
enrollment increased from 3.7 to 19.98 million students, and the number of schools increased
from 11,000 to 34,867.
Despite this encouraging achievement in access, the issue of quality remains a challenge.
This is seen in the declining trend in student learning outcomes. In Ethiopia, the National
Learning Assessment is conducted every four years in Grades 4, 8, 10 and 12. At Grade 4, the
composite learning outcomes, as measured in 2008 and 2012, indicate a large proportion of
students moving out of basic and into below basic proficiency. In 2008, 47% of students were
found to have below basic proficiency compared to 57% in 2012 (Ministry of Education, 2015).
In addition, a significant increase in enrollment forced the government to hire unqualified
teachers (Ministry of Education, 2015). For instance, nationally 28% of teachers of Grades 1
through 4 are unqualified based on the national standard (Ministry of Education, 2016). Per the
current national requirement, primary school teachers should have a 3-year teaching diploma
from a regional teacher’s college. Secondary teachers are required to have a 3-year degree from a
public university. The absence of or ineffectiveness of teacher professional development,
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

15
coupled with inadequately trained teachers, contributed to the decline in student learning
outcomes (Ministry of Education, 2015).
To address this education quality issue, the government of Ethiopia has been taking
measures including the implementation of a World Bank financed program called the General
Education Quality Improvement Package. Since 2008, the government has been implementing
this World Bank program to support quality improvements for all primary and secondary
schools. The program received funding of almost $1 billion over the 8 years and two phases of
its implementation. Teachers Development Program (TDP) is one of the six key components of
the package (Ministry of Education, 2008). As part of TDP, Ethiopia designed a national CPD
framework as one strategy to tackle the deeply-rooted quality problem (Ministry of Education,
2009).
The education and training policy of 1994 (Ministry of Education and the United States
Agency for International Development, 1994) has set high standards for teachers and described a
new approach to education. At the heart of this new approach was the promotion of more active
learning, problem solving, and student-centered teaching methods. However, a study conducted
by the World Bank indicated that Ethiopian classrooms are predominantly chalk, talk and
teacher-centered, with passive learners (World Bank, 2013b) Only 45.9% of teachers achieved
the minimum standard of teaching effectiveness measured as an index of average scores of
school inspection standards on teachers’ knowledge, lesson planning, teaching and assessment
practices (World Bank, 2017). The absence of appropriate pedagogical skills among teachers
hindered the effective implementation of the education quality improvement reforms (Ministry
of Education, 2015).
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

16
Providing adequate number of teachers is not a sufficient condition to ensure education
quality (UNESCO, 2014). With this understanding, the Ethiopian Ministry of Education
introduced CPD with the goal of improving teacher effectiveness and student learning (Ministry
of Education, 2009). As indicated in the CPD framework, it is mandatory for all teachers to
undertake CPD throughout their career. The performance goal is that 100% of teachers will
successfully engage in effective CPD practices as per the national framework, as CPD is one of
the five teachers’ professional competencies (Ministry of Education, 2015). However, a
Ministry of Education report indicated that “Continuous Professional Development (CPD) is not
given enough attention by a significant number of school leaders and teachers” (Ministry of
Education, 2010, p. 21).
A national survey conducted on CPD implementation status reported that only 29.8% of
teachers believed that the program was valuable. As a result, schools face challenges in raising
student achievement through the provision of CPD (Gemeda & Professor, 2015). This is evident
from the three national learning assessments conducted in 2008 and 2012, which revealed a
declining trend in student achievement (Ministry of Education, 2010). This situation is
corroborated by my own personal experience of the current context of CPD, which could be
described as a program that is alive, but not thriving.
Though several studies reported the value of teacher professional development in school
performance improvement, an extensive number of studies also argued that teachers’
professional development has failed to deliver its promise throughout the world (Akalu, 2014;
Cole, 2004; Darling-Hammond et al., 2009; OECD, 2009). In many countries, teacher
professional development is not fulfilling the needs of teachers (OECD, 2009). Gemeda et al.
(2014) found that CPD in Ethiopia was narrowly perceived as traditional training, disregarding
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

17
school-based informal and non-formal learning. Gemeda et al. (2014) also indicated utilization
of a defective model with a top-down approach in which teachers were passive implementers of
the reform with unsupportive leadership and intensified workload. The research also uncovered
that teacher needs and motivation were not considered, thus making teachers leave the
profession. Currently, the country has the highest attrition rate of 4.4%. Of the attrition, 36% is
due to teachers leaving the profession for a different job (Ministry of Education, 2016). An
important factor in effective professional development is connecting the right professional
development with the teachers’ professional needs. Teachers can make little or no effort to apply
learning in the classroom when their professional development programs miss this link to their
needs (Muijs et al., 2004).
Importance of Addressing Teacher Quality Gap
The problem of low teacher quality is important to solve for a variety of reasons.
Several scholars indicated that teachers are the key to improving student performance (Abebe &
Woldehanna, 2013; Darling-Hammond, 2000; Guskey, 2000; Hattie, 2003; Muijs et al., 2004).
Ethiopia’s education and training policy recognized that teachers were the key to improving
student learning outcomes. Therefore, all teachers are called on to engage in CPD experiences to
enhance their school-based practice (Ministry of Education, 2009). Teachers need well-designed
programs and activities to be able to update their knowledge and skills, change their teaching
practice, and educate students to high standards. Educational leaders need to identify effective
CPD to improve the quality of teaching. For this purpose, educational leaders need evidence of
the knowledge and skills, motivational and organizational structures influencing the successful
implementation of CPD. By understanding these factors and characteristics of effective CPD,
educational leaders can improve the effectiveness of professional development which meets both
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

18
teacher and school needs. If teachers’ learning quality improves, the ultimate goal of CPD,
which is improved student learning outcomes, will improve. This will be achieved when what is
learned from CPD is put into practice by teachers.
According to the national CPD framework, there are four steps in the CPD cycle:
analyzing the need, planning, doing and evaluating. However, these steps are rarely undertaken
due to assumed inadequate knowledge, motivation and required organizational support. For
instance, there is no proper evaluation of the program, and, as a result, there is no empirical
evidence of CPD effectiveness in terms of improving teachers’ classroom practice and students’
learning outcomes. Therefore, this evaluation study will explore teachers’ perception on the
effectiveness of CPD in improving teaching and learning. This study will contribute to the
national teacher quality improvement effort by identifying the gaps in knowledge and skills,
motivation, and organizational structures challenging the successful implementation of CPD and
recommending evidence-based solutions.
Organizational Context and Mission
The Barbare District Education Office (BDEO) is one of 817 district education offices in
Ethiopia. Its mission is to expand access to educational opportunity for all citizens with
enhanced quality, equity and internal efficiency. It is a semi-pastoral district where the
livelihood of the people is dependent on subsistence farming and animal rearing. Per the 2007
census, the population of the district was estimated to be 117,616. The district has 45 primary
schools, 457 teachers, 45 principals, 10 cluster supervisors, one teacher development expert and
29,461 students enrolled in Grades 1 through 8. The school principals report to district cluster
supervisors who report to the district education office. Girls are 45% of the student population.
This indicates a low gender parity index of 0.82 (BDEO, 2016). Based on the current number of
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

19
students and teachers, the pupil-to-teacher ratio is 64, indicating large class size. In line with its
mission, the district has made a commendable achievement in increasing net enrollment from
less than 20% in early 1990 to 64% in 2017 (Imagine1day, 2018).
Despite success gained in access, the district has the highest number of out-of-school
children in the region, as there are many barriers preventing children from enrolling and
completing primary school. The districts are among the lowest performing in the Oromia region,
with an overall average of 16% of primary school-aged children not enrolled in school as
compared to the national average of 7%. Two-thirds of the out-of-school children are estimated
to be girls. Due to high drop-out and repetition rates, only half of those who are enrolled into
Grade 1 complete primary school without interruption. Further, student attainment and learning
outcomes have not improved in line with the national targets. According to a national study
conducted by Research Triangle International, the early grade education system failed to equip
most of the students with basic literacy and numeracy skills (Piper, 2010). According to this
study, 34% of students in Grade 2 were unable to read a single word of a grade-level relevant
story, and 48% of students were unable to answer a single comprehension question on a reading
comprehension test. The issue is worse in pastoralist districts like Barbare District due to the
low quality of the teaching and learning environment. Therefore, enhancing education quality
through improving teachers’ pedagogical skills became a priority for the district. In this regard,
high priority was given to CPD in the policy framework as demonstrated by the fact that it forms
one of the five teacher professional competencies.
Organizational Performance Goal
The Ministry of Education mandated BDEO’s goal that, by 2019–2020, 70% of Grade 2
students will achieve basic or higher reading proficiency. To achieve this goal, it is critical to
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

20
implement an effective CPD program. The ultimate purpose of CPD is to improve teachers’
classroom practice and student learning outcomes. Engagement in CPD is mandatory and one of
the five Ethiopian teachers’ professional competencies (Ministry of Education, 2009). The
successful and effective implementation of CPD contributes to the achievement of BDEO’s goal
of improving students’ reading proficiency.
Evaluation is essential to ensure continued effectiveness of the program in delivering its
promises. The effectiveness of CPD will remain vague without proper evaluative approaches. In
absence of proper evaluations, investment in CPD that have little or no impact on the teacher and
learner will continue to be seen as a priority (Muijs et al., 2004). Failure by the Barbare District
to ensure that teachers and schools are effectively implementing CPD could negatively affect
teachers’ effectiveness and student learning outcomes. In a district where many teachers are not
qualified for their role or ill-qualified due to poor pre-service preparation, the effective practice
of CPD is mandatory to improve teaching pedagogy and students’ learning outcomes.
Description of Stakeholder Groups
The national CPD framework presented key stakeholder contributions for the successful
implementation of the program. According to this framework, key stakeholders include teachers,
school principals and cluster supervisors, district education offices, regional education bureaus,
and the Ministry of Education (Ministry of Education, 2009). CPD is mainly influenced by
teachers, school principals, cluster education supervisors, and the district teacher development
program expert. Each stakeholder makes a unique contribution in the successful implementation
and practice of CPD.
Teachers contribute to the goal by identifying personal needs based on the school CPD
plan, along with carrying out 60 hours of CPD, collaborating with colleagues to improve
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

21
teaching and learning, putting CPD into practice in the classroom, reflecting on their CPD and
maintaining a professional portfolio to record their activities. School principals and supervisors
play a crucial role in facilitating the annual school CPD needs analysis, identifying school
priorities, ensuring departments produce an annual CPD plan, allocating resources, and regularly
monitoring and providing constructive feedback to ensure quality engagement of teachers in
CPD activities. The district teacher development program expert’s role is to oversee and provide
support to schools through the cluster supervisor.
The district education office contributes by providing training on CPD for schools,
ensuring that schools have a CPD plan, monitoring, evaluating and reporting about schools’
activities. The Regional Education Bureau contributes by identifying regional priorities,
producing modules and conducting training for stakeholders to implement them. The Ministry of
Education is a policy issuing body that plays an important role in designing and reviewing the
National Framework for CPD and guiding documents. The ministry also contributes in
conducting research and sharing findings with stakeholders with the aim to improve the
effectiveness of the CPD framework.
Stakeholder’ Performance Goals
Table 1
Organizational Mission, Global Goal and Stakeholder Performance Goal
BDEO’s Mission
To expand equitable access to quality educational opportunity with enhanced quality of
teacher and other educational inputs
BDEO’s Performance Goal
By 2019/2020, 70% of Grade 2 students will achieve basic or higher reading proficiency

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

22
Table 1, continued
Teachers Goal School Principals
Goal
Cluster Supervisors Goal Teacher Development
Program Expert Goal
By 2019/2020,
100% of
teachers will
successfully
engage in
effective CPD
practices aimed
at improving the
quality of
teaching
performance and
student learning
outcomes.
By 2019/20, 100% of
school principals will
provide effective
support for teachers’
CPD practice by
creating management
strategy, facilitating
effective CPD needs
analysis, setting
priorities, creating
annual school CPD
plan, and regularly
monitoring the
effectiveness of the
changes to teaching
and learning.
By 2019/20, 100% of
school Cluster Supervisors
help schools identify their
CPD priorities, ensure that
schools have annual CPD
plan, and regularly monitor
the effectiveness of the
changes to teaching and
learning.
By 2019/20, The district’s
teacher development
program expert provides
effective support by
ensuring that schools have
annual CPD plans,
monitoring and evaluating
the CPD activities at
schools, and provide
training to clusters and
schools.

Stakeholder Group for the Study
While the joint efforts of all stakeholders will be needed to accomplish the goal that 70%
of Grade 2 students will achieve basic or higher reading proficiency, this study will focus on
teachers. As indicated in the fifth Education Sector Development Plan (ESDP V), the present
pedagogical skills of teachers are largely inadequate for quality teaching (Ministry of Education,
2015). Teachers’ pedagogical skill and practice have direct influence on students. Furthermore,
these are the most important factors affecting students’ learning outcome (Darling-Hammond,
2000). To address this issue, Ethiopia introduced CPD for primary and secondary teachers,
principals, and supervisors. The 2009 National CPD framework clearly indicates that CPD is a
compulsory, civic and professional duty of all teachers. As per the framework, BDEO’s goal is
that all of teachers in BDEO will be engaged in effective CPD practice with the ultimate
objective of improving their teaching capacity and students’ learning outcomes. Hence, it is
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

23
important to evaluate teachers’ current performance in their CPD engagement and challenges
encountered in the implementation process.
Purpose of the Project and Questions
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the degree to which BDEO is meeting its goal
that all teachers successfully engage in effective CPD practices. The analysis will focus on
teachers’ knowledge, motivation and organizational influences related to successfully engaging
in effective CPD practices in achieving the intended organizational goals. While a complete
performance evaluation would focus on all stakeholders, teachers are directly impacted and
significantly contribute to the effectiveness of CPD. For this reason, the stakeholder to be
focused on in this analysis are teachers. Three research question will guide this study:
1. To what extent is BDEO meeting its goal of 100% teachers successfully engaging in
effective CPD practice?
2. What are the knowledge, motivation, and organizational challenges for BDEO's teachers
to successfully engage in effective CPD practice?
3. What are the potential knowledge, motivation, and organization solutions to enable all
BDEO's teachers to be actively engaged in effective CPD practice?
Conceptual and Methodological Framework
Clark and Estes’ (2008) gap analysis, a systematic, analytical method that helps to clarify
organizational goals and identify the gap between the actual performance level and desired
performance level, and determine causes, was adapted for evaluation analysis as this study’s
conceptual framework. Assumed knowledge, motivation and organizational influences were
generated based on personal knowledge and related literature. These influences were then
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

24
validated using surveys, interviews, and document review. Finally, research-based solutions
were recommended and evaluated in a comprehensive manner.
Definitions
Continuous professional development: It is a
professional development consisting of all-natural learning experiences and those
conscious and planned activities which are intended to be of direct or indirect benefit to
the individual, group or school and which contribute, through these, to the quality of
education in the classroom. It is the process by which, alone and with others, 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 and
emotional intelligence essential to good professional thinking, planning and practice with
children, young people and colleagues through each phase of their teaching lives. (Day,
1999, p. 4)
Student learning outcomes: The desired learning objectives or standards that schools and
teachers want students to achieve. This includes students acquiring basic literacy and numeracy
skills (Great Schools Partnership, 2014).
Collaborative learning: two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together.
Organization of the Project
Five chapters are used to organize this study. This chapter provides the key concepts and
terminology commonly found in discussions about the effectiveness of CPD. The organization’s
mission, goals and stakeholders and the gap analysis conceptual framework were introduced.
Chapter Two provides a review of current literature surrounding the scope of the study. The first
part of Chapter Two discusses topics about the history of education in Ethiopia, teachers’
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

25
education, professional development in general, models and characteristics of effective CPD, the
impacts of professional development on student learning and evaluation methods. The second
part of Chapter Two details the knowledge, motivation and organizational influences to be
examined as well as the research design for the study. Chapter Three presents research design
and methods that will be used for data collection and analysis, ethical considerations, limitations
and delimitations of the study. In Chapter Four, the data and results are assessed and analyzed.
Chapter Five provides solutions, based on data and literature, for closing the perceived gaps as
well as recommendations for an implementation and evaluation plan for the solutions.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

26
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
This chapter contains a review of the literature about Ethiopia’s history of education,
teacher education, and teachers’ professional development. The chapter also reviews CPD and
its function and purposes along with its historical context. Additionally, different perspectives
and models of CPD, along with strategies for delivery are reviewed. Characteristics of effective
CPD, and the impact on teachers’ effectiveness and student learning outcomes are examined. A
review of CPD evaluation is also conducted. This chapter, in its final section, reviews the
literature related to stakeholders’ knowledge and skills, as well as motivation, and organizational
factors affecting effective implementation of CPD.
History of Education in Ethiopia
Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa with an estimated population of
over 105 million (Central Intelligence Agency, 2018) in more than 90 ethnic and linguistic
groups (Ministry of Education, 2015). Ethiopia is one of the ancient civilizations that has a
history of education dating back to the fourth century (Semela, 2014). Modern education was
introduced in early 1908 with the opening of the Minilk school (Negash, 1996, 2006).
According to Negash (1996), the opening of this secular school faced a strong opposition from
the church, who, by then, was a dominant provider of religion-based education. Emperor Minilk
countered the church’s resistance with a firm belief in the importance of foreign language
proficiency to maintain the country’s independence. Due to church opposition, it was impossible
to increase the number of schools until 1925 when the Taffari Mekonnen school opened as the
second school. In addition to foreign language, the school also included bible teaching to
address the concerns of the church (Negash, 1996). In the 1940s, the purpose of these schools
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

27
changed with the growing interest in producing trained nationals to replace expatriates serving in
government offices (Negash, 2006).
Since the 1940s, Ethiopia has experienced three ruling regimes, each characterized by its
own education policy. The first regime was the imperial regime that started after World War II
and lasted until 1974, the second was the socialist regime that lasted until 991 and the current
federal system of governance became fully operational after 1994. During the first two regimes,
there was no clear education policy and the systems used education as a means of political
indoctrination. The education systems were also characterized by limited and inequitable access,
lack of quality and relevance, and continuous decline in quality and standard. Access to
educational opportunity was largely limited to urban areas and failed to benefit rural people
constituting over 85% of the population of Ethiopia (Ministry of Education, 2002). Like in many
other developing countries, the education system, policies and reforms are largely influenced by
foreign aid.
In recognition of the complex problems of relevance, quality, accessibility and equity in
the education systems, the current federal government, ruled by the Ethiopian People’s
Revolutionary Democratic Front enacted a new education and training policy in 1994 (Ministry
of Education, 2002). Following this policy, the landscape of the education system changed
radically with the government’s commitment to enroll all school-aged children in school. The
major feature of this policy includes the decentralization of the education system, introduction of
mother tongue as medium of instruction for primary education and structuring at all levels of
education. This involves restructuring primary education to comprise Grades 1 to 8, divided into
first cycle of Grades 1 to 4 and second cycle of Grades 5 to 8, and secondary education to
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

28
comprise Grades 9 to 12 divided into first cycle of Grades 9 to 10, and higher education
preparatory school of Grades 11 to 12 (Ministry of Education, 1994).
The decentralization of the education system made the education service provision the
duty of federal, regional and district governments. The federal government is responsible for
post-secondary education and establishing standards and guiding policies for the entire sector.
Regional governments are responsible for overseeing the College of Teacher Education,
providing primary textbooks and contextualizing the national primary syllabus to the region.
District governments are responsible for recruitment, supervision and training of primary and
secondary teachers (Ministry of Education, 2008).
A series of five Education Sector Development Programs (ESDP I-V) were launched to
serve the general objectives set under the 1994 education and training policy. The first four
ESDPs were completed, and ESDP V is currently under implementation serving as a strategic
document in educational development from 2014–2015 to 2019–2020 (Ministry of Education,
2015). Since 1996, the government has invested an average of 20% of the federal budget on
education with the goal of achieving universal primary education and education for all. Between
2003 and 2012, public spending increased 70% (Ministry of Education, 2015). Due to this
national commitment, significant achievements occurred in the education system. Between 1996
and 2016, primary school enrolment increased from 3.7 to 19.98 million students, and the
number of schools increased from 11,000 to 34,867 (Ministry of Education, 2016).
Despite this encouraging achievement in access, quality remains an issue. For instance,
the 2010 Early Grade Reading Assessment reported that 34% of students in Grade 2 were
unable to read a single word of a grade-level relevant story, 48% of students were unable to
answer a single comprehension question on a reading comprehension test, and at least 80% of
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

29
children are not reading at the Ministry of Education’s expected oral reading fluency
benchmark. Only about 5% of students scored at or above the benchmark (Piper, 2010).
Teacher quality is one of the key issues challenging Ethiopia’s effort to improve early
grade reading (Barnes, Zuilkowski, Mekonnen, & Mattoussi, 2017; Ministry of Education,
2015; World Bank, 2013a). Teachers are unable to create literate students as they themselves
lack foundational literacy skills and knowledge (Barnes et al., 2017). If students fail to acquire
basic knowledge and skills, the nation will be challenged to compete in the knowledge-based
global economy. Therefore, improving teacher quality is critical to improving students’ early
grade reading and education quality at large (Ministry of Education, 2010).
Teacher Education in Ethiopia
Teacher education in Ethiopia has undergone several reforms aimed at addressing
educational crisis related to teacher shortage and quality issues. Among these are the 1994
education and training policy, Teacher Education System Overhaul Program, and Teacher
Development Programs (TDPs; Gemechu, Shishigu, Michael, Atnafu, & Ayalew, 2017). The
1994 education and training policy presented teacher education and training as an area of special
attention and action priority. This policy articulated that “the criteria for the professional
development of teachers will be continuous education and training, professional ethics and
teaching performance” (Ministry of Education, 1994, p. 21).
In 2015, there were 37 Colleges of Teacher Education (CTEs) enrolling 211,734 through
regular, extension and summer programs. Among those enrolled, 60% are male (Ministry of
Education, 2016). The entrance requirement for CTE is completion of Grade 10 marked by
writing the Ethiopian General School Leaving Certificate Examination (EGSLCE). Those who
earn a high score on the EGSLCE are able to attend preparatory school (Grades 11–12) to be
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

30
prepared for higher education. Meanwhile, those who fail to score a preparatory school entrance
grade join CTEs or technical and vocational education and training. This implies that CTEs
admit low academic achievers (Semela, 2014). CTEs provide a 1-year and a 3-year diploma
which qualify graduates to teach at pre-primary and primary school, respectively (Ministry of
Education, 2015).
Over 20 different departments or streams operate in most CTEs under both linear and
cluster modalities. The linear modality prepares teachers for the second cycle primary (Grades
5–8). In this modality, teachers specialize in specific subjects. The cluster modality prepares
teachers for the first-cycle primary (Grades 1–4) in which they attend language, social science,
natural science, mathematics, and aesthetics classes to ensure broad knowledge (Ministry of
Education, 2010). Since 2016, new modalities were introduced, including specialist and
generalist. The specialist modality prepares teachers for the second-cycle primary in which
teacher candidates choose to specialize in social science or natural science streams in their
second year of study. The generalist modality prepares first-cycle primary teachers, and it is the
same as the cluster modality. Novice primary and secondary school teachers are encouraged to
continue their education through CPD following a 2-year induction program (Barnes et al.,
2017).
Overall, the government created a fertile ground for expansion of teacher training
institutions and the number of teachers doubled between 1995 and 2015 (Ministry of Education,
2017). However, many primary schools remain without adequate qualified teachers (Method et
al., 2010). High expansion of primary education combined with relatively high teacher attrition
rate lead to a shortage of teachers in some regions (Ministry of Education, 2016). Due to this,
teacher candidates are hired after their second year at the CTE or from Grade 10 students in an
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

31
extreme teacher shortage situation (Barnes et al., 2017). For example, in the 2014–2015
academic year, over 2,200 teachers were within the official high school age range (Ministry of
Education, 2016). The government makes arrangements for these teachers to attend and
complete their CTE diploma through a summer program.
Both pre-service and in-service professional development programs were ineffective to
prepare and equip teachers with the necessary skills in active learning and child-centered
approaches (Ministry of Education, 2008; Semela, 2014). Ethiopian classrooms predominantly
remain chalk and talk, teacher-centered learning environments with passive learners (Abebe &
Woldehanna, 2013; Ministry of Education, 2009; World Bank, 2013b). Only 45.9% of teachers
achieved the minimum standard of teachers’ effectiveness measured as an index of average
scores of school inspection standards on teachers’ knowledge, lesson planning, teaching and
assessment practices (World Bank, 2017). As a result, students’ learning outcomes have been
deteriorating with many lacking basic reading fluency (Barnes et al., 2017). Improvement in
these areas requires teachers’ engagement in apprenticeship, quality pre-service training, an
induction program and CPD (Ministry of Education, 2009).
Teacher Professional Development
Research indicates that a major factor in improving students’ achievement is teacher
performance and quality (Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 1995, 2000; Geringer, 2003; Muijs
et al., 2004; Zepeda, 2008). Geringer (2003) argued that the influence of the teacher is greater
than that of standards, class size or money. Hattie (2009) confirmed Geringer’s argument based
on over 800 meta-analyses conducted by researchers all over the world, which included over
50,000 individual studies with over 250 million student participants. In additional to the meta-
analyses, Hattie determined “effect sizes” for each practice. “Effect size is the magnitude of the
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

32
impact that a given approach has” (Fisher, Frey, & Hattie, 2016, p. 6). Though any practice with
over zero effect size could result in a positive outcome, it may not be worth the investment as it
could be achieved naturally as a child develops. Hattie indicated that practices with effect size of
above 0.40 could result in a higher impact and, hence, be worth the investment. According to
Hattie, the teacher credibility effect size on student learning outcomes on a 5-point scale for
teacher is 0.90 compared to 0.21 for class size. Teacher credibility includes competence, trust,
dynamism and immediacy. Several other researchers also indicated that the success of many
education reforms ultimately relies on teacher quality (Desimone, 2011; Patton, Parker, & Pratt,
2013).
Teacher professional development is one of the important methods for improving
schools, classroom instruction, and student learning outcomes (Darling-Hammond &
McLaughlin, 2011; Desimone, 2011). Professional development consists of both formal and
informal activities (Desimone, 2009), and improving teacher quality requires effective
professional development which creates meaningful learning for teachers (Colbert, Brown, Choi,
& Thomas, 2008). The 2015 WISE education survey results showed 75% of education experts
indicated that providing more professional development is the most successful strategy for
attracting and retaining high-quality teachers (WISE, 2015). According to this same survey,
other strategies are selected by far a smaller number of experts: higher salaries (57%),
performance-based salaries (42%), better technology in the classroom (37%), smaller class sizes
(34%), and fewer standardized assessments (17%). Cognizant of this fact, most governments
emphasize professional development to improve their teachers and education quality (Abebe &
Woldehanna, 2013). Although there is an increased demand for effective professional
development, impactful professional development programs are scarce (Yoon et al., 2007).
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

33
Desimone, Porter, Garet, Yoon and Birman (2002) conducted a 3-year longitudinal study
on the effect of teachers’ professional development on instruction. A purposively selected
sample of 207 teachers in 30 schools participated in the study. Desimone et al. (2002) found that
professional development opportunities increase teachers’ use of learned teaching practices in
the classroom and, ultimately, teachers’ instructional practice. Continuous and rigorous
professional development is associated with improved student learning outcomes (Darling-
Hammond et al., 2009). A review of over 1,300 studies found that teachers with adequate
professional development can increase their students’ learning outcomes by 21 percentile points
(Yoon et al., 2007). Based on a review of research evidence, Yoon et al. (2007) found that
teachers should receive an average of 49 hours of professional development in a year to improve
their skills and their students’ learning. Hattie (2009) confirmed that any educational
intervention with over an average of 0.4 effect size extends the student achievement beyond what
is normally expected from attending a school for a year. According to Hattie, professional
development has a moderate effect size of 0.51. Professional development involves both
learning and unlearning classroom instructional practices. Teachers should unlearn the
instructional practices that are not improving their students’ learning outcomes and learn new
practices that could improve their students’ achievement (Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin,
2011). Teachers learning of their own classroom practice has the highest impact on student
outcomes (Hattie, 2015).
Guskey (2003) reviewed literature that identified effective professional development and
concluded there is no consensus among researchers and practitioners on the characteristics of
effective professional development. The literature provides widely varying, inconsistent and
sometimes contradicting characteristics of effective CPD (Guskey, 2003). The most cited
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

34
characteristics of effective professional development include enhancement of teachers’ content
and pedagogical knowledge (Borko, 2004; Desimone, 2011; Garet et al., 2001), ongoing and
provision of sufficient time (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999; Garet et al., 2001), collegiality and
collaborative learning (Hord & Tobia, 2012; Stoll, Harris, & Handscomb, 2012), using action
research and inquiry as key tools (Stoll et al., 2012), school or site based training (Garet et al.,
2001), job-embedded learning (Borko, 2004), active learning (Desimone, 2011), and coherence
with other school goals and policies (Desimone, 2011). Some of these characteristics are refuted
by other researchers. For instance, it is found that amount of time spent on professional
development is not significantly related to student learning outcomes (Wenglinsky, 2002).
According to Guskey (2003), what matters is not the amount of time but how it is organized and
used.
It has been a long time since researchers and practitioners established principles of
effective professional development. These principles are mostly ignored and became a reason for
the failure of professional development activities (McCann, Jones, & Aronoff, 2012). Though
the traditional one-size-fits all workshops and conferences have been criticized for decades, they
have remained a dominant approach both in developing and developed nations (Colbert et al.,
2008; Darling-Hammond et al., 2009; McCann et al., 2012).
Continuous Professional Development
The term CPD has been widely used to express ongoing education and training of
professionals (Bubb & Earley , 2007). The term CPD is often confused with in-service training
and on-the-job learning concepts. However, CPD is a broader concept consisting of both formal
and informal approaches both within and outside of a school setting (Muijs et al., 2004). Bubb
and Earley (2007) argue that continuing to learn is the indicator of being considered a
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

35
professional. Hence, CPD is widely acknowledged to be of great importance in schools,
contributing to professional and personal development for staff and to improvement in teaching
and learning. The concept is broad, and there are a variety of definitions of CPD across the
professions. Some define it as a mode of education and/or learning, some as an activity, and
some as an approach (Friedman & Phillips, 2004). The concept of CPD in education is often
vague, with the separate concepts of formal in-service training and on-the-job learning confusing
it further. Most researchers reached a consensus in that CPD includes both formal and informal
learning that enables professionals to improve their effectiveness (Bubb & Earley, 2007; Day,
1999; Day & Sachs, 2004).
The Ethiopian policy document defines CPD as “anything that makes a better teacher. It
is a career-long process of improving knowledge, skills and attitudes, centered on the local
context and particularly classroom practice” (Ministry of Education, 2009, p. 16). It includes
both formal and informal activities aimed at improving teachers’ practice. The two forms of
CPD in Ethiopia are updating and upgrading. While updating focuses on subject and pedagogy
knowledge, upgrading focuses in teachers’ advanced study to earn a diploma or degree in
education (Ministry of Education, 2009).
Function and Purpose of CPD
To maintain the professional competence of teachers in a fast-changing society wherein
pre-service training is insufficient, CPD became a focus (Craft, 1996; Luneta, 2012; Muijs et al.,
2004). Pre-service teacher education and induction are only the foundation on which CPD will
be built (Bubb & Earley, 2007). Steyn (2010) highlights that CPD is a means to improve the
quality of teachers who are the necessary condition for the successful implementation of
education reforms. According to Earley and Bubb (2007), human resource development is the
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

36
most effective factor to improve educational performance, compared to any other factors.
Therefore, for schools committed to improve their performance, they must give due attention and
invest on teachers’ professional development (Bubb & Earley, 2007).
The globalization effect compounded by the need to provide efficient, effective and
economical education programs shaped education policies, including CPD (Day & Sachs, 2004).
Soler, Craft, and Burgess (as cited in Geldenhuys & Oosthuizen, 2015) argued that well-trained
and high-quality teachers are required to meet the needs of students and teachers during social
change. The context within which CPD has been implemented varies widely with some
commonality among countries in similar stages of economic development.
The overall function of CPD seems to be one of three necessities: to connect teachers’
practice with educational policies, to improve student learning outcomes, or to elevate the status
of the teaching profession (Day & Sachs, 2004). This implies that teachers need to continuously
learn to remain competent in their teaching, and CPD has become part of the professional lives
for many professionals in many countries. In some countries, it was introduced to fill the gap of
teaching where pre-service teacher education programs were inadequate to produce enough
competent beginning teachers. In Ethiopia, 60 hours of CPD engagement are mandatory for all
teachers. Engagement in CPD is one of the five professional competencies of teachers. The
other four competencies are facilitating student learning, assessing, mastery of education policies
and curriculum, and forming partnerships with the school community (Ministry of Education,
2009).
CPD has three interrelated core purposes: to introduce new knowledge and skills, develop
deep knowledge, and completely transform existing knowledge and practice (Day & Sachs,
2004). According to the Ethiopian CPD framework, the purpose of CPD is to improve teachers’
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

37
knowledge, skills and attitude in order that they become more effective classroom practitioners
and improve student learning (Ministry of Education, 2009). The national framework requires
teachers to take responsibility for their own professional development and contribute to that of
their peers.
The Context for CPD in Africa
The context for CPD in Africa varies markedly from those in developed countries
(Christie, Harley, & Penny, 2004). Therefore, what works in western countries may result in
limited impact in developing countries (Akalu, 2014). Professional development in any nation is
influenced by history and traditions, culture, education policies, and school conditions (Avalos,
2011). Thus, the design, implementation, and evaluation of professional development of
teachers in developing countries need to consider the specific local contexts within which
schools are located and teachers are working and how schools are governed (Akalu, 2014).
Christie et al. (2004) argued that “a discussion on CPD in Africa is as much about the context of
CPD as it is about the nature of CPD itself” (p. 169). By paying attention to these contexts, it is
possible to recognize the specificity of the African CPD experience.
In many developing countries, teachers’ CPD has been overlooked due to financial
constraint and significant emphasis on pre-service education (Ono & Ferreira, 2010). In these
countries, the shortage of financial resources resulted in competing interests for funding within
the education system. As a result, CPD is mostly displaced as a priority area. Thus, CPD in the
Sub-Saharan is highly contingent on foreign aid, which is often unpredictable. Though donor
funding has enabled important initiatives to be started, sustainability of these programs remains a
challenge (Christie et al., 2004). A study conducted in Ethiopia concluded that multilateral
agencies and NGOs play a significant role in educational policy making and service provision
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

38
(Thashika, 2010). The case study conducted in South Africa confirmed that good policy
framework could not guarantee successful implementation of CPD in a context of limitations in
strategic implementation and fiscal capacity (Christie et al., 2004).
In 2009, Ethiopia introduced the national CPD policy framework with the aim of
improving teachers’ effectiveness and student achievement (Akalu, 2014). According to the
national policy framework, CPD engagement was made to be mandatory for all teachers
(Ministry of Education, 2009). According to the framework, teachers must be actively engaged:
In understanding what is meant by good teaching, in their own learning process, in
identifying their own needs, in sharing good practices with their colleagues, in a wide
range of activities, formal and informal, that will bring about improvement of their own
practice and the practice of others. (Ministry of Education, 2009, p. 16)
To promote teachers’ CPD, the framework requires collaborative working among
teachers through mentoring, coaching, experience sharing, team planning, peer observation, and
team teaching. The Ministry of Education claims that key stakeholders were consulted in the
development of the policy framework (Ministry of Education, 2009). Other researchers rejected
this claim (Gemeda et al., 2014; Thashika, 2010). Moreover, other researchers consider it a top-
down prescribed policy.
As stated in the policy framework, there are two categories of CPD programs: updating
and upgrading. Updating is ongoing professional development of teacher-focused content and
pedagogy to improve classroom practice. Upgrading is earning a diploma or degree in teaching
at a university or college. This study will focus on the updating category.
Institutional supports are critical to ensure effective implementation of CPD. These
supports include providing time for CPD, identifying and empowering expert teachers, providing
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

39
leadership and technical support, dissemination of best practices, reports of action research,
research articles, and other related materials. The policy indicated that there will be identified
CPD days in which students would not be present and teachers being engaged in CPD activities
based on school and teachers need (Ministry of Education, 2009).
As per the CPD framework, novice teachers participate in 2-year induction courses
created at the national level and supported by mentors. All other teachers are expected to be
engaged in CPD throughout their career. The policy framework suggested several CPD methods
among which are peer observation, planning lessons together, action research, sharing or
showing best practices, team teaching, mentoring and reflecting using professional portfolio.
Like other sub-Saharan African countries, the CPD program in Ethiopia has limited resources,
and is funded mainly through the General Education Quality Improvement Program, which is
supported by a donor group and managed by the World Bank (Ministry of Education, 2008).
Different Perspectives on CPD
Managerial professionalism versus democratic professionalism. Both models aim to
improve student achievement by capacitating teachers (Day & Sachs, 2004). Managerial
professionalism is system driven and influenced by state education policies and goals set from
the top. This is centrally mandated and standards-based accountability driven professionalism.
In this model, the success of the professional is measured based on the effectiveness and
efficiency in meeting the set standards both for students and teachers. Democratic
professionalism advocates for collaboration between teachers and other key stakeholders. In this
model, teachers actively participate in the education process, including in the policy formulation
and designing their professional development (Day & Sachs, 2004). Policymakers advocate for
managerial professionalism, while teachers and unions advocate for democratic professionalism.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

40
Voluntary versus mandatory CPD policies. There is a continued debate on the
appropriateness of mandatory or voluntary CPD. Many countries, including Ethiopia, introduced
CPD legislation making it compulsory (Ministry of Education, 2009). An argument in favor of
mandatory CPD is to assure the public that professionals are updated and maintain or improve
their competence. However, the counterargument is that there is no clear evidence that
mandatory CPD improves professional competence or changes teachers’ practice. There is also
an argument that mandatory CPD ignores teachers’ choices in deciding their own educational
needs and contradicts with adult education concepts of self-direction and self-motivation (French
& Dowds, 2008).
Measuring based on input versus outputs. There is also an argument about how to
measure and recognize teachers’ CPD participation, whether based on the input or the outputs of
CPD activities (Cheetham & Chivers, 2005). Time spent on CPD and counting of modules
completed are the common input-based measurement approaches (Friedman & Woodhead,
2008). This approach is easy to quantify. However, input-based measurements are considered
inadequate as they do not indicate whether teachers learned and changed their practice. Output-
based approach has an advantage in that it can measure the change in learning outcomes and
classroom practice as a result of CPD. The disadvantage of output-based approach is that it is
complex to measure and requires more resources and time (Friedman & Woodhead, 2008). The
approach used depends on the purpose of CPD as provided in the policy document. In line with
its purpose, the national CPD framework emphasizes output-based measurement (Ministry of
Education, 2009).
Models of CPD
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

41
Kennedy (2005) identified nine key models of CPD, presented circumstances in which
each model might be adopted and explored the forms of knowledge that can be developed
through each specific model. The nine key models identified are training, award-bearing, deficit,
cascade, standards-based, coaching/mentoring, community of practice, action research, and
transformative. According to Kennedy, the first four of these models were transmission methods
with limited room for teachers to take control of their learning. The next three are more
transformational models. They better provide capacity for professional autonomy, with action
research and transformative models granting the highest autonomy and giving teachers the
opportunity to make decisions in their learning.
The training model of CPD focuses on skills. It is based on the policymakers’ view of
CPD as an opportunity for teachers to update their skills and remain competent (Kennedy, 2014).
The training is usually delivered by an expert who also sets the agenda. Teachers are passive
recipients of the information from the expert. It is also criticized for being commonly conducted
outside school and being disconnected from the teachers’ classroom context. (Kennedy, 2014).
Hoban suggests (as cited in Kennedy, 2014), regardless of its drawbacks, this training model is
appropriate to introduce new knowledge. Nevertheless, the training model fails to affect the
application of learned knowledge (Kennedy, 2005, 2014).
The award-bearing model of CPD is one in which teachers take award-bearing courses
commonly accredited by universities. However, there is an argument that such models are less
practical and more intellectual and academic. According to Kennedy (2014) this discourse of
anti-academic programs resulted in a shift of emphasis from academic courses offered by
universities to the practice-based element of teaching.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

42
A deficit model is designed to address the perceived teachers’ performance gaps
(Kennedy, 2005, 2014). It puts the blame for education systems’ poor performance on individual
teachers and attempts to rectify the same weakness. This model ignores the fact that teachers’
poor performance is also caused by organizational and management practices (Rhodes &
Beneicke, 2003).
The cascade model provides training of trainers and assumes that those who receive
training will replicate with their colleagues. It is a widely used model in low-resource settings
(Kennedy, 2014). Though it is cost effective, it is found ineffective as the information dilutes as
it trickles down (Ministry of Education, 2009).
A standard-based model assumes that there is a system of effective teaching that every
teacher should practice. It creates a common language among the teaching force but lacks
flexibility and is very narrow and limiting (Kennedy, 2014). This model assumes one size fits all
and promotes a research-based teaching strategy. Even if a selected strategy is research-based,
its success depends on the context.
The coaching/mentoring model is a form of CPD in which a one-to-one relationship is
created between a novice teacher and an experienced teacher (Kennedy, 2014). The success of
the coaching/mentoring model depends on the quality of relationship and participants’
interpersonal communication skills (Rhodes & Beneicke, 2003). Sometimes, it becomes a
hierarchical relationship as the expert teacher tries to make novice teachers accountable for
meeting standards.
The community of practice model is similar to the coaching/mentoring model except that
it involves more than two participants (Kennedy, 2014). Per Kennedy (2014), the members of
community of practice collaborate to enhance the sum-total of individual knowledge and
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

43
experience. Eastwood and Louis (as cited in Muijs et al., 2004) argued that the presence of
collaborative professional learning is the single most important factor to improve the
effectiveness of teaching and learning. Despite the benefits of collaborative professionalism, it is
very common to see schools with great teachers who are habituated to working in isolation with
little peer interaction (WISE, 2015). The opponents of this model argue that collaboration may
inhibit active and creative innovation of practice due to group-thinking influence.
In the action research model, teachers and other members of the learning community are
the researchers (Zepeda, 2008). This is the most useful model of CPD directly related to practice
(Craft, 1996). Zepeda (2008) indicated that conducting “action research promotes dialogue,
reflection, and inquiry” (p. 263). By engaging in action research, teachers can investigate their
practices with data guiding informed decision to transform their classroom practice. Action
research solves problems and promotes change in teachers’ practice through intentional
systematically collecting, analyzing, and reflecting on data (Zepeda, 2008).
The transformative model is an integration of several of the models described above
(Kennedy, 2014). Training, standards-based, mentoring, community of practice, and action
research are common models of CPD in Ethiopia and promoted by the national CPD framework
(Ministry of Education, 2009). In this study, the emphasis will be on the collaborative learning
and action research models of CPD.
Strategies for Delivery of CPD
There are three common strategies of delivering CPD aimed at improving teacher
performance and student learning. These are school-based, through partnerships and through
networks (Day & Sachs, 2004). These strategies are complementary, and a combination of these
strategies could create a better impact in delivering on the intended purpose.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

44
School-based. In this approach, a group of teachers meets periodically to discuss
teaching methods, produce learning materials, develop curriculum and exchange experience.
These meetings could include all teachers in the school or teachers in a specific department who
teach the same subjects. There is a varying degree of success of school-based CPD among
countries.
Partnerships. CPD could be delivered through collaborative and complementary
partnership between schools, universities and teacher colleges. This is particularly common to
see between teacher colleges and primary schools. In Ethiopia, teacher colleges are expected to
create partnerships with schools in their geographic area.
Networks. In this approach, teachers and schools come together to identify and solve
common problems and to address shared classroom concerns. A network of teachers and schools
across a district or state is an effective strategy to deliver CPD. In Ethiopia, relatively better
equipped schools are designated to serve as CRC for five to seven schools in their catchment.
These CRCs are expected to facilitate a professional learning community and in-service
trainings. However, they are not giving such service and mostly limited to serve as a warehouse
for textbook distribution (Barnes et al., 2017).
Characteristics of Effective CPD
Effective CPD is essential to meet the current and future demand of the education system
that needs to equip students with 21st century skills (Darling-Hammond et al., 2009). CPD is
effective when it addresses the professional development needs of the teacher, is relevant to their
working conditions and is linked to organizational goals (Goodall, Day, Lindsay, Muijs, &
Harris, 2005; Muijs et al., 2004). CPD which is not aligned with teachers’ needs results in little
impact on teachers or their pupils (Day, 1999). Effective CPD comprise activities that mainly
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

45
increase student learning achievement and support the improvement of teaching practice (Bubb
& Earley , 2007). Nevertheless, it is common for teachers to complain about the ineffectiveness
of professional development in improving their practice. This complaint causes some teachers to
feel that it is not worth their time (Guskey, 2000).
The characteristics that influence the effectiveness of professional development are
multiple and highly complex. It may be unreasonable, therefore, to assume that a single list of
characteristics leading to broad brush policies and guidelines for effective professional
development will ever emerge, regardless of the quality of professional development research.
Still, by agreeing on the criteria for “effectiveness” and providing clear descriptions of important
contextual elements, sure and steady progress in the efforts can be guaranteed to improve the
quality of professional development endeavors (Guskey, 2003).
Impact of CPD on Teachers’ Effectiveness and Student Learning
Several studies reported that professional development results in positive gains for
teachers, students, and institutions (Sydow, 2000; Villegas-Reimers, 2003; Yoon et al., 2007).
Gains included increased collaboration among colleagues, greater student engagement, improved
curricula, increased subject knowledge and updated skills for teachers as well as new classroom
materials (Sydow, 2000). These gains are reported to result in changes in teaching practice and
student learning outcomes.
A considerable amount of research found the positive effects of professional development
on teaching practice (Boyle, Lamprianou, & Boyle, 2005; Darling-Hammond, 2000; Shepardson
& Harbor, 2004). Shepardson and Harbor (2004) reported on the effectiveness of the
ENVISION professional development model and indicated that professional development
programs that involve teachers as active learners can enhance teachers’ knowledge and changes
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

46
in teaching practice. Moreover, professional development could have a beneficial impact by
improving teachers’ self-efficacy and developing a sense of professionalism (Boyle et al., 2005).
Available literature indicates that, when attributes of effective professional development are
present, student learning and achievement can be improved (Desimone, 2009; Yoon et al., 2007).
Evaluating CPD
According to the operational definition by Guskey (2000), “evaluation is the systematic
investigation of merit or worth” (p. 41). In the education setting, evaluation determines the
effectiveness and value of initiatives (Zepeda, 2008). Evaluation is as important to professional
development as it is to any other program. The more comprehensive definition by Killion (2008)
indicates evaluation as “a systematic, purposeful process of studying, reviewing, and analyzing
data gathered from multiple sources in order to make informed decisions about a program” (p.
8).
Though complex, professional development evaluation is valuable when it examines the
impact on teacher, school and student. It helps educators and policymakers to make sound
decisions (Killion, 2008). However, the use of evaluation to measure impact on teachers,
schools, and students has not been given due attention by professional development providers
(Guskey, 2000). In many cases, evaluation is considered too costly, time-consuming, and less
useful compared to other engagements in education. There is also a claim that there is limited
capacity to conduct meaningful evaluation. Due to these reasons, evaluations are either
disregarded or left to external evaluation consultants to evaluate at the end of the program.
Hence, systematic evaluation of professional development is rarely conducted, and millions of
dollars are invested without practically examining its quality (Muijs et al., 2004). Those
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

47
evaluations that exist are a simple documentation of process and not measuring impact and are
very brief covering only a short time span (Guskey, 2000).
According to Guskey (2000), interest in evaluation has grown for four reasons. The first
reason is to gain a better understanding of the effective professional development and replacing
the traditional view of professional development that is something done to teachers with a new
perspective of being an ongoing and continuous process. This process created an opportunity for
teachers to reflect, inquire, experiment, and refine new practices. Therefore, this continued
desire for experimentation and improvement required emphasis on evaluation. The second reason
is the recognition of CPD as an intentional process to bring meaningful change. Teachers want to
measure their efforts and success by documenting and presenting key information. The third
reason is the need for quality information to inform improvement and reform efforts. The fourth
reason is to increase professional accountability to deliver the promises of the program including
student learning outcomes.
There are several program evaluations models, including Kirkpatrick’s model, Guskey’s
model, and Killion’s model (Zepeda, 2008). Kirkpatrick’s and Guskey’s evaluation models
contain similar evaluation levels. Kirkpatrick’s evaluation model includes four levels of
evaluation namely; reactions, learning, transfer and results (Zepeda, 2008). Killion’s eight step
evaluation model assumes linear interrelated steps ranging from planning to actual evaluation
phase. Guskey (2000) suggests that evaluation of CPD impact takes place at five different levels.
According to Guskey’s model, the first level is about participants’ reactions on the CPD
content, process and context. This is easy to conduct, but it is also least revealing and highly
subjective. The second level involves evaluating participants’ learning from CPD in terms of
gaining new awareness, knowledge, skill, motivational and attitudinal outcomes. The third level
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

48
is to evaluate the organizational support, especially leadership and resource supports since CPD
cannot be effective without organizational support. The fourth level is to evaluate the
participants’ use of learned knowledge and skills. The fifth level is to measure impact on
students, including both cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes. This is the most important, but
the least conducted level evaluation (Muijs et al., 2004). Muijs et al. (2004) argue that the issue
of cost-effectiveness is missing in all five levels advocated by Guskey. According to Muijs et al.,
CPD should not be practiced if its cost is higher than the benefits.
To ensure efficiency of scarce resources being invested on effective and impactful
professional development, it is critical to conduct regular evaluations of the program (Guskey,
2000; Muijs et al., 2004; Zepeda, 2008). However, CPD evaluation should not be burdensome
for schools and teachers. It should be naturally occurring and built into the program from the
beginning (Guskey, 2002; Zepeda, 2008).
Per the CPD framework, evaluation is an integral part in the CPD cycle. It is clearly
stated in the framework that evaluation of the program should focus mostly on the effectiveness
of the program in improving students’ learning. The framework also requires planned evaluation
during and after program implementation. It emphasizes the need for regular evaluation with the
aim to continuously improve the outcomes of the program (Ministry of Education, 2009). In
Ethiopia, other than assessments of teacher satisfaction about CPD, no systematic impact
evaluation studies were found by the researcher.
Over the last 25 years, several teacher education reforms were made in Ethiopia with
high expectations to improve education quality. Ensuring higher quality education demands
teachers who are highly motivated, knowledgeable and skillful throughout their careers (Day &
Sachs, Professionalism, Performativity and empowerment: discourses in the politics, policies and
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

49
purposes of continuing professional development, 2004). It was for the same reason that the
government introduced CPD. Clark and Estes’ (2008) framework of analysis is used in this
study to evaluate the knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences supporting or
hindering teachers’ engagement in effective CPD practice.
Teachers’ Knowledge, Motivation, and Organizational Influences
Knowledge and Skills
This section reviews literature that focuses on knowledge-related influences related to
teachers’ successful CPD practice as per the national framework. Rueda (2011) indicated that
many educational problems are caused by stakeholder learning and knowledge gaps required to
perform a task effectively. Clark and Estes (2008) argue that knowledge and skill improvement
are needed only when people lack the know-how to achieve their performance goals and when it
is anticipated that future challenges will require new solutions. In this fast-changing world,
individuals need knowledge and skills to solve new problems and adapt to changing conditions
(Clark & Estes, 2008). Therefore, the examination of teachers’ capacity to engage in effective
CPD practice will start by exploring whether they are equipped with the necessary knowledge to
do so.
In the instructional setting, learners apply their own prior knowledge, goals, and
experience to make sense of the information they encounter (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001).
Anderson and Krathwohl’s (2001) framework of teaching, learning and assessing identifies four
different types of knowledge, all of which are needed for effective performance outcomes:
factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive knowledge. Factual knowledge is the
foundational knowledge of facts, definitions, details or elements specific to a discipline or topic
area of interest. It contains the basic elements that learners must know if they are to function
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

50
effectively or solve a problem in their discipline (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). In the context
of this dissertation, an example of factual knowledge needed for a teacher to successfully carry
out CPD is knowledge of the meaning of the term “action research.”
Conceptual knowledge is a more complex form of knowledge that includes inter-related
knowledge of principles, theories, models, categories, and classifications relevant to a specific
discipline (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). While factual knowledge is knowledge of
disconnected pieces of information, conceptual knowledge is for organized knowledge forms.
Distinguishing between factual and conceptual knowledge is important both for teachers and
students. For students, it will enable them to create connections between their factual knowledge
and broader concepts in their discipline and, ultimately, gain a deeper understanding of their
subject matter. It also helps teachers in their classroom instruction and assessment. Instead of
only teaching factual knowledge, teachers could also teach for their students’ deep understanding
of conceptual knowledge (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). As an example of conceptual
knowledge, teachers need to understand the characteristics, models and concepts of effective
CPD.
Procedural knowledge is knowledge of how to do something. It includes a knowledge of
series of steps, procedures, techniques, methodologies and skills required to accomplish a
specific task. It also includes knowledge of criteria for deciding when to apply suitable
procedures. In this study, an example of teachers’ procedural knowledge is their ability to
conduct action research and collaborate with other teachers.
Metacognitive knowledge is awareness and knowledge about one's own cognition,
essentially knowledge of the self while engaged in performing tasks. In addition, Mayer (2011)
defines metacognition as “learners’ knowledge of how they learn and control of their learning
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

51
process” (p. 43). Metacognitive processes involve assessing the task at hand, identifying one’s
strengths and weaknesses in completing the task, planning an approach to address current
situation, applying strategies and monitoring progress, and reflecting on what worked and not of
the current approach (Ambrose, Bridges, Lovett, DiPietro, & Norman, 2010). Ambrose et al.
(2010) indicated that metacognitive skills are learnable and do not necessarily happen naturally.
Metacognitive knowledge is important for teachers, as it makes them aware about their current
practice and how they could effectively learn and teach, and ultimately enables them to be
reflective practitioners. Reflection plays a critical role in helping teachers attend to and respond
to students’ learning (Rodgers, 2002). According to Rodgers (2002), reflection helps a teacher to
differentiate between what they contemplate they are teaching and what students are, in fact,
learning. Skills of attending to and responding to student learning are learnable. Teachers can do
this by being present to see the students’ learning and describing the component of that learning,
to analyze the learning and to respond wisely (Rodgers, 2002).
In this study, the knowledge types framework provided by Anderson and Krathwohl
(2001) is used to categorize each of the knowledge influences. Simply because a teacher has
factual and conceptual knowledge of CPD does not mean that he or she can demonstrate it in his
or her teaching (Rodgers, 2002). In order to apply the factual and conceptual knowledge, they
need to have procedural knowledge. In addition, if somebody has the necessary factual,
conceptual and procedural knowledge, but lacks metacognitive skills, they may apply incorrect
CPD knowledge, strategies or fail to adjust performance goals as needed. For this reason, it is
important to explore teachers’ knowledge related to successful engagement in CPD from the
perspective of all four distinct knowledge categories.
Knowledge of the national CPD framework, toolkit and portfolio. In 2009, the
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

52
Ethiopia Ministry of Education adopted the CPD policy framework with its toolkit and teachers’
portfolio and instructed all primary and secondary schools to implement it (Ministry of
Education, 2009). The toolkit is a guiding document with tools allowing teachers to plan and
implement CPD. The teacher professional portfolio is a document prepared by a teacher to
demonstrate his or her professional development. It contains school and CPD priority, self-
reflection, professional development activities undertaken, improvements in teaching, and
student learning outcomes (Ministry of Education, 2009). Though the CPD framework indicates
the ineffectiveness of the cascade model, it is the current approach in practice (Gemeda et al.,
2014) to orient teachers on the framework, toolkit, and portfolio preparation. In a cascade
model, there is a high chance that information becomes diluted or very little of the original
information is transmitted to the end user. Teachers need to have comprehensive declarative
knowledge of the CPD policy framework to be effective in improving their teaching and,
ultimately, students’ learning. Some examples of declarative knowledge are knowledge of the
CPD cycle, conducting action research, and developing a CPD portfolio.
Knowledge of the characteristics of effective CPD. Several studies describe the
characteristics of effective professional development from different perspectives (Casale, 2011;
Ministry of Education, 2009; Muijs et al., 2004; Patton, Parker, & Tannehill, 2015). Though
researchers and practitioners did not reach consensus about the characteristics of effective
professional development, the following criteria are the most cited ones: collaborative learning
(Hord & Tobia, 2012), coherence (Desimone et al., 2002), a focus on instructional practice
(Borko, 2004), ongoing (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999), and based on subject content matter
(Garet et al., 2001). Further, the CPD framework indicated that effective CPD is based on real
situations and classroom practice, job-embedded, ongoing, deals with subject content and
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

53
teaching strategies, need based, and involves active learning (Ministry of Education, 2009).
Knowledge of peer collaboration. A key strategy to any successful education reform is
an increase in teacher collaboration (Little, 2001). Collaboration is an effective method of
professional development to improve teacher efficacy and student learning (Borko, 2004; Colbert
et al., 2008; Desimone, 2011; Little, 2001; Patton et al., 2015). Collaboration in CPD can take
many forms. This includes teachers planning lessons together, observing each other, critiquing
each other, coaching and mentoring novice teachers, and preparing common assessments
(Casale, 2011; Ministry of Education, 2009). Collaborative school culture enables teachers to
seek assistance, share best practices, ask questions, and receive feedback from their colleagues.
Despite these values, implementing a collaborative culture in a school setting remains a
challenge mostly due to underestimating its value, lack of trust and respect among teachers, and
resistance by teachers (Casale, 2011; Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012). Thus, procedural knowledge
of how to collaborate with peers creates a meaningful learning experience for teachers. Expected
competencies in this area include reflecting on their teaching through peer classroom
observation, learning with and from each other, and sharing best practices. This study probed
into the degree to which the participating teachers have the necessary knowledge to succeed in
peer collaboration.
Knowledge of conducting action research. The action research model of CPD is an
inquiry-based knowledge practice aimed at solving teaching and learning problems (Villegas-
Reimers, 2003; Zepeda, 2008). The procedural knowledge of how to conduct action research
enables teachers to collaborate with others to solve their problem of practice (Zepeda, 2008). To
conduct action research, teachers need procedural knowledge of how to identify their problem of
practice, develop research questions, systematically collect, analyze and interpret their data, and
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

54
finally, how to share their findings with the school community and parents (Zepeda, 2008).
Reflective practice. Reflection is a metacognitive skill which enables a teacher to reflect
on his or her personal classroom experiences. By reflecting on teaching strategies, students’
learning, and curriculum, a teacher could identify his or her own learning needs and adjust their
teaching strategies (Villegas-Reimers, 2003). A teacher needs knowledge and skill to reflect in
action or reflect on action (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012). For instance, a teacher is reflecting in
action when he or she considers whether to speed up or slow down a presentation in class, and a
teacher is reflecting on action after the fact. A teacher could also reflect on why some students
performed poorly on reading compared to the class average. A more systematic reflection
becomes action research. One secret behind the success of high-performing countries like
Finland and Canada is that teachers can engage in inquiry through collective reflective practice
and action research (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012). Table 2 presents assumed knowledge
influences categorized by knowledge types.
Table 2
Assumed Knowledge Influences
Assumed Knowledge Influence Knowledge Type
Teachers need more knowledge of the national CPD framework,
toolkit and portfolio.

Teachers need to understand the characteristics of effective CPD
for them to put into practice.

Teachers need to know how to collaborate with other teachers via
observation and reflection to improve their own teaching
effectiveness and that of others.

Teachers need to know how to engage in conducting action
research.

By reflecting on their learning and teaching, teachers need to be
able to identify key needs and engage in planning to meet these
needs
Declarative

Declarative

Procedural

Procedural

Metacognitive

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

55
Motivation
Clark and Estes (2008) indicated that many organizational performance gaps are caused
by a lack of motivation, and not a lack of knowledge and skills. Similarly, in explaining the
importance of motivation, Rueda (2011) stated that “just because someone knows how to do
something doesn’t mean they want to do it or will do it” (p. 38). People need a stimulus to
energize them to move towards goal-oriented direction. This section reviews literature on
motivation-related influences that are relevant to teachers’ engagement in successful CPD
practice via conducting action research and collaboration.
There are several definitions of motivation provided by different authors. A prominent
educational psychologist, Mayer (2011), define motivation as “an internal state that initiates and
maintains goal directed behavior” (p. 39). According to Clark and Estes (2008), motivation is
“what gets us going, keeps us working, and informs us how much mental effort to spend on a
task” (p. 80). Consistent with these definitions, most researchers provide three common
motivational indexes: active choice, persistence, and mental effort (Clark & Estes, 2008).
Psychological theories are useful in understanding why an individual or a group of individuals
starts, persists and invests mental effort. The next section discusses expectancy value theory and
self-efficacy theory, as they are relevant in understanding teachers’ level of motivation. These
two theories were used as a framework to present the motivational influences which are assumed
to be the underlying causes for motivation indexes.
Expectancy value theory. According to expectancy value theory, learning achievement
and related choices are influenced by two factors: expectancies for success and the perceived
value of the task (Ambrose et al., 2010; Eccles, 2010). According to Ambrose et al. (2010),
expectancies refer to how confident an individual is in his or her ability to succeed in a task
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

56
whereas task values refer to how important, useful, or enjoyable the individual believes the task
to be. Research indicates that the perceived value of a task has four dimensions: the enjoyment
one expects in undertaking the task, consistency of the task with one’s self-image, the value of a
task in facilitating one’s long-term goal and external rewards, and the perceived cost of engaging
in the activity. These dimensions are referred to as intrinsic value, attainment value, utility value,
and cost value, respectively (Eccles, 2010).
Teacher expectations and values. Several studies in Sub-Saharan Africa reported
presence of low teacher motivation due to unmet teachers’ expectations and values (Abebe &
Woldehanna, 2013). Abebe and Woldehanna (2013) indicated lack of opportunities for effective
professional development as one of the many factors that resulted in low teacher motivation in
Ethiopia. Teachers’ professional development effectiveness is highly dependent on the values
that teachers place on it. This study particularly explores whether teachers in BDEO see
engaging in collaborative learning and action research as a critical component of effective CPD
practice and ultimately, in supporting students in achieving at least basic proficiency. The study
also explores the value teachers place on their CPD practice.
Self-efficacy theory. Self-efficacy is defined as “people's beliefs about their capabilities
to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that affect their
lives” (Bandura, 1994, p. 1). Dembo and Seli (2016) indicated that self-efficacy beliefs are
influenced by four factors: one’s own past successes and failures performing the task, seeing
similar people to oneself undertaking the same task, social persuasion and physiological
responses. Self-efficacy beliefs should not be confused with self-esteem or self-worth, which is
people’s overall assessment of their worth (Dembo & Seli, 2016). Self-efficacy predicts the
degree to which individuals engage with tasks as well as persist at them and invest the necessary
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

57
mental effort to complete them successfully (Pajares, 2010).
Teacher self-efficacy. One study confirmed that teachers’ collective self-efficacy is
strongly and positively related to students’ reading and mathematics achievement (Goddard,
Hoy, & Hoy, 2000). According to this study, a one-unit standard deviation in collective self-
efficacy of teacher results in over 40% increase in standard deviation of student achievement.
Teachers’ self-efficacy is context-specific and varies with time, school, classroom, and subject.
Goddard et al. indicated that one approach to increase student achievement is to enhance teacher
self-efficacy through carefully designed professional development programs that fosters
collaborative culture and promotes action research and vicarious learning. In this study, teachers’
perceptions of their capability to effectively engaging in action research aimed at improving their
effectiveness and student reading proficiency was the focus. Table 3 presents assumed
motivation influences and the underlying psychological constructs.
Table 3
Assumed motivation influences
Motivation
Construct
Assumed Motivation Influence
Utility Value

Teachers need to see the value of engaging in collaborative learning as a
critical component of effective CPD practice and in supporting students in
achieving at least basic proficiency.

Teachers need to see the value of engaging in action research as a critical
component of effective CPD practice and in supporting students in
achieving at least basic proficiency.
Self-Efficacy Teachers need to believe they are capable of effectively engaging in action
research and collaborative learning.

Organizational Influences
Clark and Estes (2008) argued that, no matter how motivated, knowledgeable and
skillful individuals may be, they may fail to succeed in achieving their performance goals due to
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

58
organizational factors. In looking at organizational influences, culture needs to be considered.
Schein (2004) defined organizational culture as commonly embraced norms that are accumulated
through experience and found effective in resolving external and internal issues and, therefore,
are a reliable way to operate in connection to similar issues. Schein argued that culture enhances
and hinders organizational performance through shared norms that are held by the members. For
this reason, cultural analysis is a critical component to understand group circumstances,
processes and performance issues (Gallimore & Goldenberg, 2001; Schein, 2004).
According to Gallimore and Goldenberg (2001), the concept of culture can be presented
more essentially in educational study and practice by introducing two important concepts:
cultural settings and cultural models. Cultural models are collective patterns of thought of how
the universe operates or should operate (Gallimore & Goldenberg, 2001). Cultural models are
mostly invisible and unconscious to those who embrace them. Cultural models influence
organizational structure, principles, rules, procedures, operation, compensation structures and
other elements of organizational settings (Rueda, 2011). Cultural settings are instances where
individuals meet to undertake joint activity resulting in something that they care about
(Gallimore & Goldenberg, 2001). For instance, classroom interaction, staff meetings,
professional development workshops, sports activities, and lunch at the faculty cafeteria are
typical cultural settings for teachers. In summary, analysis of cultural models and settings helps
educational researchers and practitioners to understand what contributes to and inhibits
performance and ultimately, to design appropriate solutions to educational problems related to
organizational influences. In the context of this study, organizational influences including
collaborative culture, supportive leadership, resources, and professional development will be
reviewed next.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

59
Collaborative culture. Several studies have documented evidence of the value of
collaborative culture in school settings (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012; Zepeda, 2008). In schools
with a collaborative culture, teachers seek peer support and engage in ongoing learning to
continuously improve their teaching (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012). Data demonstrates that
teachers working collaboratively outperform teachers working alone. In the context of a
collaborative culture, teachers are more confident to share their failures, and knowledge and skill
gaps with the aim to get help and support from colleagues. Schools with a collaborative culture
create committed, empowered and motivated staff. Establishing trust, respect and relationships
is a pre-requisite to promote a culture of collaboration among teachers and school leadership. In
this regard, district and school leaders play a central role in building and nurturing a sustained
collaborative culture (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012). This study probed into the degree to which
teachers feel that there is a value and a leadership supported collaborative learning culture at
their school.
Supportive leadership. Supportive school leadership positively influence teachers’
motivation, dedication, and working conditions with the aim of improving teaching and learning
(Gemeda et al., 2014; Leithwood, Harris, & Hopkins, 2008). Leithwood et al. (2008) found that
school leadership is second only to classroom teaching in relation to the impact of student
learning outcomes. Effective district and school leaders create supportive school environments
in which teachers can learn and grow as change agents. Supportive school leaders lead with a
clear vision, focus on learning and development, engage teachers in designing their professional
development, challenge teachers to be engaged in complex tasks, provides teachers with frequent
feedback, and makes them accountable (Zepeda, 2008). This study explores whether the
participating teachers perceive their school leaders as supportive in their CPD efforts.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

60
Resources. Adequate resources are imperative inevitable to support effective teachers’
professional development. Resources include time, personnel, educational materials and financial
support. European and Asian countries with high-performing schools allow teachers more time
to collaborate and share best practices as compared to the rest of the world (Casale, 2011). Some
studies in Ethiopia show that teachers’ workload has been intensified often on non-teaching and
conflicting goals (Gemeda et al., 2014). Teachers need to have enough time to be engaged in
their CPD activities, particularly in collaborative learning and action research. Teachers need to
be also provided with adequate instructional materials which enables them to effectively practice
their CPD. In numerous occasions, absence or inadequate materials are causes for performance
gaps, even in a situation where people are highly motivated, knowledgeable and skilled (Clark &
Estes, 2008). This study explored whether teachers’ engagement in effective CPD has been
critically affected by shortage of resources.
Professional development. Instead of simply waiting for people to prove themselves and
their capacity, organizations should equip their people to succeed (Clark & Estes, 2008). If
teachers are given the capacity to be effectively engaged in collaborative learning and action
research, their ability to impact their students’ reading proficiency could increase. It makes no
sense to expect a teacher to practice collaborative learning and action research without
capacitating them in this area. These aforementioned skills are not acquired in pre-service
teacher preparation programs. Hence, the need for professional development in collaborative
learning and action research is necessary and unquestionable to have a meaningful impact on
teachers practice and ultimately student learning outcomes. Table 4 below presents assumed
organizational influences.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

61
Table 4
Assumed Organizational Influences

Organizational Influences
Category
Assumed Organizational Influences
Cultural Model
Influence 1
The school needs to cultivate and embrace a culture of collaborative
learning.
Cultural Model
Influence 2
The district and school leadership need to be supportive of teachers’
engagement in action research and collaborative learning as examples
of CPD.
Cultural Setting
Influence 1
The district needs to allocate adequate resources and provide
sufficient time to facilitate and encourage teachers to be engaged in
action research and collaborative learning.
Cultural Setting
Influence 2
The district needs to provide appropriate training in the area of
collaborative learning and action research.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

62
CHAPTER THREE: METHODS
This chapter presents research design and methods used for data collection and analysis,
ethical considerations, limitations and delimitations of the study. The purpose of this project is
to evaluate the degree to which BDEO is meeting its goal of having all teachers successfully
engage in effective CPD practices to achieve its organizational goal of 70% of Grade 2 students
achieve basic or higher reading proficiency. The research questions that guide this study are as
follows:
1. To what extent is BDEO meeting its goal that 100% of teachers successfully engage in
effective CPD practice?
2. What are the knowledge, motivation, and organizational challenges for BDEO's teachers
to successfully engage in effective CPD practice?
3. What are the potential knowledge, motivation, and organization solutions to enable all
BDEO's teachers to be actively engaged in effective CPD practice?
This chapter presents stakeholder sampling and recruitment strategies, methods of data
collection and analysis. This chapter also presents reliability and validity as well as the
trustworthiness and credibility of quantitative and qualitative components of the study. This
chapter also presents the ethical issues considered while designing and conducting the study.
Finally, the chapter discusses the limitations and delimitations of the study.
Participating Stakeholders
Primary school teachers in the Barbare District are the focus for this study. One school
from each of the 10 school clusters was randomly selected to participate in the study. All
teachers participating in the study from the 10 randomly selected schools had with more than 2
years of teaching experience and voluntarily agreed to participate. Teachers with fewer than 2
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

63
years of teaching experience were excluded from the study, as the policy does not require them
to practice CPD. The researcher recruited the participants by asking them if they have more than
2 years of teaching experience. There are 457 teachers in 45 schools in the district. There are
approximately 100 teachers in those 10 randomly selected schools. Among them, 91 teachers
met the sampling criteria and 82 agreed to be surveyed. Twelve teachers among those who took
the survey and volunteered to participate in the interview were purposively selected for
interview. The researcher used sites from all 10 clusters to allow maximum variation in terms of
geographic remoteness and size of the schools. The school principal supported the researcher in
identifying teachers meeting the study participant criteria.
The study took place in ten randomly selected primary schools in the BDEO district of
Ethiopia. Following an explanation of the study, permission was granted by the BDEO head and
the principals of the schools to conduct the research within the district and schools; respectively.
Teachers meeting study criteria of over two years of teaching experience were identified with the
support of school principals. All 82 teachers with over two years of experience and willing to
participate in the survey were invited to respond to a self-administered survey. The surveys were
provided in person to all teachers who were willing to participate in the survey. In total, all the
82 teachers completed the survey and returned to the researcher, indicating a response rate of
100%. The response rate is extremely high due to the fact that the questionnaire were close-
ended and written clearly using participants working language. And among those who
completed the survey and volunteered for interview, 16 information rich participants were
interviewed. These 16 teachers were purposively identified by looking into their response to the
survey question asking how knowledgeable they are about the CPD practices in Ethiopia. Based
on their responses, those who indicated having relatively more knowledge about CPD practices
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

64
were selected and interviewed. To complement and triangulate the data from interviews,
participant portfolio and action research documents were reviewed and availability of CPD
resources to teachers were verified.
The section below provides statistics for the characteristics of the survey respondents in
terms of gender, age, years of teaching experience, and subject taught. Information on
characteristics of the survey sample helps to better understand the nature of individual teachers
with respect to their CPD experiences.
Tables 5 - 8 shows the demographic data of the survey respondents. The total
respondents were 82 of which 51% are male and 49% are female (Table 5).
Table 5
The Gender of Survey Respondents (%)
Gender % Total (n=82)
Male
Female
51%
49%

The gender balance varied across the age group of respondents. Over three-forth (77%) of
respondents were 30 years of age or younger, 23% were over 31 years or older, and the largest
proportion were respondents aged 26 to 30 years (Table 6). The average age of the respondents
was 28 (SD = 4.74). There were no significant differences between male and female teachers
with respect to age (X²= 13.813, df= 19, p= .794).

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

65
Table 6
Age category of survey respondents (%)
Age % Male (n=42) % Female (n=40) % Total (n=82)
20-25
26-30
31-35
35 and above
24%
50%
14%
12%
38%
42%
15%
5%
31%
46%
15%
8%

Table 7 shows a range of teacher’s years of experience. The data indicates that most of
the teachers are in the early years of their career. Of the surveyed teachers, 74% had less than 10
years of teaching experience and 26% of teachers had over 10 years of teaching experience.
Teachers with less than two years of teaching experience were excluded from this study as they
were not eligible for the CPD programme. There were no significant differences between male
and female teachers with respect to the years of teaching experience (X²=18.848, df=17, p=
.337).
Table 7
Years of Teaching Experience of Survey Respondents (%)
Years of teaching
experience
% Male (n=42) % Female (n=40) % Total (n=82)
2-5
6-10
11-15
16-20
21 and above
29%
45%
19%
5%
2%
43%
32%
23%
0%
2%
35%
39%
20%
4%
2%

Table 8 shows teacher’s qualification. As per the national Ministry of Education
standard, 80 (98%) teachers were qualified teachers, with at least a teaching college diploma or
first degree. 2 (2%) of the teachers were high school graduates and not qualified to teach at the
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

66
primary school level. There were no significant differences between male and female teachers
with respect to teacher qualification (X²=1.415, df=2, p= .493).

Table 8
Survey Respondents’ Qualification by Gender (in %)
Qualification % Male (n=42) % Female (n=40) % Total (n=82)
High School Dip.
College Diploma
BSC/BA Degree
2%
69%
29%
2%
80%
18%
2%
74%
24%

Survey Sampling Strategy and Rationale
The researcher first randomly selected one school from each of the 10 clusters in the
district. There are 457 teachers in 45 schools with an average of 10 teachers per school. Thus,
there were approximately 100 teachers in 10 randomly selected schools. The researcher
conducted a census survey in which all teachers meeting the study criteria were asked to
participate. The researcher found 82 teachers that met the criteria. Random sampling is
appropriate in surveys aimed at understanding the characteristics of a population by generalizing
the sample data (Johnson & Christensen, 2015). In such surveys, the sample should be large
enough to be representative, so conducting census survey is appropriate for this study. The
survey was conducted at the beginning of data collection and followed by interviews.
Survey Sampling Criteria and Rationale
Criterion. The participants should be primary school teachers with more than 2 years of
teaching experience. According to the national framework, in the first 2 years of teaching,
teachers are not engaged in CPD; rather, they receive induction courses. Hence, the criterion of
more than 2 years of experience is used to identify a relevant population for the study who could
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

67
inform the researcher about the degree to which teachers engage in effective CPD practice as
well as the knowledge, motivation and organizational challenges they face.
Interview Sampling Strategy and Rationale
Nonprobability purposive sampling is the preferred method for in-depth understanding of
information-rich cases (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Thus, in this study, criterion-based purposive
sampling was used to select information-rich participants for the interviews. Each survey
participant was provided a separate interview participant recruitment sheet with demographic
questions and one question asking for their level of knowledge about CPD. Among those who
volunteered for the interview, two participants were selected from each of the first eight
randomly selected schools who responded as having the highest familiarity about CPD. This
decision was made with the assumption that those teachers selected are relatively information-
rich about CPD practices and challenges. If more than two participants responded as having the
same high level of familiarity, gender, grade level, and subject area taught were used to allow a
maximum variation. Thus, 16 participants were interviewed in total. In the purposeful sampling,
Lincoln and Guba (as cited in Merriam & Tisdell, 2016) suggested sampling until the point of
information saturation or redundancy is reached. In line with this, the final number of
participants for this study was determined by information saturation. The researcher planned to
interview a minimum of 12 and a maximum of 20 participants depending on the new information
saturation. The researcher interviewed 16 participants. The interview participants were among
those who participated in the survey and volunteered to participate in the interview.
Interview Sampling Criterion and Rationale
Criterion 1. The participant should be a primary school teacher with more than 2 years
of teaching experience who participated in the survey and volunteered for the interview.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

68
According to the national framework, in the first 2 years of teaching, teachers are not engaged in
CPD. Hence, the criterion of more than 2 years of experience is used to ensure selection of
information-rich participants.
Criterion 2. A participant needs to have considerable knowledge and experience in CPD
practices. Among those who volunteer to be interviewed, the researcher selected two
participants from the first eight schools whose response to the survey question regarding how
knowledgeable they consider themselves regarding CPD practices was relatively higher
compared to other participants. In the case where more than two participants responded as
having the same high level of familiarity, gender, grade level and subject area taught was used to
allow a maximum variation. This criterion was used to select information-rich participants.
Data Collection and Instrumentation
A convergent parallel mixed-methods design was used to evaluate the degree to which
BDEO is meeting its goal of having all teachers engage in effective CPD practices. The
researcher collected both quantitative and qualitative data at roughly the same time and
combined the information in the interpretation of the findings. Creswell (2014) argued that
mixed-methods procedures provide a stronger understanding of the research problem by
combining the strengths and overcoming the limitations of the two approaches. Using multiple
methods of data collection also increases the credibility of the study (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Surveys
The researcher provided self-administered surveys to all 82 teachers who agreed to
participate in the survey. Nine more teachers who meet the survey criteria were not willing to
participate in the study. Participants were requested to return their survey response to the
researcher on the same day. It was a typical paper-and-pencil cross-sectional survey. This survey
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

69
type was chosen considering a lack of mail and internet services available in study sites and the
absence of telephone numbers and addresses of the targeted participants. The researcher used a
survey because of its advantage of rapid turnaround in data collection and identifying attributes
of a large population from a small sample. Surveys are appropriate to collect data on people’s
feelings and perceptions, satisfaction, values, habits, personal background and demographic
characteristics (Fink, 2017). The researcher used a survey to collect data on teacher perceptions
about their knowledge and skills, self-efficacy, and organizational support in their CPD practice.
The researcher translated the survey instrument into the Affaan Oromo language to ensure
teachers’ full understanding of the questions. A bilingual educator was asked to translate the
instrument back into English. According to Merriam and Tisdell (2016), the closer the
translation is to the data in original language, the more reliable it is. The data was collected in the
Affaan Oromo language and translated into English for analysis. The survey instrument
(Appendix A) consists of 36 items reflecting the knowledge and skill, motivation and
organizational influences, and demographic information. Categorical and ordinal response scales
were used for close-ended questions and three open-ended items were used in the survey.
To ensure content validity, a pilot test was administered to three teachers in a similar
context as the study participants. In the pilot test, respondents were provided a space and asked
to provide their feedback and criticism. Learning from the data collected and analyzed as part of
the pilot study, the researcher made necessary changes to the instrument. Further, the researcher
asked three professional development experts to review and comment on the instrument: a
teacher educator, Imagine1day’s capacity building officer, and the Oromia region teacher
professional development department director. These experts are among the key stakeholders
who are responsible for ensuring effective CPD practices as indicated in the CPD framework.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

70
They are assumed to have knowledge about the current CPD policy and practices as well as the
implementation challenges in the context of Ethiopia. For improving the response rate, the
researcher made the questions more understandable, to the point, and culturally appropriate. Plus,
the researcher personally delivered the survey questionnaire to the participants, provided a pen as
an incentive for those who completed the survey, and clearly communicated how the survey
responses will be kept confidential. The researcher distributed the survey in the staff room
during break time and in the morning before class started. The researcher requested the survey
participants return completed surveys in person to researcher upon completion the same day.
Interviews
The researcher conducted a one-time average of 45-minute formal in-depth personal
interviews with 16 participants. This number of interviewees was decided based on information
saturation (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Information-rich participants for the in-depth interviews
were purposely selected from those who volunteered via the survey. To ensure privacy and
attention, the interview was conducted in person in vacant classrooms or any quiet available
sitting area. Participants were privately interviewed on a one-on-one basis to allow them the
opportunity to speak freely about their experiences. All the interviews were tape-recorded with
permission from the participants and transcribed to prevent loss of data. Interviews were
conducted in the morning before school was in session or during breaks. The interviews were
conducted in the Affaan Oromo language to ensure teachers’ full understanding of the questions.
The interview protocol (Appendix C) consist of 12 predetermined items with openness to any
new emerging questions during the interview. The 12 items covered knowledge, motivation, and
organizational influences. All interviews were semi-structured to focus the discussion around
central topics yet allowed for open-ended questions based on the interviewee’s response. Patton
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

71
(as cited in Merriam & Tisdell, 2016) suggested six types of questions: experience and behavior,
opinion and values, feelings, knowledge, sensory and demographic questions. In this study,
items assessing declarative, conceptual and metacognitive knowledge were asked including
questions such as, “tell me what you know about CPD? In your opinion, what are the
characteristics of effective CPD? Give me an example of a collaborative learning you
experienced over the last 12 months”
Interviews are a preferred method of data collection when one seeks in-depth
understanding of how people view or interpret their experience (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). This
study seeks to generate an in-depth understanding of teachers’ lived experiences of the CPD
program through interviews. This approach encouraged participants to express their views in
their own words and provided better qualitative data. As a primary instrument for data
collection, the researcher clarified instruments and checked with the participants for the accuracy
of the interpretation. This approach also enabled the researcher to enrich their understanding
through both verbal and nonverbal communication.
Document Review
The most important advantage of documents and artifacts is its objectivity. Distinct
from interview and observations, the attendance of the researcher does not change what is being
studied (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The researcher considered the benefit and its cost-
effectiveness in selecting documents and artifacts as sources of data. The researcher gathered
and reviewed school documents and teachers’ works as a data source to supplement interviews.
For instance, it was impossible to tell from interviews whether the participant has knowledge of
conducting action research. Hence, by reviewing the actual action research paper and teacher
CPD portfolio, it was possible to complement the data from the interviews. The researcher
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

72
sought out the national CPD framework, teachers’ CPD portfolio, minutes related to professional
development, school and district education office reports on CPD, organizational charts, teachers
job descriptions, action research papers, and teachers’ work in the pedagogical center and
science laboratories. Data mined from documents and artifacts helped to uncover meaning,
develop understanding, and discover knowledge, motivational, and organizational influences in
successfully engaging in effective CPD practices. The national CPD framework was reviewed
and used as a guide to evaluate the actual CPD practices.
The researcher asked for permission to review and take pictures of key components of the
CPD portfolio of the 20 teachers who participates in the interviews. The CPD portfolio is a
document required to be created by all teachers to document their ongoing CPD activity. It
provides details of CPD activities undertaken by a teacher, including action research conducted,
collaborative learning opportunities attended, and reflection on teaching and learning practices.
By reviewing the portfolio, the researcher tried to understand the teachers’ declarative and
metacognitive knowledge about CPD.
Action research papers, teachers’ work in the pedagogical center and science laboratories
were reviewed to obtain data on knowledge influences. For instance, if the action research
conducted by the teacher was systematic, the researcher assumed that this teacher has knowledge
of how to conduct action research. Professional development minutes, school and organizational
reports were used as a source of data to understand motivation and organizational gaps; if any.
Further, the organizational chart and teachers’ job descriptions were used to gain understanding
of organizational support and influences. A permission letter was to be obtained from the BDEO
and presented to the school principal to get entry access to school documents and teachers’ work
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

73
relevant to the study. The researcher also asked teachers’ permission to review private
documents including their CPD portfolio.
Data Analysis
The quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed separately and then integrated.
Quantitative data results from the survey were analyzed using Microsoft Excel. The descriptive
statistical analysis was done after collecting all survey results. Descriptive statistics, including
frequencies, percentages, and standard deviations, were presented in the form of tables and
graphs. Computer assisted qualitative data analysis were conducted using Atlas.ti software.
For interviews and document review, data analysis was conducted side by side with data
collection and the write-up of findings. The researcher created a data set consisting of memos,
transcribed interviews, and documents. The researcher reflected on each interview and wrote
memos describing viewpoints and initial interpretations about the data. The researcher then
transcribed the interview data and coded it with words representing categories in the margins. In
the first step of analysis, the researcher uses a combination of open codes and a priori codes
corresponding with knowledge, motivation, and organizational concepts from the conceptual
framework. In the second phase, the researcher constructed the next level of category by
grouping open and a priori codes that seem to go together into axial codes. In the third phase of
data analysis, the researcher identified any recurring patterns and themes that emerged in relation
to the conceptual framework and study questions. Finally, the researcher analyzed documents for
evidence consistent with the concepts in the conceptual framework.
Credibility and Trustworthiness
A convergent parallel mixed-methods approach requires establishing validity or
credibility for both quantitative and qualitative components (Creswell, 2014). To increase the
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

74
credibility and trustworthiness of the findings, the researcher used different strategies suggested
by Merriam and Tisdell (2016), including triangulation, member checks, reflexivity, and peer
reviews. The researcher triangulated interview and survey results against findings from the
document review.
The researcher also conducted member checks with four selected key informants through
phone calls to get feedback on my preliminary findings. The researcher used participants’
feedback to identify and exclude possible misinterpretation and personal biases. At every step of
the study, the researcher reflected on and acknowledge bias, assumptions, and preconceptions
that brought into the study and examined how it shaped the conduct and outcome of the study.
For instance, due to the researcher’s experience and prior knowledge about CPD practices in
Ethiopia, the researcher had a preconceived belief that it is not well liked by teachers and that
they are reluctant to participate in CPD activities. The researcher reflected on how this belief
influenced the interview with each participant and was diligent in putting effort into minimizing
his bias effect during data collection, analysis and presentation of key findings. The researcher
also discussed his study process, interpretations, and findings with his dissertation committee as
well as peer reviewed. The dissertation committee reviewed and commented on his finding’s
credibility and trustworthiness. The researcher also asked a colleague with experience in the
area of the study to examine some of the raw data and evaluate whether the findings are credible
based on the data collected.
Finally, the researcher provided adequate descriptive data to enhance the transferability
or external validity of the study. The researcher described the school setting, participant
teachers’ working conditions and qualifications, context of CPD in Ethiopia, and detail the
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

75
findings, including quotes from interviewees. This transparent process will help others assess if
the findings of this study are transferable to their context.
Validity and Reliability
The researcher increased the reliability of the quantitative component of this study by
using language that makes sense to the survey respondents as well as avoiding jargon or using
multiple and leading questions. The researcher established face validity by asking for experts’
opinion about whether an instrument measures the motivation and organizational influences.
To ensure confidence in the survey sample, the researcher conducted a census survey of
all teachers meeting the 2-years’ teaching experience criterion in the targeted schools. Among
those who meet the survey criterion, 9 out of 91 were not willing to participate in the survey.
Hence, 82 teachers participated in the survey. To increase the response rate, the researcher
conducted pilot testing, keeping the survey short and simple, avoiding leading questions,
providing enough response options, identifying the best time for participants to complete, and
provide in-kind incentives for participating. The researcher checked for response bias by taking a
small sample from a population with similar characteristics to determine if their responses differ
significantly from that of respondents. The researcher also looked at the data to determine a
significant range of responses of very high and low effects, as both may suggest a response bias.
In both cases no significant bias was found.
Ethics
Researchers have a responsibility to behave ethically with their study participants (Rubin
& Rubin, 2012). The Belmont Report (1979) provided three ethical principles with its
applications intended to assure that research involving human subjects be carried out in an
ethical manner. According to this report, the three basic ethical principles are respect of persons,
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

76
beneficence and justice (The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of
Biomedical and Behavioral Research, 1979). Informed consent is a core requirement of ethical
research which can empower participants and is a way to enact the principle of respect for
persons. Through informed consent, the researcher provides sufficient information to the
participants to enable them to make informed decisions about participating in a study (Glesne,
2011). This includes making participants aware that their participation is voluntary, data
collected is confidential, and that they can withdraw from the study at any point without penalty.
Ethical issues need to be dealt with prior to starting the study, during data collection and
analysis and in reporting, sharing and storing the data (Creswell, 2014). Ethical issues were
addressed during every phase of this study to show respect and provide confidentiality to all
participants as well as to protect them from any potential harm. This process began by
submitting the study proposal to the University of Southern California Institutional Review
Board to ensure that the study does not harm participants. The researcher presented the purpose
of the study to the BDEO and received approval of individuals in authority to conduct a survey,
interview teachers, and review documents and artifacts in the selected schools. Every effort was
made to treat all participating teachers and schools with respect and to disrupt as little as
possible. For all interviews, vacant classroom or any quite sitting area available was used.
Hence, all the interviews were treated with strictest confidence. All participant teachers were
briefly informed at the start of interview about the general purpose and potential benefits of the
study, how the data collected from them will be used, that their participation is voluntary, and
that they are free to withdraw from the study at any time. The researcher also gave them an
information sheet with the same information in writing prior to any interviews. The researcher
also requested permission from participants to record the interviews. During the interviews,
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

77
when there were any questions/answers that were not clear, the questions were repeated to ensure
better understanding by both parties.
During data analysis, the researcher avoided taking sides and only discussed the results
supporting his views. The researcher reported the full range of findings and perspectives without
withholding any important information. The researcher disentangled names from responses
during the coding and recoding process and used fictitious names for participants and places to
protect participants’ identities. All information from the study will be kept confidential and
participants were informed that it will be used for research purposes only. Researchers are
expected to maintain raw data for a minimum of 5 years after publication (American
Psychological Association, 2010). Thus, the researcher scanned the raw data and saved it
digitally with password protection. The study report was presented in aggregate form and
quotations from interviews do not refer to the names of the schools or the names of the
participants.
The researcher has no supervisory, friendship or direct working relationship with teachers
who participated in this study. However, as a leader of the donor organization currently
supporting schools in the district, some research participants might feel like they must participate
in the study or that their decision to not participate may affect support to their school. The
researcher informed them that he has only a research role and is not a representative of the donor
organization for this study. The researcher also assured the participants that the purpose of the
study is purely academic and not related to funding school programs.
Limitations and Delimitations
The researcher anticipated several limitations and delimitations to this study. In this
study, limitations refer to influences that the researcher cannot control whereas delimitations are
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

78
choices the researcher made to set the scope of the study. First, the limitation of this study
emanates from using self-reported data, the quality of which is dependent on participants’
honesty. Secondly, the study is limited due to its assumption that all participants understood and
interpreted the interview and survey items similarly and accurately. The third limitation is the
fragmented and inconsistent documentation about CPD at the district and school levels. Finally,
the study is limited in collecting information about knowledge influences by using interviews
and survey.
Although observation provides more accurate information about procedural knowledge
influences, this study is delimited to collecting information using survey, interview, and
document analysis. The researcher made the choice not to include observations, which required
more time than the researcher found feasible for the dissertation timeline. Also, though member
checking should be conducted with all study participants, the study is delimited only to four out
of the 16 key informants’ member checks. The study is also delimited to understanding from one
key stakeholder group’s lived experience, and that may or may not reflect that of other
stakeholder groups like cluster supervisors and school principals. Even though CPD is a broader
concept, the study is delimited by a focus on collaborative learning and action research
influences. These influences were chosen based on the literature review.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

79
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND FINDINGS
This chapter presents the results and findings of the data collection associated with the
teachers’ experience of engaging in CPD practices. This study used a mixed-methods approach
to collect both qualitative and quantitative data through a survey, interviews, and document
review. The data was analyzed and triangulated to validate the root causes of knowledge,
motivation, and organizational challenges for BDEO’s teachers to successfully engage in
effective CPD practice; and to evaluate the extent to which BDEO is meeting its goal of 100%
teachers successfully engaging in effective CPD practice. The findings were then used to validate
or not validate the assumed knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences described in
Chapter 2. This chapter addresses the first two research questions guiding this study:
1. To what extent is BDEO meeting its goal of 100% teachers successfully engaging in
effective CPD practice?
2. What are the knowledge, motivation, and organizational challenges for BDEO's teachers
to successfully engage in effective CPD practice?
3. What are the potential knowledge, motivation, and organization solutions to enable all
BDEO’s teachers to be actively engaged in effective CPD practice?
The first section presents the results and findings answering the first research question.
The second section of this chapter presents the results and findings addressing the second
research question organized by the categories in the area of knowledge, motivation, and
organization. Based on the findings and results each section will present the assumed influences
that have been validated or not validated and will conclude with a summary of findings and
results. Chapter 5 answers the third research question guiding this study by providing evidence-
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

80
based suggested solutions in accordance with validate KMO influences related to teachers’
effective CPD engagement.
Report of the Findings
Research Question 1
When teachers were asked about their engagement in effective CPD practice, over 90%
of teachers rated their CPD experience as highly or somewhat impactful in improving their
knowledge, skills and attitudes, classroom practice, and their students’ behavior and learning
outcomes. Contrary to the survey results, in-depth interviews with 16 teachers revealed that for
the most part teachers were not engaged in effective CPD practice. The interview respondents
attributed the ineffectiveness of their CPD practice to several factors including: lack of
understanding about CPD, inadequate time and resources allocated to CPD, unsupportive
leadership, and an absence of proper training required to implement CPD. When teachers were
asked about their understanding of CPD practices, it was clear that most of the teachers had
misconceptions about the program and level of teacher engagement. For instance, one teacher
shared, “CPD is a discussion meeting and includes training or workshops aimed to enhance
teachers’ knowledge and skills so that they improve education quality.” This is a narrow
understanding of CPD. Though single-shot trainings and workshops can be useful forms of
CPD, they are inadequate to bring change if not intensive and disconnected from practice
(Darling-Hammond et al., 2009; OECD, 2015). Another teacher shared a CPD misconception
saying, “CPD is more of a political agenda than it is to help teachers improve their capacity to
better serve their students. Our CPD meetings were mostly unproductive and involved non-
academic conversations that are not of interest to many teachers.” This particular view implies
that teachers are not considering CPD as genuine educational intervention rather see it as a
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

81
means used to politically orient teachers. As a result, teachers lost interest in their current CPD
practice. Another teacher responded in a way that represented the similar responses made by
other teachers stating,
CPD was introduced with good intentions, but it failed in the implementation. I feel it
was imposed on us without proper consideration of our context such as classroom
teaching load, class size, and working conditions. For instance, our class teaching load
would not allow us time to engage in effective CPD. Imagine, teaching, assessing, and
following-up with over 300 students and then you must attend CPD. There is no
adequate and planned time for us to engage in CPD. Teachers are required to stay after
school and give up their weekends to engage in CPD activities. Teachers in my school are
not happy about this and without it being mandatory to attend no one would want to do it.
With confidence, I can say that it failed to deliver its promises of improving teacher’s
classroom practice and student learning outcomes. To be frank with you, teachers
consider CPD as a burden and are unenthusiastic to engage in genuine CPD practice.
This above stated notion was shared by most of the interview participants. From this
notion, one could conclude that CPD was a top-down imposed program with no involvement of
teachers in the design. It is also clear that CPD was adopted without sufficiently contextualizing
to local teacher and school context. Hence, it lost teachers buy-in and ineffectively
implemented. Another teacher further shared, “CPD was introduced by the Ministry of
Education for teachers, school principals, and supervisors. But, the design of it was not
participatory. Teachers were not consulted and rather only told to implement it. So, it didn’t
address teachers’ professional development needs.” From this perception, it is clear that the
CPD design overlooked teachers’ professional development needs and prescribed from the top.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

82
Another teacher similarly stressed the problem that their CPD is not need-based by saying, “We
are all required to practice the same CPD activity regardless of our career level and years of
service.” One teacher further substantiated this view by stating,
CPD was imposed on teachers in a top-down approach through a training of trainer
model. The school principals participated in a short training about CPD and were asked
to replicate it in their respective schools. They were unable to deliver the content of CPD
as they didn’t internalize it themselves. Hence, the transfer of knowledge did not occur
in relation to the CPD program in our schools since no one has the full understanding
about how to effectively put it in practice.
The top-down approach to CPD introduction created a knowledge gap about CPD. The
cascading approach failed to create adequate understanding about CPD. The school principals
were not adequately trained to roll out CPD program. Thus, teachers lack understanding about
effective CPD practices. Supporting this argument, one teacher said,
Due to lack of understanding about CPD, we do not seriously engage in CPD. We simply
chat and count that towards our 60 hours of CPD commitment. How could a teacher be
expected to engage in effective CPD practice without adequate knowledge about it?
According to most of the teachers interviewed, CPD was prescribed from the top down
without involving teachers in the design. This resulted in lack of understanding about the
program and teachers’ professional development needs being not addressed. Hence, it lost
teacher buy-in quickly after the introduction. The following reflection summarizes the views
expressed by 14 out of 16 interview participants,
It is now many years since CPD was introduced. In the early years, it was presented to us
as a reform aimed to develop teachers. So, at the beginning teachers were highly
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

83
motivated to practice it. As time goes, it became weaker and weaker. The reason why it
became weaker was because it lacked ownership. Currently, CPD lacks owner. There is
no one tasked with the responsibility to ensure its successful implementation.
This opinion also reveals that CPD was introduced without proper structure in place.
There is no responsible body to overlook the effective implementation of the program. As a
result, CPD lacks the support structure need to effectively plan, execute, and evaluate CPD
activities. The same teacher shared frustration about the value of CPD saying,
In my view, other than making us busy it is not useful. Now I even feel that this CPD
should be stopped as it is not beneficial. The reason is that we invested a lot on it
thinking that it has some value for us. For instance, I have a CPD plan and report file that
‘a donkey cannot carry’. Truly, all these documents we created were not reviewed and
we never received any feedback, and no one was responsible to give direction. Hence, I
believe that CPD in its current form has no value. This is just what I think as a teacher. I
practiced it for many years, and I have not seen any positive impact because of it.
This view clearly pointed that the lack of leadership support in giving constructive
feedbacks impacted teachers’ motivation to practice and the effectiveness of their CPD practice.
Teachers expressed their frustration to engage in CPD and developed a feeling that made them to
question the value of their current CPD practice. Similarly, another teacher expressed lack of
leadership support by stating, “The school and district leadership do not contribute enough to
facilitate effective CPD practice. For instance, our principal and cluster supervisor do not
encourage us in our CPD practice. They only ask for how many hours we spent on CPD.”
Research indicates that leadership support and involvement in teachers’ professional
development is key to ensure its effectiveness (Stoll et al., 2012). The leadership need to engage
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

84
teachers in the school CPD plan, provide them required resources and constructive feedbacks on
their practice. Input oriented CPD impact measurement like reporting on number of CPD hours
do not indicate whether teachers learned and changed their practice (Cheetham & Chivers,
2005).
One teacher noted how the attitude of teachers also impacted the effectiveness of CPD.
According to this teacher, “In my view, the attitude of teachers towards CPD needs to change if
CPD is to be effective. It is obvious that many teachers are not positive towards CPD.” This
teacher added, “I feel there is a misunderstanding in teachers’ thinking that CPD practice should
lead to promotion, transfers, and salary increase. Since this was not the case, teachers gradually
became reluctant to engage in effective CPD practice.” Teachers expectations are based on the
CPD framework provision that teachers CPD performance shall be linked to their career
progression. Despite the provision in the framework, in practice CPD performance was not
linked to teachers’ CPD performance. Hence, it became one demotivating factor for teachers.
Supporting the view that teachers are reluctant to practice CPD, another teacher shared,
The current practice is to simply “copy down” what others have done or from your
previous work just for reporting purpose. You simply submit a copied CPD plan and
report to be documented in your portfolio. For instance, in our school if you check, you
could find out that we all have similar CPD plans for the year that are simply copied from
each other. Other than submitting copied CPD plans, including myself, we don’t plan it
genuinely with intention to create something new, or to improve our practice and student
results.
The interview findings revealed that CPD implementation was challenged by many
factors including: a lack of understanding of CPD, teachers not perceiving that CPD
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

85
implementation had relevance to their practice, lack of teacher buy-in, lack of supportive
leadership, time limitations , and inadequate resources. It is evident from the interviews that
these challenges significantly limited teachers’ successful engagement in effective CPD practice.
It was also evident from the interviews that the CPD program was introduced without an
adequate support structure to build teacher capacity through feedback, mentoring, and coaching.
Though CPD was introduced with the aim to increase teacher’s capacity and student learning
outcomes, most of the teachers believe that it failed to achieve these original goals. Based on the
teacher interviews, the leadership lacks knowledge about CPD that limited their ability to support
and effectively impart these goals and practices to teachers. To summarize, it is clear from the
interview findings that teachers were not successfully engaged in effective CPD practice.
Research Question 2
Clark and Estes’ (2008) knowledge, motivation, and organizational (KMO) model will be
adapted as a conceptual framework to answer this study question. According to the KMO
model, people’s knowledge and skills, their motivation, and organizational support are critical
factors for successful goal achievement. A focus on one of these factors alone will only capture
part of the cause and, eventually, provide only part of the solution. According to Clark and Estes
(2008), people’s perceptions are important to detecting gaps. And people perception could be
gathered by using interviews, surveys, work record reviews, and focus group discussions. Hence,
the following sections answers this research question by presenting results and findings for
knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences related to BDEO’s teachers CPD practice.
Results and Findings for Knowledge Influences
Knowledge of teachers is critical to improving classroom practice and student learning
outcomes. Rueda (2011) indicated that many educational problems are caused by stakeholders
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

86
learning and knowledge gaps required to perform a task effectively. In this fast-changing world,
individuals need knowledge and skills to solve new problems and adapt to changing conditions
(Clark & Estes, 2008). In the education setting, regardless of how good pre-service teacher
preparation is, it cannot be assumed that it prepares them to overcome future challenges they
encounter in their career (Schleicher, 2012). This necessitates teachers to engage themselves in
effective continuous professional development. Therefore, the examination of teachers’ capacity
to engage in effective CPD practice is critical to identify and address the necessary knowledge
gaps.
In Chapter 2, this study identified five knowledge influences. In this chapter, the same
influences were reorganized into seven knowledge influences. The areas that teachers need
knowledge of the national CPD framework, toolkit, and portfolio were organized into three
influence categories to facilitate a clear presentation of the findings. The first four influences
focus on declarative knowledge about the CPD program. The fifth and sixth influences
considers the procedural knowledge about CPD models including the use of observation,
reflection, collaborative learning, and action research. The seventh influence focuses on
metacognitive knowledge about teacher reflection. This section presents the assumed knowledge
causes and whether they were validated or not. Table 9 highlights the six influences that were
validated, and the one that was partially validated. Additionally, there was one new knowledge
influence that emerged.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

87
Table 9
Knowledge influences validated, partially validated, and new influences
Knowledge
Type
Assumed
Cause

Validated
Partially
Validated
New
Emerged
Declarative

Declarative

Declarative

Declarative

Declarative

Procedural

Procedural

Metacognitive
Teachers need knowledge of the
national CPD framework including the
meaning, purpose, nature, and cycle of
CPD.
Teachers need knowledge of the CPD
toolkit (a module with examples of
teachers’ CPD activity)

Teachers need knowledge of the
meaning, elements, and purpose of the
CPD portfolio.

Teachers need to understand the
characteristics of effective CPD for
them to put into practice

Teachers need to know that they are
responsible for their own CPD

Teachers need to know how to
collaborate with others via observation
and reflection to improve their own
teaching effectiveness and that of others

Teachers need to know how to engage in
conducting action research

By reflecting on their learning and
teaching, teachers need to be able to
identify key needs and engage in
planning to meet these needs.
✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

Based on the type of knowledge classification by Anderson (as cited in Anderson &
Krathwohl, 2001), findings have been grouped into: declarative, procedural, and metacognitive
knowledge types.
Declarative Knowledge Influences
According to results in Table 9, four assumed declarative knowledge influences were
validated, and one new influence emerged. Table 10 shows the percentage of teachers and
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

88
validated assumed declarative knowledge influences that were identified, and which instruments
were used to validate these influences.
Table 10
Validated Assumed Declarative Knowledge Influences
Knowledge
Type
Assumed
influence Instrument Know
Don’t
know
Declarative

Declarative

Declarative

Declarative

Declarative
(Newly
emerged)
Teachers need more knowledge of the
national CPD framework including the
meaning, purpose, nature, and cycle of
CPD.

Teachers need knowledge of the CPD
toolkit (a module with examples of
teachers’ CPD activity)

Teachers need knowledge of the
meaning, elements, and purpose of the
CPD portfolio.

Teachers need to understand the
characteristics of effective CPD for
them to put into practice

Teachers need to know that they are
responsible for their own CPD
Interview

Survey

Interview

Interview

Survey

Document
review

Interview

Interview
13%

29%

0%

44%

71%

25%

31%

0%
87%

71%

100%

56%

29%

75%

69%

100%

The first assumed knowledge influence is that teachers need more knowledge of the
national CPD framework including the meaning, purpose, nature, and cycle of CPD. In the
national CPD framework, CPD is defined as “anything that makes me [Teacher] a better teacher”
(Ministry of Education, 2009a, p. 16). According to this framework, the aim of CPD is to
enhance teachers’ classroom practice with the ultimate purpose of improving student learning
and achievement. The same policy document also laid-out; Analyzing, planning, doing, and
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

89
evaluating as CPD cycles. Knowledge about the CPD framework is important to successfully
translate the objectives stipulated in CPD framework into practice.
The first assumed declarative knowledge influence identified in this study was validated
both through survey and interview questions. The interview question was: “What comes to your
mind when you hear the phrase “CPD?” with follow-up probe questions including; “What is
CPD?”, “What do you know about CPD framework; if at all”, “What is the purpose of CPD?”,
and “Walk me through the CPD cycle”. The interview participants could share their
understanding of CPD including the meaning, nature and purpose, and cycle of CPD.
Two of the sixteen teachers reported that they know about the CPD framework and
accurately described the CPD meaning, nature, purpose, and its cycle. The remaining fourteen
teachers reported that they don’t know or have limited knowledge about CPD framework. The
following quotations taken from the responses of teachers to the above-mentioned questions
testify teachers’ knowledge about CPD framework. One teacher said, “I have no clear
understanding about CPD. We were told that we should engage in CPD without any information
on what it is, why we should do, and how we should do it”. Echoing this, another teacher
mentioned a view expressed by most of those who don’t know about CPD framework:
I have never seen and used CPD framework. I am just learning about the existence of
such framework from this interview. So, I have no knowledge about this framework and
has been practicing CPD only based on what I heard and saw from other teachers.
These responses indicate that teachers lack knowledge about CPD framework. Teachers
were introduced to CPD only through a word of mouth with no structured orientation
mechanism. With a similar view on CPD framework, below is an excerpt reported by another
teacher:
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

90
We have the CPD framework guideline in our school. The problem is that no one
understands it and it simply sits on shelf. We are not referring and applying it as we lack
knowledge about it. I haven’t personally used for my CPD practice. We have no
adequate knowledge about CPD programme itself and only practicing it because we are
told to do so. I wish I had knowledge about this framework and practiced my CPD
properly.
The teacher’s knowledge about CPD framework was triangulated through a survey
question. The survey question was: “which of the following areas were the focus of your CPD
activities over the last 12 months (list of focus areas including subject matter content, teaching
methodologies and strategies, classroom management, life-skills, continuous assessment, CPD
framework, action research, and other with a corresponding frequency rating: often, sometimes,
rarely, never)?”. As shown in the survey results presented in Figure 1, 58 (71%) teachers
reported never or rarely experiencing activity related to CPD framework learning. Therefore, the
assumed influence that teachers need more knowledge of the national CPD framework was
validated.

Figure 1. Survey results: CPD framework as a focus area of teachers’ CPD.
The second assumed knowledge influence was that teachers need knowledge of the CPD
toolkit. The CPD toolkit was a module designed to facilitate the implementation of CPD
0
24
44
14
Often
Sometimes
Rarely
Never
CPD framework as a focus area of teachers' CPD?
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

91
framework (Ministry of Education, 2009b). It provides practical examples of CPD needs
analysis, planning, undertaking, and evaluation. This document serves as a scaffolding
particularly for teachers in early stage of their career to effectively practice CPD.
The second assumed influence that teachers need knowledge of the national CPD toolkit
was validated through participant interviews about their knowledge of the CPD toolkit: “Tell me
your experience of using the national CPD toolkit?”. All the 16 teachers reported that they do
not know about examples of CPD practices provided in the CPD toolkit. Several respondents
reported absence of the CPD toolkit in their schools. For instance, one teacher mentioned that,
“We have no CPD toolkit module and don’t use it. I personally don’t know about it”. In other
cases, though there is CPD toolkit it was not used by teachers. For instance, one teacher stated
that:
In my opinion, if we had a CPD toolkit we could have a better understanding of the CPD
program, which would make it more likely for teachers to give their attention to. You
know, if you ask any teacher in this country about their CPD experience, they do not tell
you much as they have limited understanding about it. There is no toolkit or related
training to improve teacher’s knowledge about the program. We do try practicing CPD
with no proper understanding of it, because it is a mandatory requirement for all teachers.
It was clear from the interviews that teachers mostly do not have access to CPD toolkit or
provided the kit with no proper training on it. As a result, they lack knowledge about the
examples of effective CPD practices provided in the kit. Some teachers with access to CPD
toolkit also mentioned limited relevance of the kit to their needs. One teacher said, “the kit is big
in size, but mostly filled with poor content. I feel it should have useful content and precise
enough for teachers to use.” Another teacher shared,
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

92
As we got more teaching experience, our use of CPD toolkit is minimal. This is because,
the toolkit is the same for everyone and does not address our needs based on years of
teaching experience. So, I am not using the CPD toolkit anymore as there is nothing in
there for me. I advise it for the beginning teachers, but not for experienced teachers.
The interview findings indicate that teachers lack knowledge of the examples of
effective CPD practices provided in the kit. Lack of access to CPD toolkit, poor content of the
kit, and absence of training were mentioned as main factors for teachers’ knowledge deficit
about this kit. The CPD toolkit is also not differentiated for teachers with varying background
and career stage.
The third assumed knowledge influence is that teachers need knowledge of how to
implement the professional portfolio into their practice including its meaning, elements, and its’
purpose. The professional portfolio is a means to document and present evidence of professional
development activities conducted as part of CPD. The professional portfolio content includes; a
place to record all professional development activities undertaken, which requires teachers to
report and document the CPD’s impact on their teaching and learning, new development needs
identified, analysis of student performance and steps taken to improve it, evidence of successful
performance, and areas for further improvement (Ministry of Education, 2011). The national
CPD framework does require all teachers to maintain a portfolio of CPD activities. The purpose
of maintaining professional portfolio is to facilitate the plan for CPD activities, to keep records
and document CPD activities undertaken, provide evidence of participation in professional
learning, and provide evidence of reflection on progress and gaps identified (Ministry of
Education, 2009).
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

93
The third declarative knowledge influence that teachers need more knowledge of the
professional portfolio was validated through participant interviews, survey, and document
review. The interview question used to validate this third knowledge influence was: “Tell me
what you know about the professional portfolio of CPD?” Nine (56%) of the 16 participants
reported having no or limited knowledge about the meaning, elements, and purpose of
professional portfolio. These teachers had difficulty fully expressing the professional portfolio’s
meaning, content, purpose, and its’ review process. For example, the following quote from one
teacher substantiates that teachers lack adequate knowledge of the professional portfolio: “…I
sometime hear colleagues talking about, the portfolio report. However, I do not know the full
meaning of professional portfolio. I appreciate if you could tell me a little bit about it for my
own understanding”. Several other teachers reported having a narrow understanding of
professional portfolio. For instance, one of the teachers described the professional portfolio as,
“professional portfolio is a file of our CPD plan and report”. These views reflect that teachers
have limited or no knowledge about professional portfolio’s meaning, content, purpose, and its’
review process. None of the teachers were able to fully express the content and purpose of
maintaining professional portfolio. Similarly, another teacher expressed misconception about
professional portfolio as,
I am not quite clear about the meaning and purpose of professional portfolio. I think it is
compiled by departments and not by individual teachers. As I haven’t maintained it
myself, I don’t know the process of keeping it and what goes into it.
The preceding quote from one of the teachers indicate that some teachers were not
maintaining their own professional portfolio. Teachers also indicated lack of knowledge as
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

94
reason for not maintaining it. Supporting this, another teacher further explained the absence of
clear guideline of how to prepare a professional portfolio.
We have no clear guidelines on how to prepare a portfolio. The provisions in the CPD
framework are vague to understand and put into practice. So, it is not fair to expect
teachers to maintain quality professional portfolio without having relevant knowledge
and skills about it.
As per the framework, individual teachers’ professional portfolio content needs to be
reviewed and feedback provided. Contrary to this, one teacher mentioned that “I never received
feedback on my professional portfolio. Nobody monitors it and we usually submit the CPD plan
and report just to fulfil the requirement. We do not give much attention to it.” Another
participant expressed a similar notion by saying, “Our cluster supervisors and principals lack
knowledge of how to offer feedback on our professional portfolio. So, there is no capacity to
effectively guide teachers in their professional portfolio development.” Another teacher shared,
“I know little about professional portfolio and I am not actively maintaining it. I only submit my
CPD plan and report to be documented in my portfolio. I am not aware about what else I should
file in my portfolio.” From these responses, it is evident that teachers lack knowledge of
maintaining comprehensive professional portfolio as per the CPD framework. Most of the
teachers were not documenting their self-reflections, student learning progress, areas for
improvement, and professional development activity. Moreover, they were not regularly
updating it.
Further, the professional portfolio of interview participants was reviewed. Teachers’
professional portfolio was reviewed particularly verifying the content, revision, and feedback
process. As per the teachers’ professional portfolio document review, 4 of the 16 teachers
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

95
documented and updated their CPD plan, activities, self-reflection on progress, and student
performance analysis as per the national CPD framework requirement. As shown in Figure 2,
the professional portfolio document review revealed that at least 12 of the 16 participants do not
maintain professional portfolio that meets the national CPD framework requirements.

Figure 2. Survey results: Teachers knowledge of maintaining professional portfolio.
The teacher’s knowledge about maintaining professional portfolio was also triangulated
through a survey question. The survey question was: “Which of the following CPD method have
you experienced in your school over the last 12 months (Maintaining professional portfolio:
often, sometimes, rarely, never). 71% of the survey respondents reported they often or
sometimes experience maintaining a professional portfolio while 29% of the respondents
indicated they rarely or never experience maintaining a professional portfolio. Based on the
survey result, most of the teachers reported that they experienced maintaining professional
portfolio. The survey findings do not coincide with the interview and document review findings.
This conflicting finding reflects the shortcomings of survey instrument to have an in-depth
understanding of the phenomenon. Like most of the interviewed teachers who indicated only
maintaining a CPD plan and report; it is likely that the survey participants were referring to the
4
4
4
3
4
12
12
12
13
12
Annually updated
Annually reviewed
Identify CPD needs and articulated plan
Detail analysis of student’s achievement
Document self-reflection on progress
Teachers knowledge of maintaining professional Portfolio
Yes No
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

96
same level of partial documentation with no adequate knowledge about CPD portfolio. A gap in
teachers’ knowledge of maintaining a professional portfolio was validated through the document
review and interview findings which showed most teachers do not have the necessary knowledge
to maintain a professional portfolio as specified in the CPD framework.
The fourth declarative knowledge cause that was identified is that teachers do not know
the characteristics of effective CPD, which was validated through three related interview
questions: “In your opinion, what are the characteristics of effective CPD?”, “Think of effective
CPD experience you have had, what did you find most helpful? and “What makes CPD
ineffective?”. Based on the national CPD framework and literature review discussed in Chapter
2, characteristics of effective CPD includes: that it is need-based, content focused, incorporates
active learning utilizing adult learning theory, supports collaboration, typically in job-embedded
contexts, coherence with other policies, uses action research and enquiry as key tools, offers
opportunities for feedback and reflections, and of sustained duration. The characteristics of
effective CPD mentioned by the study participants were; it is need-based, on-going, evidence-
based, collaborative, participatory, has adequate time and resources, proper training, and a
feedback mechanism. For instance, one teacher said, “I believe CPD is effective when teachers
collaborate, involves the school principal, and is monitored and reviewed by responsible person.”
Another teacher mentioned, “Characteristics of effective CPD includes that it is given adequate
time, attention, resources, and there is a presence of awareness about it. Teacher should be
actively engaged in the CPD activities and avoid passively depending on other teachers.”
Another teacher emphasized the need for teachers and other stakeholders’ involvement in the
planning. According to this teacher,
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

97
For CPD to be effective, in-depth discussion about it is mandatory and the discussion
should be participatory. All stakeholders should actively participate on it. In our school,
there is ineffective CPD practice in which school CPD plans and reports are being
produced without proper discussion on it. Mostly principals prepare it alone without
active teachers’ participation.
Collective participation is key to effective CPD practice (Desimone, 2009). School CPD
plan and report preparation need to be participatory. For teachers to own the plan, they need to
have a say on it through active participation. The actual practice in schools was that school CPD
plans are created by principals alone and teachers are only required to drive their individual plan
from it. Describing more characteristics of effective CPD, another teacher shared the importance
of training:
In my opinion, before we even create CPD plan, a proper training needs to be provided
for teachers, school principals, and supervisors. I also think that teachers and school
principals should discuss on the monthly CPD report submitted by each teacher. The
current practice is that we only file the report and there is no discussion or feedback on it.
All teachers interviewed except one were able to cite at least one characteristic of
effective CPD. One teacher reported: “I have no experience of effective CPD practice and do not
know the characteristics of effective CPD.” Teachers who were able to mention at least three
characteristics of effective CPD were assumed as knowing about the characteristics of effective
CPD. The study participants who were able to mention three characteristics of effective CPD
and give examples of it were few. Though all teachers except for one were able to mention at
least one characteristic of effective CPD, none were able to provide a practical example from
their experience and practice. Accordingly, five of the 16 teachers know the characteristics of
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

98
effective CPD. Eleven of the 16 teachers do not know or have limited knowledge about the
characteristics of effective CPD. Therefore, this assumed declarative knowledge cause is
validated.
The fifth knowledge influence that was discovered was whether teachers know that they
are responsible for their own CPD. The new declarative knowledge influence that newly
emerged in data collection was validated through participant interviews. During the data
collection process, the researcher learned that most of the teachers push the responsibility to
engage on their own CPD to school and district leadership. In listing the roles and
responsibilities of CPD stakeholders, the national CPD framework clearly articulated the roles
and responsibilities of key stakeholders including teachers, school principals, cluster supervisors,
and government structures from district to national level. The framework indicates that teachers
are responsible to engage in their own CPD, work collaboratively with peers, complete at least
sixty hours of CPD each year, put CPD into classroom practice, support wider CPD needs of
their institutions, and maintain a professional portfolio (Ministry of Education, 2009).
Most of the teachers interviewed blamed the school and district leadership for the
ineffective CPD practice in their school. From the interviews, a lack of ownership among
teachers and other stakeholders was clear. The teachers reflected views of pushing their CPD
responsibilities to other stakeholders. For instance, one of the teachers mentioned views that
were also shared by most of the participants, “Our school principal and supervisor were not
fulfilling their responsibility of arranging CPD activities for teachers.” Despite the provision in
the framework, teachers are pushing the responsibility of identifying and engaging in their own
CPD to school leaders. Another teacher reaffirmed, “…it is only teachers who are bearing the
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

99
burden of CPD.” This quote particularly indicates that teachers are considering their CPD
engagement as an obligation rather than their personal responsibility throughout their careers.
Procedural Knowledge Influences
Validated procedural knowledge influences. According to results in Table 11, one
assumed procedural knowledge influence was validated.
Table 11
Assumed procedural knowledge influence validated
Knowledge
type
Assumed
Cause
Instrument Know Don’t
know
Procedural

Teachers need to know how to
engage in conducting action
research

Survey

Interview

Document
review

44%

37%

39%

56%

63%

61%

The sixth assumed knowledge influence is that teachers need to know how to engage in
conducting action research. The concept of teacher as a researcher on their own schools or in
their own classrooms has been extensively advocated as a key ingredient for professional
development, school-based curriculum development, systems planning, school restructuring, and
as an evaluative tool. Overall, the purpose of action research is to improve practices through
helping people understand their practices, and the situations under which they practice (Kemmis,
McTaggart, & Nixon, 2014). Action research involves spiraling cycles of problem identification,
systematic data collection, reflection, analysis, data-driven action taken, and, finally, problem
redefinition (Kemmis & McTaggart, 1988).
This assumed procedural knowledge gap is that, teachers do not know how to engage in
conducting action research, was validated by the participant interviews, document reviews, and
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

100
survey. The interview question: “Tell me what you know about action research?” was used to
validate this assumed influence. Several teachers reported that they know the meaning and
purpose of action research theoretically from their college study. However, few reported having
practical knowledge of conducting action research. One teacher shared, “Even if it lacks
rigorous and systematic inquiry, we do conduct action research based on our knowledge from
pre-service. There is a capacity gap to conduct critical meaningful action research.” Another
teacher attested:
In my understanding action-research is not to simply write a paper, it was supposed to
influence our practice and student learning. I think we missed the purpose of doing
action research. In my view, we are doing it just to check-off one of the factors in our
performance appraisal. That became a common trend and hence action research failed to
change our teaching and learning. Every year the action research conducted in our school
was on the same topic, because it is simple for teachers to copy from previous years with
no additional effort. This problem exists because there is no clear understanding of the
purpose and how to conduct action research.
From the above quote, one could conclude that there is a knowledge gap of how to
conduct action research. It also implies a top-down approach in which teachers are required to
conduct action research as part of their performance appraisal and not based on their interest. In
a current practice, all teachers are uniformly required to engage in action research regardless of
their qualification and years of experience. For it to be effective, the level of teachers’ action
research engagement need to be differentiated depending on their capacity, qualification, and
years of service. Further, another teacher indicated that their action research lacks systematic
data inquiry,
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

101
We commonly conduct action research as a group or department. This action research
we conduct is only to meet our performance appraisal. It is not fully inquiry-based. To
give you an example, last year we decided to do action research in our department and
identified a problem. Due to demanding workload, we were unable to complete data
collection. So, we had to interrupt it halfway. Some of us from the group simply wrote
the report with incomplete data and submitted it only to get points in our performance
appraisal.
This view indicates that teachers were filling the data gap with their own assumptions.
Thus, this type of action research could less likely inform teachers classroom practice and
student learning outcomes improvement. A similar view was held by another teacher:
We were attempting to conduct action research only because of the direction from the
top. No one has in-depth understanding of action research. We lack practical knowledge
and experience. As a result, our action research report lacks quality and was not used to
inform our practice.
Overall, 63% of the 16 respondents do not know the meaning, purpose, process, steps,
and able to provide examples of action research. They gave incorrect or inadequate responses to
the question indicating that they have limited or no knowledge about how to conduct action
research. The interview findings for this assumed influence was triangulated through document
review. On average, 61% of teachers don’t have evidence showing their knowledge of
conducting inquiry-oriented action research.
Further, the assumed procedural knowledge that teachers need to know how to engage in
conducting action research, was validated through two survey questions: “which of the following
CPD method have you experienced in your school over the last year? Action research: Often,
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

102
sometimes, rarely, never?” and “which one of the following areas were the focus of your CPD
activities over the last 12 months? Conducting action research: Often, sometimes, rarely,
never)?.” The survey finding validated this assumed influence. As indicated in Figure 3, 46 of
the 82 (56%) teachers never or rarely participated in action research as the focus of their CPD
activity. The remaining 36 (44%) teachers reported sometimes participating in action research as
the focus of their CPD. Therefore, the findings from interviews, document reviews, and survey
validate the assumed knowledge influence that teachers need to know how to engage in
conducting action research. From the findings, it is clear teachers lack knowledge of how to
conduct action research
Procedural knowledge influence partially validated. According to results in Table 12,
one assumed procedural knowledge influence was partially validated.
Table 12
Assumed procedural knowledge influences partially validated
Knowledge
type
Assumed
Cause
Instrument Know Don’t
know
Procedural

Teachers need to know how to
collaborate with others via
observation and reflection to
improve their own teaching
effectiveness and that of others.
Interview

Survey

75%

74%

25%

26%

The seventh assumed knowledge influence is that teachers need to know how to
collaborate with others through observation and reflection to improve their own teaching
effectiveness and that of others. Professional collaboration is an effective form of CPD with
undisputable benefits of improving student achievement, increasing teachers’ retention, and
successfully facilitating the implementation of change and innovation (Geldenhuys &
Oosthuizen, 2015; Hargreaves & O'Connor, 2017). It is also an effective method of professional
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

103
development to improve teacher efficacy and student learning (Borko, 2004; Colbert et al., 2008;
Desimone, 2011; Little, 2001; Patton et al., 2015). “Collaborative professionalism welcomes
rather than fears feedback, critique, and improvement” (Hargreaves & O'Connor, 2017, p. 103).
Collaboration in CPD can take many forms. This includes teachers planning lessons together,
observing each other, critiquing each other, coaching and mentoring novice teachers, and
preparing common assessments (Casale, 2011; Ministry of Education, 2009). Collaborative
school culture enables teachers to seek assistance, share best practices, ask questions, and receive
feedback from their colleagues. However, not all types of collaboration are useful or appropriate
(Hargreaves & O'Connor, 2017).
The assumed procedural knowledge influence that teachers need to know how to
collaborate with others through observation and reflection to improve their own teaching
effectiveness and that of others, was not validated through the interview and survey findings. The
interview question: “What comes to your mind when you think of collaborative learning?”
further revealed that 12 of the 16 (75%) of teachers know how to participate in collaborative
learning and were able to provide examples. The remaining 4 teachers (25%) gave an incorrect
response indicating they did not know how to collaborate with others to improve their own
teaching effectiveness and that of others. The following quote from one of the teachers
summarizes how teachers collaborate to improve their own teaching effectiveness:
I used to have a challenge in student handling classroom management. To improve this, I
observed the classrooms of senior teachers in our school who used to be known for their
good performance in student handling. From those teachers, I learned how to shape
students’ behavior, manage classroom, prepare lesson plans, and ensure active
engagement of students.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

104
This view indicates that teachers know how to collaborate with their peers through
observation of classrooms. These teachers were also able to provide examples of how they
collaborated with other teachers and how that benefited them. Acknowledging the benefits of
collaboration, another teacher explained the experience saying,
I personally collaborate with other teachers in our teaching and learning process. For
instance, though my background is social science, I am expected to teach all subjects to
my class including mathematics. I used to have limited mathematics subject knowledge.
One of our colleagues is very good in mathematics and I learned a lot from this teacher
though observing his teaching and asking him for support.
Though 12 of the 16 teachers know how to collaborate with others and benefited from it,
the other four teachers however, claimed the absence of collaboration among teachers. One
teacher stated, “...there is a problem of not taking feedback given by colleagues. In the previous
school that I served; teachers used to collaborate to the extent of classroom observation. In this
school, I have not seen such practice of learning.” Another participant reaffirmed,
for instance, given I am biology graduate; if I ask a teacher for help on a specific topic
that I am not clear about, most likely they laugh at me saying how comes you do not
know this from your major. So, instead of supporting they discourage you from asking
for help.
Similar views such as the statement above were shared by most of the interview
participants. However, some of these teachers also expressed that engaging in reflection after a
classroom visit was not a common practice. According to one teacher:
If you want to reflect and give feedback to the teacher observed, you are considered a
show-off. This is due to the limited understanding of collaboration and values of
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

105
reflection. There is a fear and lack of trust among teachers. As a result, reflection among
teachers remains weak.
The assumed procedural knowledge that teachers need to know how to collaborate with
others, was measured through two survey questions: “which of the following CPD method have
you experienced in your school over the last year? Collaborative learning, visiting schools,
visiting teachers, discussion meetings, demonstration lessons, planning lessons together, peer
observation, observation of lesson and feedback, observation of students in lesson, shadowing a
teacher, team teaching, and mentoring: Often, sometimes, rarely, never?” The survey finding
indicates that overall 74% of teachers know how to collaborate with other teachers. Table 13
outlines descriptive statistics of the CPD methods experienced by teachers. Mean score in this
dimension range from a mean of 1.40 (SD = 0.718) to a mean of 2.38 (SD = 1.014). Analysis of
the data showed that all the 82 survey respondents claimed to have participated in several types
of collaborative form of CPD activities. The most used collaborative CPD methods are
discussion meetings (92%), observation of lesson and feedback (80%), observation of students in
lesson (83%), and mentoring (89%).

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

106
Table 13
CPD methods experienced by teachers (%)
Item
Rating
Mean SD
Often Sometimes Rarely Never
Collaborative
learning
43% 23% 24% 10% 2.01 1.036
Visiting schools 18% 46% 15% 21% 2.38 1.014
Visiting teachers 35% 41% 18% 5% 1.93 0.858
Discussion meetings 60% 32% 6% 2% 1.51 0.724
Demonstration
lessons
35% 21% 23% 21% 2.29 1.160
Planning lessons
together
51% 18% 17% 14% 1.93 1.109
Peer observation 22% 49% 18% 11% 2.18 0.904
Observation of
lesson and feedback
49% 31% 19% 1% 1.73 0.817
Observation of
students in Lesson
66% 17% 13% 4% 1.55 0.863
Shadowing a teacher 43% 28% 18% 11% 1.98 1.030
Team teaching 49% 20% 18% 13% 1.96 1.105
Mentoring 72% 17% 10% 1% 1.40 0.718
Note. Item responses were: 1= often, 2 = Sometimes, 3 = Rarely, 4 = Never
Though most of the teachers shared that they collaborate with others, the type of
collaboration that exists among teachers is mostly shallow and informal. From the participant
interviews, it was clear that collaboration among teachers was more informal and based on
individuals’ interest. Though informal collaboration are also important, studies indicate that not
all forms of collaborations are impactful (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012). Though most of the
teachers reported knowing how to collaborate with others; their deep understanding of the
concept and actual practice is minimal. For instance, as shared by most of the interview
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

107
participants, they have limited knowledge of how to reflect with other teachers. Therefore, this
assumed procedural knowledge influence was partially validated.
Metacognitive Knowledge Influences
There was one metacognitive knowledge influence assumed in chapter 2. According to
the results in Table 14, this assumed metacognitive knowledge influence was validated.
Table 14
Validated assumed metacognitive knowledge influences
Knowledge
Type
Assumed
Influence
Instrument Know Don’t
know
Metacognitive

By reflecting on their learning
and teaching, teachers need to be
able to identify key needs and
engage in planning to meet these
needs.
Interview

Document
review

0%

25%
100%

75%

The eight assumed knowledge influences that teachers need to be able to reflect on their
learning and teaching and be able to identify key needs and engage in planning to meet these
needs. Teachers need to pay attention to their practice and reflect on it with the objective to
continuously improve their practical knowledge and students learning (Villegas-Reimers, 2003).
By reflecting on teaching strategies, student learning, and curriculum, a teacher can identify his
or her own learning needs and adjust their teaching strategies (Villegas-Reimers, 2003). For
these benefits to materialize, a teacher needs to have reflective knowledge and skills (Hargreaves
& Fullan, 2012).
The assumed influence, that by reflecting on their learning and teaching, teachers need to
be able to identify key needs and engage in planning to meet these needs, was validated through
interviews and document review. The interview question asked, “Tell me about the last time you
reflected on your learning needs and teaching practice; if at all”, was used to validate this
influence. In response to this question, one teacher mentioned: “In our school, teachers rarely
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

108
self-reflect on their teaching and learning. They lack awareness and capacity to reflect.” Another
teacher noted a similar perspective: “I do not have experience of reflecting on my teaching and
learning by myself. I have no awareness about it, and this is my gap. I create my CPD plan
based on the school CPD plan provided by our principal.” Most of the interviewed teachers
indicated lack of training and education as a factor for why they are not reflective on their
learning and teaching. For instance, one teacher said, “Teachers have a weakness in this area
[reflecting on their learning and teaching]. Teachers often express their interest to get training,
education and experience sharing practice in this area. Otherwise, teachers are not reflective.”
These views were shared by most of the interviewed teachers.
Overall, none of the 16 interviewed teachers reported having knowledge and experience
of reflecting on their learning and teaching practice. The interview findings for this assumed
influence were further triangulated through document reviews. Based on the document reviews
of interviewed teachers, 75% of teachers had not self-reflected on their teaching and learning
progress in their professional portfolio. Therefore, this assumed influence was validated.
Synthesis of Results and Findings for Knowledge Influences
The results and findings from the survey, interviews, and document review revealed that
six of the seven assumed influences and one newly emerged influence were validated or partially
validated. A total of seven knowledge influences were validated. The validated causes are
presented in Table 15.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

109
Table 15
Summary of validated assumed knowledge influences
Knowledge
Type
Assumed
Cause

Validated
Partially
Validated
New
Emerged
Declarative

Declarative

Declarative

Declarative

Declarative

Procedural

Procedural

Metacognitive
Teachers need more knowledge of the
national CPD framework including the
meaning, purpose, nature, and cycle of
CPD.

Teachers need knowledge of the CPD
toolkit (a module with examples of
teachers’ CPD activity)

Teachers need knowledge of the
meaning, elements, and purpose of the
CPD portfolio.

Teachers need to understand the
characteristics of effective CPD for
them to put into practice

Teachers need to know that they are
responsible for their own CPD

Teachers need to know how to
collaborate with others via observation
and reflection to improve their own
teaching effectiveness and that of
others

Teachers need to know how to engage
in conducting action research

By reflecting on their learning and
teaching, teachers need to be able to
identify key needs and engage in
planning to meet these needs.

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

The survey results, interview findings, and document review were triangulated to validate
the assumed declarative, procedural, and metacognitive knowledge influences. Triangulation of
findings from these different sources revealed that teachers need to have knowledge and skills
related to CPD program, collaborative learning strategies, action research, and ability to reflect
and engage in effective CPD practices. Most of the respondents reported lacking awareness on
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

110
CPD framework, toolkits, and portfolio preparation. Teachers also demonstrated a lack of
procedural knowledge about engaging in conducting action research. The findings further
showed that teachers lack the metacognitive knowledge to reflect on their learning and teaching.
Though Ethiopia introduced the CPD program with good intentions, the findings of this
study indicates that it is a wasted good intention. The findings of this study further revealed that
the program introduced in 2009 was poorly implemented and left unmonitored for the last ten
years. This reality created a vacuum of knowledge in relation to implementing the CPD program
among teachers. As a result, it failed to achieve the original objectives to improve teacher’s
classroom practice and student learning outcomes. For teachers to engage in effective CPD
practice, it requires them to take responsibility for their own CPD and to have knowledge about
the CPD program, collaborative learning, action research, and engaging in reflective professional
practices. The knowledge and skills gap related to effective CPD practice were mainly caused
by organizational influences that will be discussed in this chapter.
Results and Findings for Motivation Influences
There were three assumed motivational influences that negatively impacted the full
implementation of CPD. Table 16 presents a summary of both validated and not validated
motivational influences.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

111
Table 16
Motivation influences validated, not validated.
Motivation
construct
Assumed
Influence Validated
Not
Validated
New
Influences
Utility Value

Utility Value

Self-efficacy

Teachers need to see the value of
engaging in collaborative learning as
a critical component of effective
CPD practice and in supporting
students in achieving at least basic
proficiency.

Teachers need to see the value of
engaging in action research as a
critical component of effective CPD
practice and in supporting students
in achieving at least basic
proficiency

Teachers need to believe they are
capable of effectively engaging in
action research

✓

✓

X

Several studies indicated that learning achievement and related choices are influenced by
two factors: how confident an individual is in his or her ability to succeed and the perceived
value of the task (Ambrose et al., 2010; Eccles, 2010). Eccles (2010) further explained four
dimensions of task value; referred to as intrinsic value, attainment value, utility value, and cost
value, respectively. The findings of this study were categorized into utility value and self-
efficacy.
Value
The assumed value influences consisted of two utility values. Table 17 indicates that one
assumed utility values was validated, and the other was not.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

112
Table 17
Motivational value influences not validated
Motivation
construct
Assumed
Influence
Instrument Results
Utility
Value

Utility
Value

Teachers need to see the
value of engaging in
collaborative learning as a
critical component of
effective CPD practice
and in supporting students
in achieving at least basic
proficiency.

Teachers need to see the
value of engaging in
action research as a
critical component of
effective CPD practice
and in supporting students
in achieving at least basic
proficiency

Survey/Interview

Survey/Interview

On average, over 90% of
the survey respondents and
12 of the 16 (75%)
interview participants
reported that they value
engaging in collaborative
learning

54% of interview
participants value engaging
in action research. And 69%
of teachers conducted action
research that didn’t lead to
deliberate and planned
action. And 89% of the
survey respondents value
engaging in action research

The first assumed motivational influence is that teachers need to see the value of
engaging in collaborative learning as a critical component of effective CPD practice to support
students in achieving at least basic proficiency. This influence was assessed using interviews and
teacher survey. The interview question asked, “Was your collaborative learning experience
useful? If yes, in what way do you find it useful?”. Twelve of the sixteen interview participants
indicated that their collaborative learning experience was useful and substantiated it with real
examples. One teacher asserted,
Collaborative CPD practice for a teacher is like a ‘spinal cord’ for human being. Could a
human being stand firm without a Spinal cord? Without collaborative CPD, a teacher
cannot be effective in their teaching. Therefore, I believe that collaborative learning has a
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

113
great value in improving my classroom practice, job satisfaction, relationship, trust and
respect with other teachers.
This view indicates that teachers’ strongly value collaborative learning. Another teacher
expressed a similar view on collaborative learning saying: “I believe collaborative learning is
highly important. People have different levels of knowledge and I think teachers will for
instance, benefit from exchanging experience on teaching and learning process”. A similar
belief was noted by another teacher,
I am hugely benefiting from collaborative learning. For example, my qualification and
subject matter expertise is in mathematics, but I teach all subjects including English. I
learned a lot about how to teach English by observing a class taught by a qualified
English teacher. I believe the value of this collaborative learning is worth my time.
As teachers are mostly required to teach outside their subject major, teachers see the
value of collaboratively learning from subject experts. Contrary to the above teachers’ positive
attitude towards collaborative learning experience, some teachers indicated their dissatisfaction.
These teachers expressed that there is no true collaboration among teachers and often very
limited collaboration exists only for the purpose of performance evaluation. For instance, one
teacher stated, “Collaboration in our school is almost non-existent. When we come together for
collaboration, often it becomes a play and joking time. Teachers are not persistently
collaborating. Because of this, it lost active teachers’ participation and interest”. Another
teacher shared his views on classroom observation, “Sporadically teachers collaborate in
observing each other’s classroom. It is like once a year when required by the school. Teachers
are not confident and unwilling to be observed. So, there is limited collaboration opportunity.”
A similar view stated by one of the teachers,
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

114
Our collaboration was not purposively planned. Mostly it is only to meet the requirement
of 60 hours of CPD activity. So, I am not doing it with interest. You have interest on
something when you know the goal of what you do. For instance, if there was something
like teachers who collaborated actively will get promoted or if there was supportive
environment; it creates interest in teachers to collaborate. Now there is nothing that
encourages us to initiate and we have zero interest to collaborate. If it was not obligatory,
no one would want to be engaged in collaborative learning in its current form.
The interview results were triangulated through survey questions asking teachers to rate
the impact, effectiveness, and value of their collaborative CPD activities using six survey
questions. As shown in Figure 3, in terms of CPD’s impact value, over 90% of teachers rated
their collaborative learning CPD experience as highly or somewhat impactful in improving their
knowledge, skills and attitudes, classroom practice, their students’ behavior and learning
outcomes.

Figure 3. Survey results: Impact of engaging in CPD activities.
Similarly, teachers were asked to rate the effectiveness of their CPD activities in
enhancing their professional knowledge, skills, and attitude. As shown in Figure 4, a higher
proportion of the survey respondents believe that team teaching (88%), shadowing a teacher
(86%), peer observation (89%), planning lesson together (88%), and collaborative learning
56%
59%
59%
65%
50%
62%
41%
40%
40%
29%
48%
34%
2%
1%
1%
6%
2%
4%
Improvement in my knowledge and skills
Positive change in my attitudes
Positive change in my classroom practice
Improved my students behavior
Improved my students' learning outcome
Enhanced collegiality with colleagues
Please rate the impacts of your engagement in CPD activities?
Highly Changed Somewhat Changed Not Changed
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

115
(92%) CPD activities were highly effective or somewhat effective in improving their
professional knowledge, skills, and attitude.

Figure 4. Survey results: Teachers perceived effectiveness of CPD activities.
Further, teachers were asked how strongly they agree or disagree with the following
statements: (a) I believe collaborative learning is valuable for me in supporting my students to
achieve at least basic reading proficiency, (b) I believe learning through peer collaboration worth
my time, (c) Active engagement in collaborative learning enables me to become an expert
teacher, (d) For the most part, my CPD experiences have improved my classroom practices. As
indicated in Figure 5, on average 88% of the teachers strongly agreed or agreed that collaborative
learning was valuable in supporting their students, enhancing their expertise and classroom
practices.

92%
88%
89%
86%
88%
5%
6%
8%
9%
7%
4%
6%
4%
5%
5%
Collaborative learning
Planning lessons together
Peer observation
Shadowing a teacher
Team teaching
Effectiveness of CPD activites in enhancing your professional knowledge,
skills, and attitude
Highly/somewhat effective Ineffective/Somewhat ineffective Never participated
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

116

Figure 5. Survey results: Teachers' perceived value of collaborative learning.
The interview and survey findings revealed that most of the teachers’ value collaborative
learning regardless of its limitations. Teachers expressed that their collaborative learning
opportunities is worth their time and improves their classroom practice and student learning.
Despite the claims by most of the study participants, some teachers expressed a different view
that individualism and teachers working in silo was a common practice in their school.
According to these teachers, many teachers lack interest and intermittently collaborate only for
obligatory reason. For instance, one teacher said, “teachers are not keen to collaborate. Fear and
lack of trust among teachers is forcing everyone to work alone.” One other teacher gave a
similar opinion saying, “Only new teachers ask for support or observe senior teachers out of their
interest. We mostly avoid collaboration if not mandatory. The habit of learning together is yet
to be cultivated.” According to Hargreaves and O’Connor (2017), obligatory collaborations
often happens in the form of conversations rather than action. Hence, there is a need to
strengthen collaboration among teachers through effective professional learning communities.
5%
7%
6%
6%
2%
1%
7%
12%
38%
41%
23%
41%
55%
50%
63%
40%
Better student support
Worth my time
Makes me expert teacher
Improved classroom
practice
Teachers' perceived value of collaborative learning
Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Strongly Agree
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

117
Overall, as most of the teachers value their collaborative learning experience, the assumed
influence that teachers need to value collaborative learning was not validated.
The second assumed motivational influence was that teachers need to see the value of
engaging in action research as a critical component of effective CPD practice and in supporting
students in achieving at least basic proficiency. This influence was validated using interviews,
document reviews, and survey. The interview questions used to validate this influence were,
“Tell me what you know about action research. Provide a recent example of a time when you
conducted action research? How useful was your action research experience?”. In response to
these questions, one teacher shares his experience as,
For me action research is a practice-oriented inquiry conducted by practitioners. I enjoy
conducting action research. But I wasn’t successful in doing quality action research.
There were times when we simply select a topic as a group and leave it to few members
with a better understanding about action research to write and present for us. And we all
get the same credit.
In agreement with the above views, another teacher mentioned the value of action
research in finding practical solutions. This teacher said,
Conducting action research is interesting to me. Action research uncovers the hidden. If
I had time, I would like to engage in action research with those who have in-depth
knowledge about it. Discovering something that was hidden motivates you. Because the
problem you discover through action research will get the right solution.
Contrary to the above views, one of the teachers expressed his view that, “I believe action
research has no value. To be honest, our action research participation is not with interest rather it
is to get point on our performance appraisal.” Similarly, another teacher plainly stated, “In
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

118
principle I value action research. But, not the one we are doing. Our action research studies were
only for the shelf. Other than making us busy, it didn’t help us improve our classroom practice
and student learning” Teachers who refuted the benefit of action research, do not see action
research as a form of professional development. These teachers need to understand that action
research supports the opportunity to collaborate, learn together without predetermined point of
view, ability to engage in data driven decision making, and facilitates change. Seven of the
thirteen (54%) teachers who were interviewed and had experience of conducting action research
indicated that it was a useful experience to address teaching and learning problems through
inquiry. Six (46%) teachers indicated that it was not a useful experience. Though over half of
the teachers expressed that engaging in action research was valuable in supporting their students
to achieve at least basic proficiency; almost half indicated the opposite.
To triangulate the interview findings, the second assumed motivation influence was also
verified using survey questions. In one of the survey questionnaires, teachers were asked how
strongly they agree or disagree with the statement: “I believe engaging in action research is
valuable for me in supporting my students to achieve at least basic proficiency.” As depicted in
Figure 6, among 82 survey participants 73 (89%) teachers strongly agreed or agreed that
engaging in action research is valuable to support their students to achieve at least basic
proficiency.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

119

Figure 6. Survey results: Teachers who value engaging in action research.
Though the survey results showed a higher percentage of teachers perceived a significant
value of engaging in action research, the participant interviews revealed that a significant
percentage of teachers don’t value their action research experience. Further, from the document
review findings about 69% of teachers were not engaged in action research that lead to deliberate
and planned action. Regardless of a higher perceived motivational value in survey results, the
document review and interviews findings indicate that many teachers do not value or engage in
action research. Therefore, this assumed influence is validated.
Self-Efficacy
As indicated in Table 18, the assumed motivational influence in relation to self-efficacy
found that teachers are not confident in their capability to effectively engage in action research
was validated.

7%
4%
32%
57%
Strongly Disagree
Agree
I belive engaging in action research is valuable in supporting my
students to acheive at least basic proficiency
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

120
Table 18
Motivational Self-efficacy influence validated
Motivation
Construct
Assumed
Influence Instrument Results
Self-
efficacy

Teachers need to
believe they are
capable of effectively
engaging in action
research

Survey

Interview

79% of the survey respondents
reported that they do not feel
confident in their capability to
effectively engage in action research

14 of 16 (87%) of the interview
participants reported that they do not
feel confident in their capability to
effectively engage in action research

The assumed motivational self-efficacy influence is that teachers need to believe they are
capable of effectively engaging in action research, which was validated based on the interview
findings and survey results. The interview question: “Can you describe how confident you are
about your ability to conduct action research?” was used to validate this influence. In response
to this question, most of the teachers reported that they are not confident in their ability to
conduct action research. For instance, one teacher described,
To speak the truth, I have never conducted action research by myself. We are usually
assigned to conduct action research in a group. In a group, some teachers are capable to
conduct research and the rest of us learn from them. Personally, I am not yet confident in
my ability to conduct action research by myself. We lack proper training on it.
As teacher lack confidence to conduct action research, social loafing is a common trend.
That means teachers exert less effort to actively participate in a group action research, and only
few with the confidence to conduct action research take in charge. Another teacher shared a
similar perspective of lacking capacity to conduct action research. This teacher explained,
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

121
In college, we learned about action research from someone one with practical experience.
After college, there was no opportunity to improve our capacity on action research. We
have a capacity gap to conduct action research. I am not confident in my ability to fully
undertake action research. But I must do it as it is part of our performance evaluation.
Fourteen of the sixteen (87%) interview respondents indicated that they do not feel
confident in their ability to conduct action research. To triangulate the interview findings, this
assumed self-efficacy influence was also verified using survey. In the survey, teachers were
asked how strongly they agree or disagree with the statement: “I am confident in my ability to
conduct action research.” As shown in Figure 7, among teachers surveyed 79% strongly
disagreed or disagreed indicating that they do not feel confident in their ability to conduct action
research. The survey results supported the interview findings. Therefore, this assumed self-
efficacy influence was validated.

Figure 7. Survey results: Confident in ability to conduct action research.
Synthesis of Results and Findings for Motivation Influences
The results and findings indicated that two of the three assumed motivational influences
were validated. The validated influences are illustrated in Table 19.
20%
59%
22%
0%
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Agree
Strongly Agree
I am confident in my ability to conduct action research
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

122
Table 19
Motivational influences validated
Motivation
construct
Assumed
Influence Validated
Utility Value

Self-efficacy

Teachers need to see the value of engaging in
action research as a critical component of
effective CPD practice and in supporting
students in achieving at least basic
proficiency

Teachers need to believe they are capable of
effectively engaging in action research.

✓

✓

Detailed analysis of the interview findings and document reviews revealed that several
teachers do not see the value of engaging in action research and most teachers expressed that
they neither see the value nor feel confident to effectively engage in action research. Several
respondents indicated that they have limited understanding about action research and do not feel
confident in their ability to conduct action research on their own. Mostly teachers used to be
assigned to conduct action research as a group. In a group setting, only a few teachers had the
ability to engage themselves in the actual action research process. Yet, everyone counts it
towards their 60 hours of CPD and gets equal points on it regardless of their level of
contribution.
The study findings are consistent with prior studies regarding using action research as an
effective professional development tool. In their early career, it is common that teachers lack
confidence to conduct their own action research (Zepeda, 2008). According to Zepeda (2008) it
is a misunderstanding to use action research as a measuring tools for teacher evaluation instead
of it being a professional development tool. From the interview findings, this misunderstanding
prevails in this study of targeted schools.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

123
Results and Findings for Organizational Assumed Influences
There were 4 assumed organizational influences identified in chapter 2. Three of these
assumed organizational influences were validated. And one was partially validated. The
assumed influences have been categorized into collaborative culture, supportive leadership,
resources, and professional development. Table 20 summarized these results.
Table 20
Organizational influences validated and partially validated
Organizational
Influence
Category

Assumed
Influence

Validated

Partially
Validated
Collaborative
Learning Culture

Supportive
leadership

Resources

Professional
development

The school needs to cultivate and embrace
a culture of collaborative learning.

The school and district leadership need to
be supportive of teachers’ engagement in
action research and collaborative learning
as examples of CPD.

The district needs to allocate adequate
resource and provide sufficient time to
facilitate and encourage teachers to be
engaged in action research and
collaborative learning.

The district needs to provide appropriate
training in the area of collaborative
learning and action research.

✓

✓

✓

✓

Collaborative Learning Culture Influence
As shown in Table 21, collaborative learning culture influence was partially validated.
As this influence was only validated through interviews and is considered partially validated.
Table 21
Partially validates collaborative learning culture
Type Assumed Instrument Results
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

124
Influence
Collaborative
learning
culture

The school needs to
cultivate and embrace a
culture of collaborative
learning

Interview

Survey

11 of the 16 (69%) teachers who
participated in the interview
indicated absence of strong
collaborative learning culture

79% of the survey respondents
strongly agreed or agreed that
their school encourages and have
a strong collaborative learning
culture

Over the last two decades, education systems have become more familiar about the
need to move from a culture of individualism to a culture of collaboration (Hargreaves &
O'Connor, 2017). However, it is common to see a move towards the wrong type of
collaboration. Effective collaboration involves quality data and good decision-making, open and
respectful professional discourse, more considerate feedback, more collective responsibility for
each other’s results, and more bold engagement with clear visions of education that will support
individuals to become change architects for themselves and others (Hargreaves & O'Connor,
2017).
The first organizational influence that the school needs to cultivate and embrace culture
of collaborative learning, was verified through interview and survey findings. The interview
question, “What comes to your mind when you think of collaborative learning?” and a related
probe question was used to validate this influence. One teacher shared, “We spend most of our
time in classrooms. I teach five sections with up to 70 students per section. So, where is the time
for collaboration?” According to one of the teachers: “Collaborative learning is educating each
other in topics relevant to our teaching. For example, I could train teachers in the area of my
expertise and likewise learn from colleagues. However, a collaborative learning culture in our
school is too weak.” Another teacher with a similar view said, “There is no such thing as
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

125
organized culture of collaborative learning in our school. There were only some individual
efforts of collaborative learning. Collaborative learning as a culture of the school does not exist.”
The following quote from another teacher further substantiates lack of collaborative learning
culture in study schools:
In our school, the collaborative learning culture is not that common; it is weak. It is weak
because of lack of awareness and time. We teach in the morning and afternoon shifts.
And on Saturday morning, we provide tutorial class for our students. So, there is no time
for collaborative learning and therefore has remained weak.
According to the interview findings, teachers’ workload was one factor for weak
collaborative learning culture. Though teachers value collaborative learning, there is no
sufficient time for teachers to collaborate. Another teacher shared the ineffectiveness of top-
down and imposed collaborative school culture saying,
Collaboration in our school is at times imposed on us to railroad political agenda through
teachers. To give you an example, there was a 1:5 network introduced by the
government. In this model, five teachers are grouped and regularly meet to discuss and
share information. Though the programs intent was to promote learning and best
practices among the faculty, the discussion agendas were mostly with a political motive.
Hence, it failed to create collaborative school culture.
According to the interviews, the formal teacher collaboration mechanisms introduced by
the government was exploitive. Another teacher explained, “Collaborative learning in our school
is overly limited to informal and superficial talks with no exchange of innovative ideas and
materials. The formal ones were mostly top-down and don’t have teacher buy-in.” When
collaborative school culture is widely informal it can become weak and fuzzy. Equally, if there
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

126
is no attention to the informal collaborative school culture, collaboration can become
inconvenient, fake, and even exploitive (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012). Eleven of the 16
interviewed teachers reported absence of strong collaborative learning culture in their school.
The collaborative learning culture influence was also assessed through a teacher survey.
As presented in Figure 8, the teachers surveyed asked to rate how strong they agree or disagree
with two statements: “The culture of our school encourages collaborative learning” and “We
have a strong collaborative learning culture at our school”. According to the survey result, 79%
of the teachers strongly agreed or agreed that their school encourages and has a strong
collaborative learning culture.
The interview findings and survey results do not support each other. Though, this
assumed culture of collaborative learning influence was not validated through survey, the
interviews clearly validated it. Although the results of the survey indicated that teachers felt that
there was collaborative learning culture, the findings from interviews indicated that there is
limited culture of collaborative learning. This may be one constraint of a survey because the
surveys were conducted using ratings on scales. In the interviews, teachers more fully and
validly expressed their views due to clarifying questions and probes used by the researcher.
Therefore, it is concluded that the views of the interview participants indicate that there is no
strong culture of collaborative learning in their schools. Therefore, this assumed culture of
collaborative learning influence is partially validated.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

127
Supportive Leadership Influences
As shown in Table 22, one organizational influence was validated for supportive
leadership.
Table 22
Validated supportive leadership assumed influence
Type
Assumed
Influence Instrument Results
Supportive
leadership

The district and school
leadership need to be
supportive of teachers’
engagement in action
research and
collaborative learning
as examples of CPD

Interview

Survey

Most of the 16 interviewed
teachers (13 for school leadership
and 15 for district leadership)
mentioned that their school and
district leadership were not
supportive in their action research
engagement and collaborative
learning as examples of CPD.

68% and 73% of the survey
respondents strongly disagreed or
disagreed that they have support
in their action research
engagement from school principal
and district cluster supervisor;
respectively.

Leadership plays a crucial role in supporting teachers in becoming collaborative
professionals and action researchers by helping to create different steps of implementation.
Leaders can enhance collaborative learning culture by developing trust and building
relationships. The leadership can also support teachers in their action research engagement.
These supports include helping teachers to identify the purpose of the research and recommend
ways the project will improve student learning achievements through the following steps:
selecting primary and secondary sources that the teachers will research, developing a schedule,
defining the project scope, assisting in study and analysis of materials for the project, and
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

128
interpreting and acting upon the findings. Leaders can be effective in their support of successful
action research by collaborating with teachers on the various steps. For instance, the leader
could facilitate reflection with the aim to help guide the teacher to a manageable action research
project.
The second organizational assumed influence identified is that the school leadership
needs to be supportive of teachers’ engagement in action research and collaborative learning as
an example of CPD and was validated through survey and interviews. The interview questions,
“Is there anything more that you would like to share about teachers CPD practice in Ethiopia?”
and probe: “how supportive is the school and district leadership in your action research and
collaborative learning practice?” were used to validate this influence. A view shared by many
teachers was shared by one teacher who mentioned, “Our CPD activities became ineffective.
The reason is that it has no owner. Our CPD is now like a ‘child with no father’. There is no
leadership with capacity to provide support to teachers in their CPD activities.” Another teacher
further explained, “…. there is no capable leadership to give direction on CPD activities. The
leadership lacks knowledge and skill to support teachers’ CPD activities”. This notion was also
shared by another teacher, “Collaborative learning is not common in our school. The main
reason is that there is no leadership support. Also, leaders barely allocate time, material and
financial resource for teachers to collaborate and conduct action research.”
Another teacher indicated that the leadership support is only on paper as provided in CPD
framework. This teacher shared,
If leadership support was provided as per the policy provision, CPD could have been
effective. However, it was not implemented as provided in the policy. CPD has
ownership problem. When leadership is asked for support, their response is usually ‘I
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

129
don’t know. Due to lack of proper training, the leadership lacks capacity to provide
ongoing feedback and support.
In support of the lack of leadership support, another teacher argued that school principals
and cluster supervisors discourage rather than support the teachers. This teacher stated,
our principal and school supervisor care only about checking the box about the type and
number of hours of CPD we were engaged in. They do not care about the impact of the
CPD we are doing. Often, principal and supervisors evaluate our CPD simply to criticize
us instead of providing us support. They only need data about number of CPD
participants and hours to report to the district education office. As a result, teachers’
commitment towards CPD is now significantly low.
Almost all teachers indicated absence of district leadership and cluster supervisor support
to their CPD activities. The following quote from one teacher was shared by most of the
interview respondents:
We don’t have full understanding about action research and CPD in general. I think
addressing this awareness issue shouldn’t be left to school principals and teachers. I
believe that we could improve the current practice, if district leadership and other
concerned actors provide us the necessary support in this area.
The interview findings about assumed school and district leadership support influence
were triangulated through survey questions. In the survey teachers were asked to rate how strong
they agree or disagree that their school principal was supportive in their action research
engagement and collaborative learning among teachers. The survey result revealed that on
average 68% of teachers strongly disagreed or disagreed that their school principal was
supportive in their action research engagement and collaborative learning.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

130
Similarly, teachers were asked to rate how strong they believe that their cluster supervisor
was supportive in their action research engagement. As depicted in Figure 8, the majority (73%)
of teachers reported that they strongly disagree or disagree that the cluster supervisor was
supportive.

Figure 8. Survey results: Supportive district leadership/cluster supervisor.
To summarize, most of the teachers mentioned that their school and district leadership
were not supportive in their action research engagement and collaborative learning. From the
interview findings, it was found that leaders lack the necessary knowledge of CPD to provide
appropriate support for teachers. The study participants also indicate that the leadership fails to
allocate the necessary resources for CPD program. These findings indicate that the district and
school leadership do not do enough to ensure effective implementation of CPD program. There
is inadequate participation of school principals and district leadership in teachers’ CPD activities.
Therefore, both survey results and interview findings revealed that there is a lack of school and
district leadership support in teachers’ action research engagement and collaborative learning.
Therefore, this assumed organizational influence of supportive leadership is validated.
16%
57%
21%
6%
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Agree
Strongly Agree
Cluster Supervisor is Supportive in Teachers' Action
Research Engagement (% of teachers)
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

131
Resource Influences
As indicated in Table 23 below, one organizational influence was validated.

Table 23
Validated assumed resource influences
Type
Assumed
Influence Instrument Results
Resources

The district needs to
allocate adequate
resources and provide
sufficient time to
facilitate and encourage
teachers to be engaged
in action research and
collaborative learning.

Interview

Survey

Document
review
14 of the 16 teachers indicated
that their schools do not provide
adequate time to participate in
their CPD activities including
collaborative learning and action
research

93% and 100% of the survey
respondents strongly disagreed or
disagreed that their schools
provide enough time to
participate in collaborative
learning and action research;
respectively.

Moreover, 78% and 80% of the
survey respondents strongly
disagreed or disagreed that their
district allocates adequate
resources to facilitate teachers’
active engagement in action
research and collaborative
learning; respectively.

69% of the 16 teachers whose
document reviewed had no CPD
resources including the
framework, toolkit, portfolio
purpose document, and CPD
modules.

The third organization influence finding is that the district needs to allocate adequate
resources and provide sufficient time to facilitate and encourage teachers to be engaged in action
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

132
research and collaborative learning, which was validated through three sources including:
interviews, survey, and document reviews. Fourteen of the 16 interviewed teachers revealed that
their schools do not allocate adequate time to CPD activities. For instance, one teacher shared,
“There is no time allocated for CPD activities and teachers are expected to use their after-school
time for their CPD. Most teachers are reluctant to stay after school and are not willing to do it
over weekends.” The CPD framework suggests that CPD activities occur during ‘CPD Days’ in
which students would not be present and teachers would focus on planned CPD activities.
Despite the policy provision, there is no planned time for teachers to do CPD. The following
quotation taken from one of the teachers, reflects views held by most of the teachers,
I feel shortage of time is the main cause for ineffective CPD activities in our school. If
adequate time was given to CPD, we could have effectively practiced it. For me, time is
the biggest setback in my CPD engagement. During school hours, we are busy teaching.
After school, we have our own personal life and family. I very much wish that we were
given adequate time to engage in our CPD.
Several teachers mentioned time as one of the main challenges to their effective CPD
practice. Another teacher reaffirmed,
Shortage of time remained a bottleneck to effective CPD practice. In our context, we
have a workload. We teach in a double shift system. If it was one shift, we could have
enough time for CPD practice. Currently, we are using our weekends to engage on
collaborative CPD. This conflicts with individual teachers also scheduling tutorial class
over the weekends. It would be more fruitful if there is a regular weekly schedule like
every Friday afternoon dedicated to CPD engagement.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

133
Further, the interviews revealed the lack of adequate budgets, materials, CPD modules
and guidelines as bottlenecks to teachers’ CPD practice. For instance, one teacher explained:
There are some factors that made us not to achieve our target in CPD. One of these
factors was lack of teaching aids and other materials required to practice CPD. There are
no support materials from the district or other actors. For instance, we don’t get basic
items like paper and other supplies to work on. We buy such things out of our pocket.
In a context where teacher salary is already very low, it is unrealistic to expect teachers
buying materials themselves for effective CPD practices. Another teacher stated, “In school
resource allocation, CPD is not a priority. It is up to individual teachers to practice within their
means. In my experience, as there is no CPD earmarked budget provided by the district, it is
poorly implemented.”
The interview findings were triangulated through survey and document reviews. As
shown in Figure 9, the survey results indicate that in all cases most of the teachers strongly
disagreed or disagreed that there is sufficient time and adequate resources allocated for teachers
to engage in action research and facilitate collaborative learning among teachers.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

134

Figure 9. Survey results: Adequate resource allocated, and Sufficient time provided.
The survey results and interview findings about the assumed influence was that the
district needs to allocate adequate resources to facilitate and encourage teachers to be engaged in
action research and collaborative learning. The need for more adequate resources and time
allocated for CPD activities was further substantiated by the document review. The document
review finding revealed that 11 (69%) of the 16 teachers whose document reviewed had no CPD
resources including the framework, toolkit, portfolio purpose document, and CPD modules. The
interview findings, survey results, and document review analysis revealed that the district and
schools do not allocate adequate time and resources for teachers to participate in CPD practice
including action research engagement and collaborative learning. Therefore, the assumed
organizational influence is that the district needs to allocate adequate resources and provide
sufficient time to facilitate and encourage teachers to be engaged in action research and
collaborative learning is validated.
Professional Development Influences
As shown in Table 24, one professional development influence was validated.

44%
76%
48%
49%
49%
24%
32%
29%
7%
12%
13%
9%
9%
Adequate time to Participate in
collaborative learning
Adequate time to conduct action
research
Adequate resource to facilitate
collaborative learning
Adequate resource for action research
Adequacy of resource allocation
Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Strongly Agree
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

135
Table 24
Validated assumed professional development influence

Type
Assumed
Influence

Instrument

Results
Professional
development

The district needs to
provide appropriate
training in the area of
collaborative learning
and action research

Interview

Survey

15 of the 16 interviewed teachers
indicated that they did not receive
appropriate training on action
research and collaborative
learning.

a. 77% of the survey
respondents strongly
disagreed or disagreed that
they received need-based
training.
b. 91% of the survey
respondents strongly
disagreed or disagreed that
their school provides on-
going CPD opportunity
c. 94% of the survey
respondents strongly
disagreed or disagreed that
their school provides
sustained CPD opportunity.

The fourth organizational influence that was validated through interview and survey
responses is that the district needs to provide appropriate training in the area of collaborative
learning and action research. Two interview questions: “Is there anything more that you would
like to share about teachers CPD practice in Ethiopia?” and “What makes CPD ineffective?”
were used to validate this organizational influence. In response to these questions, all
interviewed teachers except one indicated a lack of proper professional development as one of
their challenges to actively engage in their CPD activities. One teacher clearly explained this
saying,
As per the national policy, the aim of CPD is to improve our professional capacity. At
this moment, we have no interest in CPD as we were not able to see the benefits of it. In
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

136
my view, the main problem is that teachers’ lack understanding of the CPD program. For
instance, no one has a clear understanding about action research. In our school, there was
no training, proper follow-up, or feedback mechanism to improve teachers’ CPD practice.
These gaps need to be addressed for it to be effective.
This view implies that the absence of training and on job coaching was one the
challenges for teachers to successfully engage in effective CPD practices. No proper awareness
on CPD was created among teachers. Furthering this notion, another teacher shared,
there is no CPD understanding among teachers. Five years ago, some of us participated
in a CPD workshop that covered collaborative learning and action research topics. Other
than that one-time training, I have not seen ongoing training and technical support on
CPD. To make CPD effective, ongoing awareness needs to be created through
appropriate training by a qualified trainer and clear manuals and guidelines need to be
produced and provided to all teachers.
The interview findings for the assumed professional development influence was
triangulated through the survey. In the survey teachers were asked to rate how significant they
agree or disagree that they received need-based, on-going, and sustained CPD training
opportunities. Figure 10 shows that most of the teachers did not receive need-based (77%), on-
going (91%), and sustained (94%) CPD opportunities.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

137

Figure 10. Survey results: Received professional development opportunity.
Knowledge and skills are fundamental to work performance. Equipping people with the
necessary skills does require a provision of appropriate information, training, and education
(Clark & Estes, 2008). The training provided should be intensive, ongoing, and connected to
practice (Stoll et al., 2012). Based on the interview and survey findings, most of the teachers
indicated that they were not given ongoing and sustained training opportunity on collaborative
learning and action research. Some teachers indicated receiving a one-time workshop which
researchers indicated is ineffective to influence teachers practices and student learning (Darling-
Hammond et al., 2009). Therefore, this assumed organizational influence that the district needs
to provide appropriate training in the area of collaborative learning and action research is
validated.
Synthesis of Organizational Results and Findings
The results and findings from the survey, interviews, and document review revealed that
3 of the 4 assumed influences were fully validated. And one organizational influence was
partially validated. The validated influences are presented in Table 25.
37%
41%
43%
40%
50%
51%
17%
6%
5%
6%
2%
1
Need based training received
On-going CPD opportunity
Sustained CPD
Professional development opportunity
Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Strongly Agree
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

138
Table 25
Summary of validated and partially validated assumed influences
Organizational
influence
category
Assumed
Influence Validated
Partially
Validated
Collaborative
Culture

Supportive
leadership

Resources

Professional
development
The school needs to cultivate and embrace a
culture of collaborative learning

The school and district leadership need to be
supportive of teachers’ engagement in action
research and collaborative learning as examples
of CPD

The district needs to allocate adequate resources
and provide sufficient time to facilitate and
encourage teachers to be engaged in action
research and collaborative learning.

The district needs to provide appropriate
training in the area of collaborative learning and
action research.

✓

✓

✓
✓

No matter how motivated, knowledgeable, and skillful individuals may be, inadequate
materials and processes can fail them to achieve their performance goals (Clark & Estes, 2008).
In this study, organizational influences including; collaborative culture, supportive leadership,
resources, and professional development were examined. The survey results, interview findings,
and document review were triangulated to validate these organizational influences.
Triangulation of findings from these different sources revealed that although there is some
practice of collaborative learning among teachers, it is not strong and does not exist as a part of
the organizational culture. The findings suggest that the leadership is unsupportive mainly due
to their own limited knowledge about CPD. The study participants also reported shortage of
time, lack of adequate resources, and absence of intensive training opportunity on CPD as a
critical challenge to their CPD engagement.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

139
Conclusion
The survey results, interviews, and document review findings were triangulated to
validate the assumed KMO influences identified in chapter 2. Though in most cases, the survey
results supports the interviews and document review findings, for some knowledge and
motivation influences they do not support each other. This may be one constraint of a survey
because the surveys were conducted using ratings on scales. In the interviews, teachers more
fully and validly expressed their views due to clarifying questions and probes used by the
researcher.
Overwhelmingly, the study validated all the knowledge, motivation, and organizational
needs identified; except one. The assumed motivation influence that teachers need to see the
value of engaging in collaborative learning was not validated. The study found that the major
challenges to teachers’ effective CPD engagement related to organizational influences. The study
findings also revealed that teachers lack declarative knowledge of the national CPD framework,
toolkits, portfolio preparation, and characteristics of effective CPD. Though the Ethiopian
government introduced CPD with good intention, the study revealed that the program has been
under implementation without stakeholder’s adequate knowledge about it. As shared by most of
the study participants, CPD was imposed on teachers without creating adequate understanding of
the purpose and know-how of the program. As a result, there was narrow understanding and
misconception about CPD among teachers. For instance, teachers reported having limited
knowledge and expertise on collaborative learning through observation, reflection, and action
research. Similarly, several respondents indicated that they have limited understanding about
professional inquiry and do not feel confident in their ability to conduct action research. Due to
this limited understanding and low self-efficacy about CPD, many teachers developed the feeling
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

140
that CPD is only to make them busy and irrelevant to their professionalism. The study findings
also revealed organizational gaps including unsupportive leadership, poor professional
collaboration, lack of resources, and training opportunities in the area of CPD. The teachers
identified absence of ownership as a critical challenge to effectively practice their CPD. In this
regard, the study participants perceived that the school principals and cluster supervisors lack
competency to provide valuable feedback on their CPD practice. The principals and supervisors
usually focus on collecting how many teachers and hours of CPD was practiced regardless of its
effectiveness in improving teacher’s classroom practice and students learning outcome. Hence,
the leadership was unsupportive to ensure effective teachers’ CPD engagement. Further, the
study suggested that the leadership was not allocating adequate time and resource to facilitate
CPD implementation, training, monitoring, and evaluation. Overall, these validated
organizational influences were found the main causes for teachers’ knowledge and skills deficit
and low self-efficacy. Hence, solutions that focused on addressing organizational influences
could also solve the knowledge and skills and motivation related factors. Table 26 below
summarizes the research questions and the knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences
and responses that addressed the research questions of this study.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

141
Table 26

Summary of Validated Knowledge, Motivation, and Organizational Influences and Response to
Research Questions

Research Question Response or Validated KMO influence
Research Question 1: To what extent
is BDEO meeting its goal of 100%
teachers successfully engaging in
effective CPD practice?

Most of the study participants revealed that they were
not successfully engaging in effective CPD practice.
As an example, a typical view shared by many
teachers was that, “Due to lack of understanding
about CPD, we do not seriously engage in CPD. We
simply chat and count that towards our 60 hours of
CPD commitment. How could a teacher be expected
to engage in effective CPD practice without adequate
knowledge about it?”. Similarly, another teacher
shared, ““I feel there is a misunderstanding in
teachers thinking that CPD practice should lead to
promotion, transfers, and salary increase. Being this
was not the case; teachers gradually became reluctant
to engage in effective CPD practice.”
Research Question 2: What are the
knowledge, motivation, and
organizational challenges for BDEO's
teachers to successfully engage in
effective CPD practice?
Teachers need knowledge of the national CPD
framework including the meaning, purpose, nature,
and cycle of CPD. (Declarative Knowledge)

Teachers need knowledge of the CPD toolkit (a
module with examples of teachers’ CPD activity).
(Declarative Knowledge)

Teachers need knowledge of the meaning, elements,
and purpose of portfolio. (Declarative Knowledge)

Teachers need to understand the characteristics of
effective CPD for them to put into practice.
(Declarative Knowledge)

Teachers need to know that they are responsible for
their own CPD. (Declarative Knowledge)

Teachers need to know how to collaborate with
others via observation and reflection to improve their
own teaching effectiveness and that of others.
(Procedural Knowledge)

Teachers need to know how to engage in conducting
action research. (Procedural Knowledge)

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

142
Table 26, continued
Research Question Response or Validated KMO influence
Research Question 2: What are the
knowledge, motivation, and
organizational challenges for BDEO's
teachers to successfully engage in
effective CPD practice?
By reflecting on their learning and teaching, teachers
need to be able to identify key needs and engage in
planning to meet these needs.
(Metacognitive Knowledge)

Teachers need to see the value of engaging in action
research as a critical component of effective CPD
practice and in supporting students in achieving at
least basic proficiency. (Value Motivation)

Teachers need to believe they are capable of
effectively engaging in action research.
(Self-efficacy Motivation)

The school needs to cultivate and embrace a culture
of collaborative learning. (Collaborative Culture
Organizational)

The school and district leadership need to be
supportive of teachers’ engagement in action research
and collaborative learning as examples of CPD.
(Supportive Leadership Organizational)

The district needs to allocate adequate resources and
provide sufficient time to facilitate and encourage
teachers to be engaged in action research and
collaborative learning. (Resource Organizational)

The district needs to provide appropriate training in
the area of collaborative learning and action research.
(Professional Development Organizational)

In analyzing the research questions posed and the results and findings of the study, it is
evident that BDEO teachers were not successfully engaged in effective CPD practice. Hence,
BDEO is not meeting its goal of 100% teachers successfully engaging in effective CPD. This
study aimed to better understand the knowledge and skills, motivation, and organizational
influences of the teachers in closing the achievement gap for BDEO teachers to improve their
classroom practice and student learning outcomes. As presented in Table 26, the critical
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

143
challenges for BDEO’s teachers to successfully engage in effective CPD practice includes
deficiency of declarative, procedural, and metacognitive knowledge as well as a lack of
supportive leadership, time, resources, and training. Additionally, low individual and collective
teachers’ self-efficacy and absence of collaborative school culture were key impediments.
Among the KMO challenges, organizational influences including absence of collaborative
culture, unsupportive leadership, lack of resources, and professional development opportunities
were the main causes for teachers’ ineffective CPD engagement. An in-depth discussion and
literature review will be presented in Chapter 5, and research-based solutions will be developed
for priority validated influences as an answer to research question 3, “What are the potential
knowledge, motivation, and organization solutions to enable all BDEO's teachers to be actively
engaged in effective CPD practice?” Chapter 5 will also present the implementation and
evaluation plan of the proposed solutions.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

144
CHAPTER FIVE: SOLUTIONS, IMPLEMENTATION, AND EVALUATION
The purpose of this chapter is to propose solutions for the validated knowledge,
motivation, and organizational influences presented in Chapter 4. The Clark and Estes (2008)
KMO Model was used to evaluate the extent to which BDEO is meeting its goal of 100%
teachers successfully engaging in effective CPD practice. This study identified and then
validated assumed knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences, as shown in Table 27,
that enables teachers’ successful engagement in effective CPD practice. These assumed
influences were initially identified based on literature on effective CPD practices. The influences
were then validated through survey and interviews of teachers and document reviews.
Chapter Five responds to the third research question guiding this study, “What are the
potential knowledge, motivation, and organization solutions to enable all BDEO's teachers to be
actively engaged in effective CPD practice?” This chapter is organized into four main sections.
The first section presents the validated influences with proposed solution. The second section
provides solutions based on the validated KMO influences. The third section outlines the
implementation plan to execute solutions proposed to address the key validated knowledge,
motivation, and organizational needs. The fourth section will present evaluation plan based on
Guskey’s (2000) five levels of evaluation, which provides direction for implementing the
recommended solutions and measuring progress towards targeted results.
Validated Influences and Solutions
Data analysis in Chapter four revealed the assumed knowledge, motivation, and
organizational influences that were validated. The validated needs along with its appropriate
category is presented in table 27. There is a total of fourteen validated influences: eight
validated knowledge influences, two validated motivation influences, and four validated
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

145
organization influences. In a full gap analysis solution must address all validated influences,
thus proposed solutions were developed for all 14 validated influences. Among the proposed
solutions, some are comprehensive in nature to address more than one validated influence.
Table 27
Validated Influences and Proposed Solutions
Influence
Category Validated influence Solution
Declarative
Knowledge
Teachers need more knowledge of
the national CPD framework
(describing meaning, nature, purpose,
and cycle of CPD).
Provide relevant and quality job aids
(Clark & Estes, 2008) including
CPD framework, toolkit,
professional portfolio guideline,
professional learning communities
(PLC) protocols, and other
supplementary CPD materials.
Teachers need knowledge of the CPD
toolkit (a module with examples of
teachers’ CPD activity)
Teachers need knowledge of the
meaning, elements, and purpose of
CPD portfolio.
Teachers need to know that they are
responsible for their own CPD.
Teachers need to understand the
characteristics of effective CPD for
them to put into practice
Provide hands-on training and
coaching related to effective CPD
practices including collaborative,
reflective, and professional enquiry-
based learning. (Clark & Estes,
2008; Darling-Hammond et al.,
2009)

Observing or use of Models and
Modeling (Darling-Hammond et al.,
2017; Pajares, 2010)
Procedural
Knowledge
Teachers need to know how to
collaborate with others via
observation and reflection to improve
their own teaching effectiveness and
that of others.
Teachers need to know how to
engage in conducting action research
Metacognitive
knowledge
By reflecting on their learning and
teaching, teachers need to be able to
identify key needs and engage in
planning to meet these needs.
Motivation:
Utility Value
Teachers need to see the value of
engaging in action research as a
critical component of effective CPD
Show relevance of the task
(Ambrose et al., 2010; Pintrich,
2003).
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

146
practice and in supporting students in
achieving at least basic proficiency.
Modeling values, passion and
interest in the task (Ambrose et al.,
2010; Eccles, 2010; Pajares, 2010)

Provide intangible incentives for
very challenging performance level
(Clark & Estes, 2008).

Motivation:
Self-efficacy
Teachers need to believe they are
capable of effectively engaging in
action research and collaborative
learning

Dividing the task at hand into small
steps, and setting short-term,
challenging but attainable
goals (Ambrose et al., 2010; Dembo
& Seli, 2016; Pajares, 2010).

Provide frequent and effort focused
feedback on the strategy, and praise
efforts to build teachers’ confidence
(Ambrose et al., 2010; Clark &
Estes, 2008; Pajares, 2010)

Cultural
Model:
Collaborative
Culture
(Organizational
Influence)
The school needs to cultivate and
embrace a culture of collaborative
learning
Create professional learning
communities (PLC) (DuFour R. ,
2004; DuFour & Reeves, 2016)

Leadership involvement in teachers’
professional development (Stoll et
al., 2012)

Align the organizational structure
and processes with business goals
(Clark & Estes, 2008).

Provide relevant and quality job aids
(Clark & Estes, 2008) including
CPD framework, toolkit,
professional portfolio guideline,
professional learning communities
(PLC) protocols, and other
supplementary CPD materials.

Provide hands-on training and
coaching related to effective CPD
practices including collaborative,
reflective, and professional enquiry-
based learning. (Clark & Estes,
2008; Darling-Hammond et al.,
2009)

Cultural
Model:
Supportive
leadership
(Organizational
Influence)
The district and school leadership
need to be supportive of teachers’
engagement in action research and
collaborative learning as examples of
CPD
Cultural
Setting:
Resource
(Organizational
Influence)
The district and school need to
allocate adequate resources and
provide enough time to facilitate and
encourage teachers to be engaged in
action research and collaborative
learning
Cultural
Setting:
Professional
Development
(Organizational
Influence)
The district needs to provide
appropriate training in the area of
collaborative learning and action
research

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

147
Solutions for Knowledge Influences
The study findings presented in Chapter 4 suggested that teachers need to have clear
understanding about the CPD programme. Most of the teachers mentioned lack of clear
understanding about the program as the major hindering factor for teachers’ successful
engagement in effective CPD practice. According to Clark and Estes (2008), when individuals
do not know how to perform a task it requires knowledge and skill improvement. Knowledge
and skills could be enhanced through information, job aids, and training. Relevant information
about their task could be an adequate solution to fill the knowledge and skill gap; when
individuals could succeed practicing on their own. The next higher-level solution is job-aids.
Job-aids are appropriate when individuals require reminders like checklist of processes or steps
to perform a task without guided practice. Training is an appropriate solution when individuals
need procedural knowledge and skills and corrective feedback to accomplish their performance
goals (Clark & Estes, 2008).
In line with the most current findings in knowledge and skill research, three solutions are
proposed for validated knowledge influences: (a) Develop and provide relevant and quality job
aids including CPD framework, toolkit, and the purpose of professional portfolio manuals, (b)
Provide hands-on training and coaching related to effective CPD practices including
collaborative, reflective, and professional enquiry-based learning, and (c) Utilize models and
modeling.
Develop and provide relevant and quality CPD materials
In Chapter 4, declarative knowledge influences that teachers need knowledge of the
national CPD framework, toolkit, professional portfolio, and the responsibility for their own
CPD were validated. Significant number of teachers reported neither having access to these
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

148
centrally prescribed CPD resources, nor adequate information about the program. BDEO did
not communicated and shared these important CPD resources with teachers. As a result, the
teachers reported having knowledge deficit about CPD program. Moreover, teachers who had
access to these CPD resources indicated that it is too generic to influence their subject and
pedagogical knowledge. Job aids are cost-effective form of knowledge and skill improvement.
It is better to provide job aids when the content is simple to adapt, and individuals do not require
directed practice and corrective comments to master a new task (Clark & Estes, 2008). Thus,
BDEO providing job aids including the CPD framework, toolkit, and purpose of professional
portfolio could enhance teachers understanding of effective CPD practices. Access to the CPD
framework will enable teachers to understand and describe the meaning, purpose, and cycle of
CPD. The CPD toolkit will provide practical examples and serves as a scaffolding to
successfully engage in effective CPD practices. And professional portfolio guideline will
enhance teachers’ declarative knowledge of the meaning, elements, processes, and purpose of
maintaining professional portfolio.
Though there are other solutions that are more effective and efficient, solution proposed
here needed to be specific to the local context (Rueda, 2011). The approach to CPD in
developing countries needs to be understood in a context which often differs from CPD in
developed countries (Christie et al., 2004). For instance, though technology based CPD is a cost-
effective way to create access to CPD resources and training, it would not be possible for rural
schools in Ethiopia. A recent study indicated that over 90% of teachers have access to mobile
phone (Betemariam, 2017), but the internet data over mobile phone is unreliable particularly in
this remote study district. Additionally, absence of electricity coverage limits the possibility of
technology assisted CPD. Therefore, BDEO needs to develop and provide adequate print copies
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

149
of relevant and quality CPD framework, toolkit, purpose of portfolio, and other supplementary
materials to support teachers’ learning.
Providing Training and Coaching
The study suggested that teachers need to know how to engage in effective CPD practices
including collaborative, reflective, and enquiry-based learning. Most of the teachers reported
that they have limited knowledge about collaborative, reflective, and inquiry-based learning. For
people that lack knowledge and skills but need to learn new strategies, Clark and Estes (2008)
suggested providing training with an opportunity to practice and receive corrective feedback.
Training also influences the mental organization of knowledge. For the knowledge from training
to be effective, it should be structured in the same order that it is used on the job. Newly
acquired knowledge could be more practical to solve problems if it has a link with individuals’
prior knowledge (Clark & Estes, 2008). Researches provide evidence that intensive training
with ongoing support can assist teachers enhance their knowledge and transform their teaching
practices (Borko, 2004; Darling-Hammond et al., 2009).
Hence, supports like school-based coaching need to be provided for teachers to practice
the learnings from training. Studies have indicated the advantage of combining training and
coaching in enhancing teachers learning and practice and in turn increase student learning
outcomes (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017; Zepeda, 2008). For instance, one study found that
training combined with coaching program increased performance by 88% compared to 22.4% for
training alone interventions (Olivero, Bane, & Kopelman, 1997). Peer coaching is a form of
school based professional development rapidly becoming a common practice (Darling-
Hammond et al., 2009). Coaching and expert support include the sharing of knowledge about
content and evidence-based practices, with emphasis on teachers’ need (Darling-Hammond et al.,
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

150
2017). Training, administrative support, trust in oneself, in each other and system are important
settings for successful peer coaching (Zepeda, 2008).
Therefore, the study suggests BDEO to provide training and coaching support on
effective CPD framework and practices involving collaborative, reflective, and inquiry-based
learning. The training needs to be provided in two phases.
Collaborative learning. Purposeful collaboration among peers is a key ingredient in the
world’s high performing schools (Mourshed et al., 2010). Teachers appreciate the merit of
learning with peers (Day, Sammons, Stobart, Kington, & Gu, 2007), and teachers involved in
focused collaborative learning eventually change or significantly develop features of their
classroom practice which improves their student’s learning. Effective models of collaborative
learning include learning circles, lesson study, peer observation, joint practice development, peer
coaching, and mentoring (Stoll et al., 2012). Therefore, BDEO needs to provide training,
coaching, and opportunity to practice these powerful collaborative learning models. For teachers
to have effective collaborative learning experience, the district and school leadership needs to
develop trust and relationships among teachers.
Reflection and inquiry-based learning. Effective professional development programs
that resulted in student learning improvement commonly offer time for teachers to engage in
critical reflection about their practice, receive feedback on, and make changes to their practice
(Darling-Hammond et al., 2017). Teachers could individually or collectively reflect on their
real practices documented in professional portfolio to transform their teaching. Reflection is one
of the necessary skills of action research or professional inquiry-based learning (Zepeda, 2008).
According to Stoll et al., (2012) conducting and using research helps to improve practice. Action
research engagement in schools involves individually or collectively conducting research to
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

151
examine key issues in teaching and learning or using others research finding to inform their
practice.
Thus, this study suggests BDEO to create action research literate teachers through
training and coaching on the conceptual underpinnings, values, processes, and steps of action
research. The study also suggests BDEO to adapt Timperley, Wilson, and Barrar’s teacher
inquiry and knowledge building model to close teaching and learning performance gap
( Timperley, Wilson, Barrar, & Irene, 2007). According to this model, through effective
inquiries that involve teachers collectively and individually; teachers identify important
problems, become the agents for getting the knowledge they require to solve them, monitor the
impact of their practice, and fine-tune their practice accordingly ( Timperley et al., 2007). This
model is also consistent with the Ethiopia’s CPD national framework that aimed to improve
teacher’s classroom practice with the goal of improving student achievements. Hence, BDEO
need to adapt the inquiry model shown in Figure 11, and train and coach expert teachers and
school administrators on it.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

152

Figure 11. Teacher inquiry and knowledge-building cycle to promote valued student outcomes.
Adapted from “Teacher professional learning and development: Best evidence synthesis iteration
[BES]” by H. Timperley, A. Wilson, H. Barrar, and I. Fung, 2007, p. xliii, Copyright 2007 by the
New Zealand Ministry of Education.
Utilizing Models and Modeling
Empirical evidences indicate that professional development programs using models of
effective practices are successful at improving teacher learning and student outcomes (Darling-
Hammond et al., 2017). Teachers are more likely to apply new practices modeled for them to
improve their teaching practice (Garet et al., 2001). Therefore, this study suggests BDEO to
document and disseminate different types of modeling including; sample collaborative action
research, reflection log of classroom observation, analysis of written cases of teaching drawn
from actual classrooms, samples of unit or lesson plans, assessments, and student work.
Solutions for Motivation Influences
Motivation is the results from peoples past experiences and beliefs about themselves,
their peers, their predictions for being effective, and their values for their performance goals
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

153
(Clark & Estes, 2008). Individual’s confidence about whether they have the skills necessary to
be effective is the most determinant influence in their dedication to work tasks and the quality
and quantity of mental effort people devote to their job (Clark & Estes, 2008). The study findings
in Chapter 4 revealed that most of the teachers neither see value nor feel confident to effectively
engage in action research. Further, teachers expressed perceived organizational barriers
including lack of training, materials, and time to conduct action research. As a result, teachers
avoid engaging in action research. The solution will need to increase individual and collective
teachers’ self-efficacy and increase task value. This study provides five solutions based on the
validated motivation influences: (a) Teachers working towards challenging but achievable goals,
(b) Show relevance of action research engagement to teachers’ classroom practice and student
learning, (c) Provide targeted feedback and leadership training, (d) Link intangible incentives
with progress, (e) School principal modeling by showing their own passion and enthusiasm for
the action research.
Teachers Working towards Challenging but Achievable Goals
Research evidences indicate that on one hand impossible goals destroy peoples’ work
commitment and on the other hand people do not place high value on too easy tasks (Ambrose et
al., 2010; Clark & Estes, 2008). In both cases, people will be unmotivated to engage with the
task. Breaking the activity into manageable phases and setting short-term, realistic goals that
allow teachers to have a sense of progress and achievement are effective strategies to raise self-
efficacy (Dembo & Seli, 2016). According to these research evidences, people get motivated
when shared performance goals are challenging but attainable. Hence, the solutions to increase
teacher’s confidence in their skill to engage in action research is to divide the action research
project into small steps such as defining the focus, developing research instruments, collecting,
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

154
coding, and analyzing data, creating action plans, and reporting results. Additionally, teachers
will also benefit from training and coaching on goal setting to ensure that teachers have specific,
measurable, achievable, realistic, and time bound (SMART) personal goals related to their CPD
engagement. According to Dembo and Seli (2016) specific personal goals motivate people to
engage, persist, exert the maximum mental effort at a task. Organizations like Imagine1day and
Lightyear Leadership could be approached to provide technical support in this area.
Show Relevance of Action Research
People are motivated to engage in activity that are relevant and useful to them (Pintrich,
2003). Higher level task values motivate people to choose, persist, and invest higher mental
effort to achieve performance goal (Clark & Estes, 2008; Pintrich, 2003). The study findings in
Chapter 4 revealed that most of the teachers put little value on action research engagement. So,
it is critical for BDEO to ensure that the action research engagement is relevant to improve
teachers’ knowledge and teaching practice and ultimately their student learning. Teacher need to
be shown that engaging in action research will make them research literate and could broaden
their future career opportunity as a researcher.
Provide Targeted Feedback
Timely and constructive feedback can have a significant effect on people’s motivation
towards a task (Ambrose et al., 2010). According to Pintrich (2003) the feedback should be
correct and genuine about their work performance and learning, targeting on the progress of
capability, knowledge, and skills. In Chapter 4 the study findings revealed that teachers do not
get feedback on their action research engagement. Therefore, their expectancy for success was
very low. Thus, BDEO’s school principals and supervisors need to provide frequent, timely, and
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

155
accurate feedback on their teachers’ action research process aiming to improve their capability
and competence.
Link Intangible Incentives with CPD performance
One among research solutions to increase self-efficacy is linking rewards with
performance progress in order to show the informational function of intangible incentives (Clark
& Estes, 2008; Pintrich, 2003). Intangible incentives recognize people for their good
performance and deliver the message about how to succeed at challenging task. Given the
unaffordability of tangible incentives, BDEO need to use intangible incentives such as teacher of
the month, recognition award plaque or trophy for people doing a good job, and certificate of
completion. For instance, the district could award the best three action researches of the year.
However, this incentive should be carefully managed as it could have a negative consequence.
The decision should be made by a committee nominated by teachers on a clearly and objectively
established criteria. And the selection process should be open and transparent.
Modeling Passion and Enthusiasm for the Action Research
The opportunity to observe similar model engaging in valuable task with interest and
commitment; helps people to discover the value of the task that they ignored and motivate them
to engage in the same task (Ambrose et al., 2010; Pajares, 2010). Thus, BDEO’s school
principals need to show their passion and commitment for action research by actively supporting
and engaging in collective action research projects. This could involve giving teachers the
opportunity to reflect on their action research project. The principal could facilitate reflection by
asking them questions like “What is the purpose of your action research project? Why is this
study important? What are the objectives of your action research? How will the study improve
your teaching practice and student learning? What did you learn from your action research
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

156
journey? What was your findings? What worked well? What didn’t work well? What support
do you need? What do you consider changing for the next project? Teachers could perceive that
the school principal place high value on action research and passionate about it. As a result,
teachers could be motivated to actively engage in action research projects.
Solutions for Organization Influences
Clark and Estes (2008) argued that highly motivated people with appropriate level of
knowledge and skills, might still fail to achieve performance goal due to absence or insufficient
processes, material, and resources. Thus, in addition to addressing knowledge and motivational
influences, it is important to address organizational factors. These factors include organizational
culture, structure, policies, and practices (Rueda, 2011). Chapter 4 revealed organizational gaps
including limited culture of collaboration, inadequate resources, unsupportive leadership, and
absence of professional development opportunity. Based on these validated influences, this
study suggest four solution to close the gap: (a) Creating a professional learning communities,
(b) Align the organizational structures and processes with the CPD goal, (c) Active leadership
involvement and support in teachers’ CPD practices, (d) Provide hands-on training and
coaching related to effective CPD practices to teachers, principals, and cluster supervisors. The
last proposed solution was covered under solutions for knowledge and will be not discussed in
this section.
Creating a Professional Learning Communities
There is consistent evidence that teachers who work in schools with strong collaborative
culture overperform teachers who work alone (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012). According to
Hargreaves and Fullan (2012), collaborative cultures build and share knowledge and ideas, as
well as assistance and support, that makes teachers more successful, confident, and motivated to
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

157
actively engage in performance improvement and change. School with culture of collegiality are
more likely to implement effective professional development that improves teachers’ practice
(Whitworth & Chiu, 2015). Chapter 4 revealed that the collaborative culture in study schools
was mostly limited to superficial talking. The kind of collaboration experienced in study schools
was mainly top-down imposed and teachers do not want to collaborate due to lack of trust and
respect among them. The solution to this organizational gap needs to foster collaborative
professionalism among teachers and schools in the district. Professional Learning Communities
(PLCs) is one most popular framework known for enhancing collaborative culture (Darling-
Hammond et al., 2017).
Empirical evidences show that well-designed PLCs model is highly associated with
tangible improvement in teachers’ practice and students learning outcomes (Darling-Hammond
et al., 2017; Harris & Jones, 2010; Vescio, Ross, & Adams, 2008). When implemented with a
high degree of quality, PLCs offer sustained, on-site learning that is active, collaborative, and
reflective (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017; DuFour & Reeves, 2016; Stoll et al., 2006). PLCs are
built on important elements of trust and respect among members that ultimately create safe and
supportive school environment for teachers (Patton et al., 2015). Based on these evidences, the
proposed solution is to create professional learning communities that collectively examine and
transform teaching and learning in schools. Therefore, it is recommended that BDEO create
PLCs first within the schools and later scale it to between schools. Before introducing PLC,
BDEO leadership need to have critical conversation and brainstorming with key stakeholders
including teachers, principals, cluster supervisors, and administrators about creating a
professional learning community (Wahlstrom & Louis, 2008). Creating a professional learning
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

158
community also requires a shift from a focus on teaching to a focus on students learning, a
culture of collaboration, and a focus on results (DuFour R. , 2004).
BDEO need to create teacher groups from same grades learning with and from each
other. This study suggests schools to be guided by DuFour and Reeves’s four PLC quality test
questions to ensure real PLC practice: (1) What do we want students to learn? (2) How will we
know if they have learned it? (3) What will we do if they have not learned it? (4) How will we
provide extended learning opportunities for students who have mastered the content. A simple
one-page protocol with these four questions could be given as a job aids to help teachers focus
on student learning.
Aligning the Organizational Structures and Processes with CPD Goals
Efforts of closing organizational performance gaps require aligning resources and
processes with shared business goals (Clark & Estes, 2008). Knowledge and skills acquisition
and transfer into practices are contingent on supportive organizational factors (Stoll et al., 2012).
The study findings in chapter 4 revealed major organizational structure issues inhibiting effective
CPD implementation including lack of adequate time, resources, materials, and manpower to
oversight CPD implementation. Identifying suitable time and adequate time for teachers to
engage in CPD practice is one core feature of effective professional development (Darling-
Hammond et al., 2009; Day et al., 2007). In this regard, the solution is to proactively plan and
negotiate a suitable and adequate time for CPD activities on the school calendar. Further, more
frequent practices spread out over shorter learning session with quality use of time is more
effective for learning than one extended session (Mayer, 2011).
Schools could consider two strategies for providing professional learning time into
routine school days. The first option is to rearrange existing time. In this case, it requires fixing
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

159
CPD day in which classroom teaching shortened for teachers to work together. However, instead
of the current practice of bi-weekly half-day CPD meetings, it could be more effective to do it
weekly for a shorter period. More frequent practices spread out over shorter learning session
with quality use of time is more effective for learning than one extended session (Mayer, 2011).
The second option is to create additional time through innovative use of external volunteers
(Zepeda, 2008). Where possible, the schools could engage and use volunteers to replace teachers
while they are engaged in collaborative learning. Young university graduates and other
professionals in the community including agriculture development agents, and health extension
workers could be used as volunteers to support teachers.
The other major factor hindering effective CPD practice is lack of funding to provide
materials and resources required for effective CPD practice. Leadership need to prioritize and
support CPD in terms of time and resources that address the needs of teachers at different stages
of their careers. In the context of developing countries, competing need for funding within
education sector usually makes CPD a peripheral priority area (Christie et al., 2004). In Africa,
donor aid funding plays an important role in introducing CPD initiatives. However, sustained
CPD is unthinkable without institutionalizing within the national systems and their local
structures.
Thus, BDEO need to prioritize CPD and find ways of covering and operationalizing
within their resource limit. The district needs to allocate budget to provide necessary supplies
and CPD job aids. Moreover, schools need to assign one among teachers to serve as CPD
coordinator. The CPD coordinator is to support school principal in facilitating teachers CPD
practice. All teachers will be given the opportunity to serve as CPD coordinator on a rotation
basis with a service term of six months. This will allow teachers to have an ownership stake in
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

160
CPD and more likely to buy-in to the program. Professional development change efforts without
teachers’ participation in decision-making, often fail to get their buy-in (Steyn, 2010; Zepeda,
2008). Thus, it is important to involve teachers from the designing phase through planning and
implementation of CPD (Darling-Hammond et al., 2009; Desimone et al., 2002; Garet et al.,
2001; Patton et al., 2015).
Active Leadership Involvement and Support
Leadership plays a critical role in teachers’ professional development and student
achievement (Whitworth & Chiu, 2015). Leadership could make a significant contribution to
students learning outcomes by supporting and involving in teachers’ professional development
(Robinson, 2011). Research evidence indicated that school and district leadership may be
second only to teachers in having impact on students learning (Leithwood et al., 2008). Chapter
4 revealed that both school and district leadership were not supportive in teachers CPD practice.
Among the root causes mentioned were that the leadership lacks knowledge and skill about CPD
to provide ongoing feedback and support to practicing teachers. As a result, CPD has not been a
focus for the leadership. Contrary to this fact, research evidence indicates that effective
professional development involves the development of leadership capacity at all levels. Without
active involvement, district and school leadership may not understand the value, cost, and
support needed for effective teachers’ professional development (Whitworth & Chiu, 2015).
Active involvement of district and school leaders in teachers’ professional development efforts
can facilitate collaborative learning communities, link teachers with required resources, and
facilitate changes in classroom practice with a focus on student learning outcomes. Therefore,
BDEO could improve performance gap in teachers’ CPD engagement through professional
development opportunity for the district and school leadership on the role of leadership in
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

161
teachers’ professional development, core features of effective CPD, comprehensive CPD cycles
including; need assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation.
Implementation Plan
A summary of the validated knowledge, motivation and organizational influences and
their corresponding solutions were presented above. However, the challenges to teachers’
professional development are much more complex to fix with a simple fragmented solution
(Patton et al., 2015). It rather requires designing and implementing a mix of knowledge and
skills, motivational, and organizational solutions (Clark & Estes, 2008). According to Clark and
Estes (2008), well integrated performance enhancement programs are more successful, cost-
effective, and easier to assess their impact. Also, it is likely not cost-effective or feasible to
implement all possible solutions. Thus, a systematic approach was used to prioritize solutions
that are most important to close the performance gaps. The possible solutions were ranked
according to criteria, and a mean score was calculated to determine their overall ranking. In this
study, three heuristics were used for ranking solutions based on their significance: 1) cost, 2)
feasibility to implement, and 3) the impact in closing the performance gap. The criteria in Table
28 were used to rank each validated cause from 1-4 in descending order of significance. For
instance, if the cost is high, it was the least difficult to implement, and most impactful on closing
the KMO gap, then the solution received a number one ranking for all three criteria.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

162
Table 28
Solution ranking criteria
Criteria 1 Criteria 2 Criteria 3
Ranking Cost Feasibility Impact
1
2

3
4
Less expensive
Somewhat
expensive
Expensive
Very expensive
Less difficult
Somewhat
difficult
Difficult
Very difficult
Most Impactful
Impactful

Neutral
Not Impactful

Table 29 shows how the mean scores were calculated for the three criteria. For instance,
the mean score for the first solution is 1.33. This score was calculated by averaging the scores for
each criterion. In this case, the score was 2.0 for Criteria 1, 1.0 for Criteria 2, and 1.0 for Criteria
3 for a total of 4.0 points divided by three, which equals 1.33.
Table 29
Solutions ranked according to selection criteria
Solution
Criteria 1:
Cost
Criteria 2:
Feasibility
Criteria 3:
Impact

Mean
Score
Develop and provide relevant and quality CPD
materials
2 1 1 1.33
Providing Training and Coaching in the area of
effective CPD practices including reflection,
inquiry-based and collaborative learning
4 2 1 2.33
Utilizing Models and Modeling 3 3 1 2.33
Teachers working towards challenging but
achievable goals
1 3 4 2.67
Show relevance of action research 1 3 4 2.67
Provide targeted feedback 1 3 3 2.33
Link intangible incentives with CPD
performance
1 1 1 1.0
Modeling passion and enthusiasm for the action
research
1 4 3 2.67

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

163
Table 29, continued
Creating and nurturing professional learning
communities
2 2 1 1.67
Align the organizational structures and
processes with CPD goals
2 2 1 1.67
Active leadership involvement and Support 1 2 4 2.33

Mean scores ranging between 1.0 and 2.0 were selected as the next phase of solutions to
be prioritized and implemented. Those solutions that are outside of this range were considered
expensive, less impactful or difficult to implement. The selection process revealed that four
solutions have the greatest impact on closing the knowledge, motivation and organizational gaps.
Accordingly, a comprehensive CPD program revitalized through four key solutions is proposed
to close the performance gap. Solution one is to create effective PLCs. Solution two is to
develop and provide relevant and quality CPD materials. Solution three is to align the
organizational structures and processes with CPD goals. Solution four is linking CPD with
teachers’ incentives. This section is to present the implementation plan of these four prioritized
solutions. The objectives of these solutions are to improve teachers’ active engagement in
effective CPD with the aim to improve teachers’ classroom practice and student learning
outcomes. The solutions will do so by equipping teachers in Barbare district with the
knowledge, skills, confidence, and support needed through successfully engaging them in
effective CPD practices. The following are specific expected outcomes of the program:
1. By June 2020, at least 90% of teachers in Barbare district are successfully engage in
effective CPD practices.
2. By June 2020, improved knowledge and skills in the areas of collaborative, reflective,
and inquiry-based learning for at least 75% of teachers.
3. By June 2020, there are at least 10 cases of effective professional learning
communities to be scaled across the district
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

164
4. By June 2020, increased teacher confidence in engaging in professional inquiry and
reflection observed in at least 75% of teachers.
5. By June 2020, 70% of grade 2 and 3 students achieved at least basic proficiency in
reading
To achieve these expected outcomes, the proposed solutions will be executed through
implementation action steps discussed in the session below.
Key Implementation Action Steps
This section presents specific action steps that will be taken to operationalize the four
proposed solutions. Solutions could help organizations achieve their intended goals only when it
has clear implementation action steps. Therefore, this study identified the below presented key
action steps for each solution.
Solution 1: Creating and Nurturing Effective Professional Learning Communities
Professional Learning Communities (PLC) is the most powerful form of CPD (Darling-
Hammond et al., 2017; Stoll et al., 2012). Before scaling this solution to all schools in the
district, it should be piloted in three randomly selected schools for six months. To operationalize
this specific solution, the following key action steps will be taken by the schools and district
education office:
1. Develop PLC framework
2. Educate stakeholders on PLC
3. Collectively establish PLC norms
4. Cultivate a collaborative culture built on trust
5. Focus on the most critical educational problem
6. Provide a 360-degree support
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

165
7. Help PLCs set SMART goals
8. Monitoring and providing constructive feedback
Developing PLC framework. The framework must be developed to guide effective
PLC implementation. This guide articulates the what, why, who, where, and how for PLC
implementation. The framework will cover contents related to PLC including; its meaning,
purposes, strategies, key design principles and characteristics, stakeholders’ role, and monitoring
and evaluation. The framework is to guide teachers, principals, supervisors, and administrators
to ensure effective PLC implementation. The framework should be developed by the district
education office with the support of external expertise.
Educating stakeholders on PLC. The stakeholders including teachers, principals,
school supervisors, and administrators need to be sensitized on the concepts and purposes of
PLC. A three days launching workshop need to be organized to introduce PLC concept, purpose,
framework, and the why behind introducing PLC. It should be introduced carefully to avoid a
situation in which the stakeholders assume that it will be one more education reform effort that
will eventually dissolve. The district needs to identify and use facilitators who are expert and
passionate about PLC. The first impression will be so crucial to initiate interest to practice it. It
should be clear to all stakeholders that PLC is not about taking an order from administrators. It
is simply a form of CPD that changes the focus of your school from teaching to learning. It
should be also clear to the stakeholders that it operates on the principle of shared leadership and
in that teachers and leaders equally contribute and hold themselves accountable for continuous
improvement. The stakeholders also needs to be oriented on the six key characteristics of an
effective PLC (DuFour & Reeves, 2016) including its focus on learning, collaborative culture,
collective inquiry, action orientation, continuous improvement, and result orientation.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

166
Thus, before starting to implement PLC, stakeholders need to be educated on these
fundamentals about PLC for three days. In addition to training, use job aids like posters, flyers,
and host an informal information session or posting on school and district education office notice
boards to clarify for those who might be uninformed.
Collectively establish norms. In a PLC setting the group norms must be developed
collectively. The need for having governing rules is obvious, but should be decided by the
members of PLC. The role of school principal is only to facilitate that these norms are set in a
way that everyone can give input. This could be done by asking everyone to write down the
norms that the members should be governed by. And ask them to put on the wall, discuss and
organize them as ground rules or norms of the PLCs and share it with members. The members
could revise these norms any time deemed necessary.
Cultivate a collaborative culture built on trust. Though it is possible, getting teachers
to collaborate is not an easy task. And one cannot imagine PLC without a collaborative culture.
Transparent and non-judgmental communication are critical to embrace a culture of
collaboration. Through involvement in PLC sessions, schools’ leaders need to ensure that it is
ok for teachers to take risk and make mistakes and must create time and space for teachers to
help each other. This will make teachers to trust each other and seek support when needed.
Through this social capital teachers will tap into others human capital and grow professionally
(Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012). And ultimately will produce a better result for students.
Evidences show that teachers participating in PLCs are more confident and have higher
level of self-efficacy ( Pirtle & Ed , 2014). So, school and district leaders need to build a
collaborative culture in PLCs, where members feel confident to request support for any
instructional challenges they face and make each other accountable for the greater good of
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

167
student learning. Building this culture of collaboration and trust, will minimize frustration and
blaming others.
Focus on the most critical educational problem. It is known that the focus of PLC is to
support and nurture student learning (Zepeda, 2008). Thus, it requires examining student
learning from formative, summative, and national assessment data (Zepeda, 2008) including
early grade reading and numeracy assessments. This student data examining exercise will help
PLCs to identify where there is a gap in student learning and determine most pressing
instructional needs to better support their students. Using the information gained from the data
reviewed, PLC facilitators and members set priorities for intervention. PLCs could also use
actual student works to analyze and determine if students are showing progress toward meeting
the learning objectives.
Provide 360-degree support. Effective and sustained PLC requires both internal and
external supports. School principal, cluster supervisors, and district leaders need to ensure that
teachers have adequate scheduled time to participate in PLCs; the essential resources and
materials to be effective in the classroom; and provided instructional leadership when required
( Pirtle & Ed , 2014). Support to PLCs, in areas that require expertise such as how to analyze
student data, use student data as a reflection tool and to frame their practice. School and district
leaders need to be coached on how to best support teachers as they engage in the collaborative
work of PLCs. School leaders need to participate as members of a PLC and could have input
and provide timely support.
Help PLCs set SMART goals. One of the necessary tasks in PLC launching process is
goal setting. This is important to later on assess the impact and success of the PLCs. It
facilitates measurement which is critical in this world of competing interests for scarce resources.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

168
Goals will also give direction and motivate PLC members to engage in the task. For the goal to
be objective it should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time bound
(SMART). PLC should make sure that their goals satisfy these objective elements. The goal
should be written using the following simple educational goal statement: [Who] will achieve
[what] by [when] as measured by [which assessment].
Monitor and provide constructive feedback. Based on collectively set norms, teachers
can assess their own activities in PLCs. These norms may include coming to PLC meetings
punctually and prepared, remain focused on the task at hand and avoiding distractions, openly
sharing successes and challenges, and committing to using the learning from PLC meetings in
their classroom practice ( Pirtle & Ed , 2014). By participating in PLC meetings, district and
school leaders could help teachers see the impact of their PLCs on classroom practices and
student learning. This could be also done by taking part in PLCs learning walks, an approach in
which PLC members observe how points from PLC meetings are implemented in the classroom.
This require coaching both for PLC members and leaders on how to conduct learning walks.
Based on data gathered from learning walks, the facilitator will produce a report with a summary
of observation and feedback for individual teachers. The report will be shared across the school.
However, the report will only be used to monitor progress made toward the effective
implementation of PLCs and not as a teacher appraisal tool.
Solution 2: Develop and provide relevant and quality CPD materials
For people who will perform a specific task frequently, Clark and Estes (2008)
recommended providing information, job aids, training with practice and feedback. To
operationalize this specific solution, the following key action steps will be taken by the schools
and district education office:
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

169
1. Providing copies of CPD framework, toolkits, and professional portfolio guidelines.
2. Developing and providing relevant and quality package of CPD modules, monitoring,
and support tools
Providing copies of CPD framework, toolkits, and professional portfolio guidelines.
The study findings indicated that majority of the teachers in the study schools do not have
adequate understanding about the meaning and purpose of CPD. The information about CPD
was trickled down to teachers in a cascading approach and its purpose and meaning get diluted
and teachers’ have no access to guiding documents. Hence, documents providing clear
information about the what, why, who, when and how of teachers’ CPD needs to be provided.
Therefore, copies of these documents will be provided to each teacher to facilitate teachers’ self-
guided CPD practice. These materials will be provided in advance of the training in November
2019.
Developing and providing relevant and quality package of CPD modules,
monitoring, and support tools. The study finding indicated that teachers are experiencing a
one-size-fits all type of CPD regardless of their difference in qualification, years of experience,
and needs. Teachers have varying qualification ranging from high school diploma to master’s
degree in education. The current modules do not meet teacher’s CPD needs as they are highly
generic with little focus on content and pedagogical knowledge. Therefore, relevant and quality
CPD modules, monitoring and support tools need to be developed. For teachers’ professional
development to be effective, it is critical to first carefully identify the CPD needs (Darling-
Hammond et al., 2017). Before developing this package, the district should conduct teachers,
principals, and supervisors CPD need assessment. Based on the need assessment findings, the
district in collaboration with regional College of Teacher Education (CTE) develop context-
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

170
relevant and quality training modules and related monitoring and support tools as a package.
The CPD module need to be differentiated based on teachers’ needs. This package of training
module, monitoring, and support tools need to be prepared and provided in November 2019.
Solution 3: Aligning the Organizational Structures and Processes with CPD Goals
To operationalize this specific solution, the following key action steps will be taken by
the schools and district education office:
1. Assign CPD team and coordinator
2. Create TOR for the school CPD team and coordinator
3. In-service training for CPD team and coordinators, school principal, and cluster
supervisors
4. Create and share clear CPD timetable and budget
Assign CPD team and coordinator. Effective CPD implementation requires supportive
school and district leadership (Stoll et al., 2012). Many of the study respondents indicated lack
of supportive leadership; and poor internal and external support for teachers. The study
respondents indicated that the current leadership lacks capacity to provide technical support and
feedback on teachers’ CPD practice. Therefore, creating clear and cost-effective support
structure is found important. Given the limited budget with which schools operate, this solution
assumed using internal human resource instead of new recruitment. This plan assumed that
school principal could establish a CPD team and assign its coordinator from among the
schoolteachers and district education office experts. Members of the CPD team will be subject
expert teachers and they will elect CPD team coordinator. The CPD team coordinator will work
together with school principal to fulfilling CPD needs of the teachers in the school. The CPD
team and coordination role will be rotated on an annual basis to extend the opportunity to all
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

171
teachers. This team will be organized at the beginning of academic year in the first week of
October 2019.
Create Term of Reference (ToR) for the school CPD team and coordinator. For the
CPD team and coordinator to be effective, they need to have clear roles and responsibilities.
This needs to be drafted by the school CPD team and coordinator with the support of school
principal and shared with teachers to get their say on it. With the input from teachers, the ToR
will be finalized and adopted as a guiding document for the CPD team and coordinator. The
ToR will be created in the first week of October 2019.
In-service training for CPD team and coordinator, school principal, and cluster
supervisors. The study data revealed that there is a knowledge deficit on CPD framework,
toolkits, professional portfolio, how to engage in collaborative, reflective, and inquiry-based
learning. Clark & Estes (2008) suggested use of training when people do not have how-to
knowledge and skills and need corrective feedback following practice. Therefore, the study
suggests providing training and coaching support on CPD framework, toolkits, portfolio, and
effective CPD practices involving collaborative, reflective, and inquiry-based learning. The
training needs to be provided in two phases. In the first phase, providing district-based expert
lead training of trainers (ToT) to carefully selected expert teachers forming CPD team, school
principal, cluster supervisors, and district CPD coordinator for ten days. This first phase training
needs to be project-based and provided over three months in three intervals with in-between
expert coaching support. Additionally, CPD teams, school principals, and supervisors will be
trained on how to mentor, coach, monitor, and support teachers’ effective CPD practice. This
first phase training will be conducted in the first week of November 2019.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

172
In the second phase, those who successfully completed ToT training serve as school
change agents by amplifying best practices and modeling (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017)
effective CPD practices. The CPD team and coordinator, school principals, and supervisors will
ensure effective CPD practices by all teachers in their school through replicating training,
mentoring, coaching, monitoring, and creating supportive working conditions. The training needs
to be differentiated considering teachers’ varying level of capacity and needs. The replication
will be conducted in November 2019 with ongoing school-based mentoring and coaching.
Create and share clear CPD timetable and budget. The study findings in Chapter 4
indicated that the majority of teacher perceive that not enough time and budget has been
allocated to CPD and mostly conflicting with teachers’ work schedule. To avoid this, clear
timetable and budget will be created in consultation with teachers to encourage effective CPD
engagement. Protected CPD day need to be scheduled to increase full participation of teachers.
On those days, volunteer young university graduates and other professional in the communities
could be used to substitute teachers in the classroom. Budget covering supplies and material cost
will be allocated by the school from the General Education Quality Improvement Program
(GEQIP) budget. Clear timetable and budget will be created and shared with all teachers
immediately following the training in November 2019.
Solution 4: Link CPD with Teachers’ Incentives
Though the national CPD policy indicates the need to link CPD with teachers’ career
structure and relicensing (Ministry of Education, 2009a), several teachers reported that this was
not the case. These teachers shared their frustration that the policy was not delivering what it
promised and there are no incentives to successfully engage in CPD. According to study
participants, this was one reason why teachers are avoiding effective CPD practice. The use of
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

173
structured incentives motivates and directs people towards performance goal (Pintrich, 2003). A
study conducted in 13 developing countries confirmed that structured teachers’ incentives linked
to desired behavior, could significantly influence teacher quality and student achievement
(Mpokosa & Ndaruhutse, 2008). Thus, it is important to provide some intangible incentives to
improve teachers’ engagement in effective CPD practice. To operationalize this specific
solution, the following key action steps will be taken by the schools and district education office:
1. Develop clear guideline of the link between CPD performance and teachers’
incentives
2. Provide guideline and orient teachers on how their CPD performance relates to
incentives
3. Certificate of recognition for teachers with high points on CPD performance
4. Value teacher’s CPD performance in transfer request, training, and education
opportunities.
Develop clear guideline of the link between CPD performance and teachers’
incentives. The current CPD framework lack details on how CPD could be linked to teachers’
career structure and relicensing. Without clear guidelines it will become confusing to implement
and could become a source of conflict and grievance. The guideline will be prepared by the
district education office with inputs from school principals, supervisors, and teachers. These
guidelines will be developed by January 2020.
Provide guideline and orient teachers on how their CPD performance relates to
incentives. Helping people to understand the usefulness of the task makes people to place high
value on performance goal (Pintrich, 2003). Therefore, providing guidelines and orienting
teachers on the link between CPD performance and rewards could motivate teachers to
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

174
successfully engage in effective CPD practice. The guidelines and orientation will be provided
in January 2020 together with other CPD related trainings.
Certificate of recognition. Based on the guidelines created, the certificates of
recognition will be awarded by BDEO for top three teachers from every school who exhibit high
performance in changing their practice to impact student learning by their effective CPD
practice. Beyond motivating high achievers, it will create teacher buy-in to the practice of
effective CPD practice. At the end of the academic year, starting June 2020, teachers who
excelled in their CPD performance and meaningfully improved their practice and student
learning will be awarded a certificate of recognition for their efforts.
Value teacher’s CPD performance in transfer, training, and education
opportunities. Teacher transfer, training, and further education opportunities should value
teachers’ CPD performance. Currently, these incentives are based only on years of experience.
The motivational advantage of incentives based solely on years of service is minimal. Making
CPD performance another criterion with assigned weight is important to motivate teachers
towards valuing their CPD practice. This will be an ongoing activity effective June 2020.
Table 30 below presents the summary of proposed solutions, action steps, capacity and
resource requirements, timeline, and measures.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

175
Table 30
Summary of solutions and implementation plan
Proposed
Solution(s) Action Steps
Building Capacity
& Resource
Requirements Timeline
Indicators and
Measures
Solution 1:
Creating and
nurturing
Professional
Learning
Communities
(PLC)
1. Develop PLC
framework
2. Educate
stakeholders on
PLC
3. Collectively
establish PLC
norms
4. Cultivate a
collaborative
culture built on
trust
5. Focus on the
most critical
educational
problem
6. Provide a 360-
degree support
7. Help PLCs set
SMART goals
8. Monitoring and
providing
constructive
feedback
Effectively
implementing PLC
requires developing
internal capacity by
training PLC
facilitators, school
principals, cluster
supervisors, and
district teacher
professional
development
coordinator on
basic PLC
concepts,
implementation,
and assessment
strategies.
Commencing
October 2019 and
ongoing
By June 2020, at
least 90% of
teachers in Barbare
district are
successfully
engaged in
effective PLC

By June 2020,
improved
knowledge and
skills in the areas of
collaborative,
reflective, and
inquiry-based
learning for at least
75% of teachers
participating in
PLC

By June 2020, there
are at least 10 cases
of effective
professional
learning
communities to be
scaled across the
district

By June 2020,
increased teacher
confidence in
engaging in
professional
inquiry and
reflection observed
in at least 75% of
teachers
participating in
PLC

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

176
Table 30, continued
Proposed
Solution(s) Action Steps
Building Capacity
& Resource
Requirements Timeline
Indicators and
Measures
By June 2020, 70%
of grade 2 and 3
students in PLC
implementing
schools achieved at
least basic
proficiency in
reading
Solution 2:
Developing and
providing relevant
and quality CPD
materials
1. Provide copies of
CPD framework,
toolkits, and
professional
portfolio guideline.

2. Develop and
provide relevant
and quality package
of CPD modules,
monitoring, and
support tools

It requires funding
to develop and
print context
relevant CPD
materials. GEQIP
fund is available to
the district to
support such
activities.

September to
November 2019

100% teachers have
access to CPD
policy documents
and modules

80% of teachers
consider the newly
developed CPD
materials as highly
useful to improve
their classroom
practice and student
learning
Solution 3:
Aligning the
organizational
structures and
processes with
CPD goals
1. Assign CPD
team and
coordinator

2. Create TOR for
the school CPD
team and
coordinator

3. In-service
training for CPD
team and
coordinators,
school principal,
and supervisors

4. Create and share
clear CPD
timetable and
budget
Deputy school
principal and
carefully selected
subject experts will
form school CPD
team. Deputy
school principal
will play a
coordination role.
So, there is no need
for additional
staffing except that
their teaching
workload need to
be reasonably
reduced.
October and
November 2019 for
2 months

100% of the
schools in Barbare
district have active
CPD team and
coordinator.

100% of CPD team
members and
coordinator,
principals, and
supervisors were
trained on CPD
policy and effective
CPD practices

100% of schools in
Barbare have clear
CPD timetable and
adequate budget
allocated
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

177
Table 30, continued
Proposed
Solution(s) Action Steps
Building Capacity
& Resource
Requirements Timeline
Indicators and
Measures
External expert is
needed only to
initially train the
CPD team and
school principal.
NGOs like
Imagine1day who
are supporting
capacity building in
the region could be
approached to get
support in TOR
preparation and
training.
Through training,
mentoring, and
coaching support
from CPD team,
principal, and
supervisor; at least
90% of teachers in
the district are
engaged in
effective CPD
practices

Solution 4: Link
CPD with teachers’
incentives
1. Develop clear
guideline of the
link between CPD
performance and
teachers’
incentives.
2. Provide
guidelines and
orient teachers on
how their CPD
performance relates
to teachers’
incentives

3.Certificate of
recognition for
teachers with high
points on CPD
performance

4. Value teacher’s
CPD performance
in transfer, training,
and education
opportunities.
District CPD team,
school principal,
supervisor, and
district leadership
need to be trained
on the guidelines.
It requires only
small amount of
money to print
certificates of
recognition.
January to June
2020

Clear Guideline
created and shared
with all schools.

90% of teachers are
successfully
engaged in
effective CPD
practices including
collaborative,
reflective,
professional
inquiry-based
learning.

80% of transfer,
training, and
further education
decisions
considered
teachers’ CPD
performance

80 % of teachers
are satisfied with
their CPD activity

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

178
Evaluation Plan
Evaluation is the final step of the KMO model (Clark & Estes, 2008) that this study used
as its conceptual framework. It is a systematic investigation of that provide decision makers with
evidences about the value or merit of implemented programs, particularly in relation to intended
outcomes (Guskey, 2000). A purposive evaluation of the outcomes of implemented solutions is
crucial to determine if they addressed the performance gaps, they were supposed to solve
(Rueda, 2011). Hence, this section is to outline evaluation plan for the key solutions proposed
by this study. There are several program evaluations models with many similarities and
uniqueness in their approaches and procedures. Among available evaluation models, this study
adopts Guskey’s evaluation model. According to this model, there are five critical levels of
professional development evaluation (Guskey, 2000). Guskey’s model was derived from earlier
model developed by Kirkpatrick for evaluating training program in business and industry. The
Kirkpatrick model has four levels. The first level is participant’s reactions to the training
measuring early satisfaction with the experience; the second level is what new knowledge, skills,
and attitudes did participant’s learn; the third, how did it influence their behavior on the job; and
the fourth is results, how did the training affect final outcome (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2006).
Despite many suggestions to improve the Kirkpatrick’s model, it is yet the most widely
used evaluation model (Clark & Estes, 2008). According to Guskey (2000), though
Kirkpatrick’s model has been widely used across disciplines, it lacks the explanatory power in
addressing the “why” question of when things were implemented correctly from the training
perspective, but the training participants returned to organizations that were not supportive in
practicing what they learned. Therefore, Guskey contextualized Kirkpatrick’ model to the realm
of education and added one more level known as “Organizational Support and Change” to
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

179
Kirkpatrick’s model. Guskey claims that his model of five levels of evaluation is needed to
resolve that inadequacy in Kirkpatrick’s model.
Guskey’s model of evaluation is also consistent with the KMO model by clearly
including the organizational factor of performance gaps. Evaluating solutions using this five
levels model will enable school principals and district leaders to measure the effectiveness of
continuous professional development (CPD) designed to improve teachers’ classroom practice
and student learning outcomes.
Level 1: Reaction
Guskey (2000) describe evaluating reaction as the easiest and most used form of
professional development evaluation. This level is also referred to as “smile sheet” by those who
think evaluation at this level has not of much value (Guskey, 2000). However, evaluations at
this level are important to make early adjustments to the program or activity before wasting
resource on something that is not working. Moreover, Initial positive feeling by people are
mostly a necessary condition for a higher-level evaluation result. For instance, if teachers are not
satisfied with their initial CPD training, there is high likelihood that they do not practice the
learning in the classroom. Findings from evaluating people’s reaction need to be carefully
interpreted as sometimes people get excited with new programs only for a short moment and or
simply resist change due to personal bias (Rueda, 2011).
Teachers’ reaction to their experience of comprehensive continuous professional
development proposed in this study could be assessed using surveys handed out at the end of the
training or activity. Close ended survey questionnaires with rating scale and some open-ended
response items could be used. Table 29 below provides tools and examples of questions that
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

180
could be used to evaluate teachers’ reaction of their experience of participating or being affected
by the proposed solution.
Level 2: Learning
Evaluating learning focuses on assessing the positive change in the knowledge, skills,
and attitudes of teachers who participated in the program (Guskey, 2000; Kirkpatrick &
Kirkpatrick, 2006). Professional development programs commonly prescribe learning objectives
that serve as a base for evaluation at Level 2. The best approach to measure at this level involve
direct observation as opposed to survey filled by the participant (Rueda, 2011). It is also
common to use participants oral or written reflection, pre-test and post-test, and review of the
work done by the participant. To evaluate teachers learning from the proposed CPD program,
this study suggested using tools that involve classroom observation, review of teachers’
portfolio, PLCs meeting minutes, facilitating teachers’ reflection, pre-test and post-test, and
administering performance test.
Level 3: Organization Support and Change
Guskey (2000) introduced evaluating organization support and change as additional level
to Kirkpatrick’s four levels model. According to Guskey (2000), even when individual
participants exhibit the best commitment and effort, their professional development effectiveness
could be hindered by organizational factors. Thus, it is useful to collect information on
organization support and change. The question at this level focuses on the organizational
processes, policies, structure, resources, and materials necessary for the successful
implementation of the proposed comprehensive CPD program. This could involve review and
analysis of district and school records, meeting minutes, policies, and procedures. Survey and
interviews with participants, school, and district leaders can be also used to learn about the
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

181
organization’s support level. This information is important to align organization structure and
process to ensure that teachers are engaged in effective CPD practices.
Level 4: Behavior
Evaluating at the behavioral level involves assessment of the new knowledge and skills
transfer into practice (Rueda, 2011). For teacher’s professional development program, the key
question at Level 4 is, “Did the learning from teachers professional development change teacher
practice?” The assessment at this level requires setting key performance indicators at the
professional development program design phase. Like Level 3, the most important information
about behavioral change can be collected by direct observation of teachers in the classroom or
reviewing their work. The nature of this evaluation requires allowing enough time for teachers
to contextualize and practice the learnings. It is also important to evaluate the gradual progress
at several time intervals to verify that the behavior is sustained.
Level 5: Results
Guskey (2000) indicated that evaluation at Level 5 answers “the bottom line or Return on
Investment” question in education: What was the effect on learners? Evaluation at this level
involves measuring indicators of student learning achievement, such as class assessment results,
student and teacher’s portfolio evaluation, student classroom behavior, participation in extra-
curricular activities, report cards, national standardized examinations result, and national reading
and literacy assessment results. This information could be collected from school and student
records, interviews with teachers, students, parents, and administrators. The summative purpose
of this evaluation is to document the overall impact, but formative evaluation can be used to
inform performance improvement.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

182
Guskey’s model is consistent with teachers’ professional development theoretical
framework that shows how change in teachers practice due to professional development
subsequently leads to increased student learning outcome. Figure 12, indicates Desimone’s
model showing sequences among the three outcomes of professional development (Desimone
L. , 2009) that correlates with Levels 2, 4, and 5 of Guskey’s evaluation model.

Figure 12. Core conceptual framework for studying the effects of professional development on
teachers and students. Adapted from Desimone (2009), Improving impact studies of teachers'
professional development: Towards better conceptualizations and measures.

Table 31 below summarizes how evaluation will be conducted for proposed interventions
at each level of the Guskey’s evaluation model.

Context such as teacher and student characteristics, curriculum, school leadership, policy environment
Professional
development
characterized
by: Content
focus, active
learning,
coherence,
duration,
collective
participation
Increased
teacher
learning;
change in
attitudes and
beliefs
Change
in
practice
Increased
student
achievement
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

183
Table 31
Evaluation plan

Interventio
n Proposed

Reactions
(Level 1)
Learning
(Level 2)
Organization
Support &
Change
(Level 3)

Behavior
(Level 4)
Results
(Level 5)
Creating
and
nurturing
Professiona
l Learning
Communiti
es (PLC)
Survey members
of PLCs group to
assess their
satisfaction with
the experience.
Following are
examples of
questions
addressed at this
level:
• Was your
time of
participating
in PLCs well
spent?
• Were you
engaged in
the learning?
• Were your
personal
learning
needs met?
• Are you
satisfied with
the degree of
collective
learning
practice?
• Do you feel
safe and seek
support from
PLC
members?
• Do you feel
comfortable
to share your
challenges
and success
stories from
classroom
teaching and
learning
process?

Conduct focus
group discussion
with the PLC
members,
examine PLCs
meeting minutes
and observe
individual
teachers’
classroom to
measure any new
knowledge or
skill. The main
question to be
addressed at this
level are:
Did the PLC
members acquire
the knowledge
and skills that are
intended to
improve their
classroom
practice and
student learning
outcome?
Administer
structured
interviews or
focus groups
and examine
school and
district records
to assess the
level of
organizational
support to
PLCs.
Following are
questions
addressed at this
level:
• What are
the impacts
of the PLCs
establishme
nt on the
school?
• Did it affect
the school
climate and
procedures?
• Were the
PLCs
promoted,
enabled,
and
supported?
• Were the
challenges
encountere
d addressed
swiftly and
efficiently?
• Were
enough
resources
(financial
and
material)
allocated to
PLCs?
Classroom
observation,
reflections
and structured
interviews
with PLC
participants to
determine to
what degree
they
implemented
learnings
from
participation
in PLCs into
their
classroom
practice. The
key questions
to be
addressed
here are:
• Did the
PLC
participa
nts apply
the new
knowledg
e and
skill
learned
from
their PLC
participat
ion in
their
classroo
m?
• How are
the PLC
participa
nts
applying
what they
learned?
Examine and
analyze the
student and
school records,
administer survey
questionnaire
and/or structured
interviews with
students, parents,
teachers, and
school principals
to assess student
learning
outcomes
improvement.
Questions to be
addressed
include:
• Did PLC
participation
impact
student
performance/
achievement
? What is the
evidence?
• Did students
reading
proficiency
improved?
• Are students
better
engaged in
their
learning?
• Are students
more
confident as
learners?
• Is student
attendance
rate
improving.
• Are school
dropouts
decreasing?
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

184
• Is enough
time within
the
workday is
available
and used
for
participatio
n in PLC?
• Are the
district and
school
leadership
recognizing
and
supporting
professiona
l learning
as the key
strategy for
improving
teaching
quality and
student
learning?
Developing
and
providing
relevant
and quality
CPD
materials
Survey teachers
who were
provided with
new CPD
modules and
manuals and ask if
these manuals are
quality and
relevant to their
professional
learning. Specific
question to ask
includes:
• Did the
materials/man
uals relevant
to your CPD
needs?
• Is the manual
clear and easy
to use?
• Are these
CPD
resources
useful to your
professional
learning and
teaching
practice?
Teachers
interviewed and
asked to reflect
on the benefits of
the manuals in
enhancing their
knowledge and
skill.
Additionally,
review teachers’
professional
portfolios to
determine any
new knowledge
or skill gained by
the users of the
manuals/module.
Key question to
ask here is:
• Did the
teachers
attain the
knowledge
and skills
those
manuals/mod
ules intended
to offer?

Examine school
records and
survey teachers
to assess if the
district and
schools are
continuously
improving
quality of the
materials and
created easy
access to the
CPD
modules/manual
s. Following are
key questions to
ask here:
• Are the
manuals
easily
accessible
to all
teachers?
• Did the
manual
preparation
and
revision
process
Observation
of teachers’
classroom
practice and
evaluate how
learned
knowledge,
skills, and
strategies
were applied
in their
classroom.
Additionally,
review their
professional
portfolios to
determine
documented
application of
learned
knowledge.
Following is
the main
question to
ask at this
level:
Did the users
of the
manuals/mod
ules
effectively
Review student
and school
records, interview
students, parents,
teachers, and
school principal
to determine the
improvement in
student
performance. Key
questions to ask
are:
• Did
provision of
relevant and
quality
modules/man
uals impact
student
achievement
? What is the
evidence?
• Did it
improve
classroom
interaction?
• Is there
improvement
in student
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

185
• Do you think
these manuals
are quality
and prepared
with high
professionalis
m?
• Do you think
you will use
these manuals
to inform
your CPD
engagement?
Do you think
these manuals
considered your
local contexts and
hence applicable?
engage
teachers?
• Are the
manuals
continuousl
y updated
to ensure
relevance?

apply the new
knowledge
and skills into
their
classroom
practice?
reading
proficiency?
• Did teacher
retention
improve?
Did teacher
attendance
improve? teacher
attendance?
Align the
organizatio
nal
structures
and
processes
with CPD
goals
Survey
questionnaire
administered at
the assessment
phase to
determine the
training needs and
at the end of the
training to assess
their initial
satisfaction with
the experience.
For the need
assessment,
provide list of
topics that are
considered
important for
effective CPD
practice by
teachers and ask
them to rate as; of
great need, some
need or no need.
To assess
satisfaction with
the training itself
ask the following
questions with a
Likert-scale
response
(Excellent, very
good, good, fair,
and poor):
• How do you
rate the
relevance of
the training to
Administer pen
and paper pre-test
and post-test on
teachers’
knowledge about
CPD meaning,
purpose, purpose,
toolkit,
professional
portfolio,
characteristics of
effective CPD,
and action
research to assess
whether the
participants
acquired the
intended
knowledge and
skills; use
experimental and
control group
should the
resource allows.
And use
performance test
and observation
to measure gain
in new intended
skills. This could
include asking
teachers to
demonstrate their
reflection skill
orally or in
writing, and
observation of
participant
Survey
questionnaires,
minutes of CPD
meetings,
interviews with
participants, and
school records
could be used to
document
organizational
support and
impact of the
training on the
organization.
The following
questions are
addressed at this
level of
evaluation:
• Is the
school
impacted?
How?
• Did it affect
school
environmen
t and
procedures?
• Was the
implementa
tion
supported
by the
school
principal
and district
leadership?
Interview
trained
teachers and
school
principals to
assess how
much of the
knowledge,
skills, and
attitudes
learned from
the training
transferred
into practice.
Additionally,
observation of
teachers’
classroom
practice and
engagement
in
professional
learning
communities
(PLC) and
review of
their work
including
action
research they
conducted
and their
professional
portfolio and
identify
application of
learnings
from the
Examining
student and
school records
and interview
students, parents,
teachers, and
school principals
to document
improvement in
student learning
outcomes
including
cognitive,
affective,
psychomotor.
The following
questions are
addressed to
evaluate at this
level:
• What was the
impact on
students’
achievement
?
• Did it
influence
students’
reading
proficiency?
• Did it
influence
students’
emotional
well-being?
• Are students
more
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

186
your effective
CPD
practice?
• How do you
rate training
period?
length?
• How do you
rate the
training
resources
provided?
• How do you
rate the
trainer’s
knowledge on
the topic?
Training
facilitation
skill?
• How do you
rate the
training space
convenience?
• How do you
rate the
refreshment
service?
portfolios. The
guiding
evaluation
question at this
stage is:

Did the training
participants
acquire the
intended
knowledge and
skills?
• Were
challenges
addressed
quickly and
efficiently?
• Were
adequate
resources
allocated?
• Were
achievemen
ts
recognized
and
celebrated?
training. The
following
questions are
addressed at
this level of
evaluation:
• Did the
training
participa
nts
effectivel
y apply
the new
knowledg
e and
skills?
• How are
participa
nts using
learned
teaching
and
learning
strategies
?
• What
challenge
are
participa
nts
encounter
ing to
practice
learning?
confident as
learners?
• Are students
actively
participating
in the
classroom?
• Is student
attendance
rate
improving.
• Is student
absenteeism
decreasing.

Survey CPD
practicing
teachers to
determine if they
are satisfied with
the support
structure provided
by the district.
Questions to ask
are:
• Do you think
you have
adequate
support (time,
financial, and
material) in
your CPD
practice from
district and
school
leadership?
Not Applicable Review district
and school
organizational
structure and
strategic plan
document to
assess the level
of importance
given to CPD.
Key questions
to ask while
reviewing the
documents are:
• Is CPD
recognized
in strategic
documents
as a priority
programme
area to
improved
Not
Applicable
Review school
and district
annual reports to
assess the
effectiveness of
institutionalizing
CPD in
improving
teachers’
classroom
practice and
student learning
outcomes. Key
questions to ask
here are:
• What was the
impact of
institutionali
zing CPD on
teachers’
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

187
• Is clear CPD
goal provided
by your
school?
• Is there a
clear CPD
structure and
process at
your school?
• Do you get
frequent and
effort focused
feedback on
your CPD
practice from
school and
cluster
supervisor?
teacher
quality and
ultimately
improve
education
quality?
• Is it clear
from the
org
structure
that there
are
personnel
responsible
for the
effective
execution
of CPD
• Is budget
clearly
earmarked
for the CPD
programme
?
classroom
practice?
• Did it
impact
student
achievement
and school
participation
? What is the
evidence?
• Did it reduce
teachers’
retention?
• Did it
improve
teachers’
collective
efficacy?
Link CPD
with
teachers’
incentives
Survey teachers to
assess their
perception on the
value of linking
CPD with their
incentives.
• Are you
happy with
the
government
decision to
link your
CPD practice
with teachers’
incentives?
• Do you think
this will
benefit
teachers
actively
practicing in
CPD?
• Do you see
this is an
incentive to
teachers?
• Will it
motivate you
to effectively
engage in
CPD?
Not Applicable Interview
teachers to
determine if the
policy of
linking CPD
with teachers’
incentives was
put into
practice. Key
questions to
ask:
• Is the
policy to
link CPD
with
teachers’
incentives
practically
implemente
d?
• Is the
policy
implementa
tion widely
shared,
promoted,
and
adequately
supported
by the
Not
Applicable
Review school
and district
annual reports to
assess the
effectiveness of
linking CPD with
teachers’
incentives in
improving
teachers’
classroom
practice and
student learning
outcomes. Key
questions to ask
here are:
• What was the
impact on
teachers’
classroom
practice?
• Did it
improve
teachers’
utility value
of CPD?
• Did it
improve
teachers’
interest to
actively
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

188
government
?
• What
challenges
encountere
d in the
implementa
tion process
of this
policy?
engage in
CPD?
• Did it
increase
teachers’
retention?
• Did it impact
student
achievement
? What is the
evidence?

Future Research
This mixed method study evaluated the extent to which BDEO’s teachers are successfully
engaging in effective CPD practices predominantly based on teachers self-reporting. In this
regard, future research could provide a relatively more complete picture about teachers’ CPD
practice by studying additional key stakeholders including school principals and cluster
supervisors. Further, empirical and longitudinal studies based on direct observation are also
important to investigate whether the teachers really change their teaching practices and students’
learning outcomes as a result of CPD practice. It is also evident from several studies that
leadership plays a significant role in teacher development (Stoll et al., 2012; Whitworth & Chiu,
2015). This study findings also suggest the need for supportive leadership to ensure effective
CPD practices by teachers. Therefore, future research is necessary to explore the school and
district’s leadership knowledge, motivation, and organizational needs to effectively support
teachers’ effective CPD engagement.
Conclusion
Teacher quality is considered one of the most important factors in student achievement
(Abebe & Woldehanna, 2013; Darling-Hammond, 2000; Gemeda et al., 2014; Muijs et a., 2004).
Therefore, it is justifiable for education systems to invest in teachers’ professional development.
However, not all types of professional development programs are effective in improving
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

189
classroom instruction and student learning outcomes (Darling-Hammond et al, 2017; Desimone
L. , 2009). This study examined the extent to which BDEO’s teachers are successfully engaging
in effective practices with a focus on analyzing the knowledge and skills, motivation, and
organizational influences. The main findings that emerged from the data analysis were limited
knowledge of the CPD program and effective practices, low teachers’ self-efficacy, limited
collaborative cultures in schools, unsupportive leadership, shortage of time, and lack of funding
and supplementary resources.
From the data analysis, it was also clear that the BDEO’s teachers CPD practice did not
meet the core-features of effective CPD design including: Content focus, active learning,
duration, collective participation, and coherence. Though the CPD framework claim that it was
developed with input from teachers, the reality as shared by teachers indicates that it was a top-
down prescribed program. The program assumes the “one-size -fits-all” approach with no
consideration of teacher differences. And the resource materials created were found mostly to be
generic with little value to increase teacher’s subject and pedagogical knowledge and skills. This
coupled with a lack of overall knowledge about the CPD program, resulted in limited buy-in to
the program. Many teachers tended to show-up at CPD meetings only because there is a
mandatory requirement of 60 hours per year and the quality of how these 60 hours spent is not a
consideration. CPD discussions are often conducted using teachers personal time which was also
another frustration for teachers already overburdened with their classroom teaching loads.
Teachers indicated that organizational factors including school culture, leadership
support, resources, and professional development opportunities as the major factors hindering
their successful engagement in effective CPD practices. Teachers indicated inadequacy of
collaborative culture among teachers due to lack of trust among teachers. The school and district
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

190
leadership were reported being incapable to effectively supporting teachers’ CPD practice. The
leadership was unable to build a culture of collaboration, provide coaching, mentoring, and
frequent corrective feedback on teachers’ CPD practice. Many teachers indicated no sense of
ownership among both teachers and school leadership. Teachers received neither CPD materials
nor appropriate training on it.
To summarize, despite the CPD framework intention to improve teacher practice and
student learning, based on the study findings this initiative has only been realized on paper rather
than in practice for over a decade. If the program failed to deliver on its’ promises for over a
decade, it is unwise to expect results without revitalizing the program. This study proposed
evidence-based solutions to revitalize the program and close performance gaps. The solutions
recommended in this study address all the validated influences: (1) Create effective professional
learning communities (PLCs); (2) Develop and provide relevant and quality CPD materials; (3)
Align the organizational structures and processes with CPD goals; (4) Linking CPD with
teachers’ incentives. Schools should also develop a culture of using university graduate youth
volunteers and other professionals in the communities to replace teachers so that they have time
to engage in their CPD activities. The implementation of these solutions will enable BDEO’s
teachers to successfully engage in effective CPD practices. The engagement in effective CPD
practices will help teachers to engage in continuous learning and transform their instruction with
a focus on student learning.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

191
REFERENCES
Abebe, W., & Woldehanna, T. (2013). Teacher training and development in ethiopia: Improving
education quality by developing teacher skills, attitudes and work conditions. Oxford:
Young Lives.
Akalu, G. A. (2014). Interrogating the continuing professional development policy framework in
Ethiopia: a critical discourse analysis. Professional Development in Education, 42(2),
179-200. doi:10.1080/19415257.2014.940627
Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M., Lovett, M. C., DiPietro, M., & Norman, M. K. (2010). How
learning works: 7 research based principles for smart teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-
Bass.
American Psychological Association [APA]. (2010). Publication manual of the American
Psychological Association (6th ed. ed.). Washington, DC, United States of America:
American Psychological Assiciation.
Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing :
a revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Addison Wesley
Longman, Inc.
Avalos, B. (2011). Teacher professional development in teaching and teacher eduation over ten
years. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27, 10-20.
Bandura, A. (1994). Self-efficacy. Encyclopedia of human behavior, 4, pp. 71-81.
Barbare District Education Office. (2016). Annual Report. Haro Dumal.
Barber, M. (2017). How to deliver improved outcomes for school systems. Doha, Qatar: World
Innovation Summit for Education (WISE).
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

192
Barber, M., & Mourshed, M. (2007). How the world's best-performing school systems come out
on top. McKinsey & company.
Barnes, A. E., Zuilkowski, S. S., Mekonnen, D., & Mattoussi, F. R. (2017). Improving teacher
training in Ethiopia: Shifting the content and approach of pre-service teacher education.
Teaching and Teacher Education, 70, 1-11.
Betemariam, B. A. (2017). Generating Evidence: The Evaluation of the Teacher Continuous
Professional Development Framework, in case of Ethiopia. Lynn University. Lynn
University. Retrieved from https://spiral.lynn.edu/etds/5
Borko, H. (2004). Professional development and teacher learning: Mapping the terrain.
Educational Researcher, 33(8), 3-15.
Boyle, B., Lamprianou , I., & Boyle, T. (2005). A longitudinal study of teacher change: What
makes professional development effective? Report of the second year of the study.
School Effectiveness and School Improvement: An International Journal of Research,
Policy and Practice, 16, 1-27.
Bubb, S., & Earley , P. (2007). Leading and managing continuing professional development:
Developing people, developing schools (2nd ed.). London: Paul Chapman Publishing.
Casale, M. (2011, March 30). Teachers' perceptions of pDevelopment: An exploration of
delivery models. Disseration for the Degree of Doctor of Education, Johnson & Wales
University.
Cheetham, G., & Chivers, G. (2005). Professions, competence and informal. Edward Elgar
Publishing.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

193
Christie, P., Harley, K., & Penny, A. (2004). Case Studies from Sub-Saharan Africa. In C. Day,
& J. Sachs, International handbook on the continuing professional development of
teachers (pp. 167-190). McGraw-Hill Education.
CIA. (2018, May 24). Ethiopia: The world fact book. Retrieved from CIA-WAPS:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/et.html
Clark, R. E., & Estes, F. (2008). Turning research into results: A guide to selecting the right
performance solutions. Charlotte,, NC, USA: Information Age Publishing INC.
Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. L. (1999). Relationships of knowledge and practice: Teacher
learning in communities. Review of Research in Education, 24, 249-305. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1167272
Colbert, J. A., Brown, R. S., Choi, S., & Thomas, S. (2008). An investigation of the impacts of
teacher-driven professional development on pedagogy and student Learning. Teacher
Education Quarterly, 135- 154.
Cole, P. (2004). Professional development: A great way to avoid Change (Vol. Paper No. 140).
Melbourne: Center for Strategic Education.
Craft, A. (1996). Continuing professional development: A practical guide for teachers and
schools. London: Routledge.
Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods
approaches (Fourth ed.). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publication, Inc.
Darling-Hammond, L. (2000). Teacher quality and student acheivement: A review of state policy
evidence. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 1068-2341.
Darling-Hammond, L., & McLaughlin, M. (2011). Policies that support professional
development in the era of reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(6), 81-92.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

194
Darling-Hammond, L., & McLaughlin, M. W. (1995). Policies that support professional
development in an era of reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 76(8), 1-14.
Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M. E., & Gardner, M. (2017). Effective teacher professional
development. Palo, Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute. Retrieved from
https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/teacher-prof-dev.
Darling-Hammond, L., Wei, R. C., Andree, A., Richardson, N., & Orphanos, S. (2009).
Professional learning in the learning profession: A status report on teacher development
in the United States and abroad. National Staff Development Council.
Day, C. (1999). Developing Teachers: The Challenges of Lifelong Learning. Taylor and Francis.
Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/socal/detail.action?docID=165303.
Day, C., & Sachs, J. (2004). Professionalism, Performativity and empowerment: discourses in
the politics, policies and purposes of continuing professional development. In
International Handbook on the Continuing Professional Development of Teachers (pp. 3-
32). McGraw-Hill Education.
Day, C., Sammons, P., Stobart, G., Kington, A., & Gu, Q. (2007). Teachers Matter: Connecting
lives, work, and effectiveness. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Dembo, M. H., & Seli, H. (2016). Motivation and learning strategies for college success: a focus
on self-regulated learning (5th edition ed.). New York, NY, USA: Routledge Taylor &
Francis Group.
Desimone, L. (2009). Improving impact studies of teachers' professional development: Towards
better conceptualizations and measures. Educational Researcher, 38(3), 181-199.
Desimone, L. (2011). A primer on effective professional development. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(6),
68-71.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

195
Desimone, L. M., Porter, A. C., Garet, M. S., Yoon, K. S., & Birman, B. F. (2002). Effects of
teachers' professional development on instruction: Results from a three-year longitudinal
study. Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis Policy, 24, 81-112.
DuFour , R., & Reeves, D. (2016). The futility of PLC lite. Kappan, 97(6), 69-73. Retrieved from
www.kappanmagazine.org
DuFour, R. (2004). What is a "professional learning communities"? Educational Leadership, 6-
11.
Eccles, J. (2010). Expectancy value motivational theory. Education.com.
Fink, A. (2017). How to conduct surveys: A step-by-step guide. (Sixth, Ed.) Los Angeles:
SAGE.
Fisher, D., Frey, N., & Hattie, J. (2016). Visible learning for literacy: Implementing the practice
that work best to accelerate student learning: Grades K-12. Thousand Oaks, CA: A
SAGE Company.
French, H., & Dowds, J. (2008). An overview of continuing professional development in
physiotherapy. Physiotherapy, 190-197.
Friedman, A., & Phillips, M. (2004). Continuing professional development: developing a vision.
Journal of Education and Work, 361-376.
Friedman, A., & Woodhead, S. (2008). Approaches to CPD measurement. Professional
Associations Research Network (PARN), 1-117.
Gallimore, R., & Goldenberg, C. (2001). Analyzing cultural models and settings to connect
minority achievement and school improvement research. Educational Psychologist,
36(1), 45-56. doi:10.1207/S15326985EP3601_5
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

196
Garet, M. S., Porter, A. C., Desimone, L., Birman, B. F., & Yoon, K. S. (2001). What makes
professional development effective? Results from a national sample of teachers.
American Educational Research Journal, 38, 915-945.
Geldenhuys, J. L., & Oosthuizen, L. C. (2015). Challenges influencing teachers' involvement in
continuous professional development: A South African perspective. Teaching and
Teacher Education, 203-212.
Gemechu, E., Shishigu, A., Michael, K., Atnafu, M., & Ayalew, Y. (2017). Reforms of teacher
education in Ethiopia: A historical analysis . Research Journal of Educational Sciences,
1-6.
Gemeda, F. T., & Professor, P. T. (2015). Professional learning of teachers in Ethiopia:
Challenges and implications for reform. Australian Journal of Teachers Education,
40(5), 1-26.
Gemeda, F. T., Fiorucci, M., & Catarci, M. (2014). Teachers' professional development in
schools: rehotric versus reality. Professional Development in Education, 4(1), 71-88.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2012.759988
Geringer, J. (2003). Reflection on professional development towards high quality teaching and
learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 84(5), 373-380.
Glesne, C. (2011). Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction. Boston: Pearson
Education, Inc.,.
Goddard, D. R., Hoy, K. W., & Hoy, A. W. (2000). Collective teacher efficacy: Its meaning,
measure, and impact on student achievement. American Educational Research Journal,
37(2), 479-507.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

197
Goodall, J., Day, C., Lindsay, G., Muijs, D., & Harris, A. (2005). Evaluating the impact of
continuing professional development: Research report number 659. Department for
Education and skills.
Great Schools Partnership. (2014). The glossary of education reform. Retrieved from Great
schools partnership website: https://www.edglossary.org
Guskey, T. R. (2000). Evaluating professional development. Thousand Oaks, CA, USA: Crowin
Press.
Guskey, T. R. (2002). Professional development and teacher. Teachers and Teaching: theory and
practice, 381-391.
Guskey, T. R. (2003). What makes professional development effective? Phi Delta Kappan, 748-
750.
Hanushek, E. A. (2003). The failure of input-based schooling policies. The Economic Journal,
64-98.
Hargreaves, A., & Fullan, M. (2012). Professional capital: Transforming teaching in every
school. Toronto, NY: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.
Harris, A., & Jones, M. (2010). Professional learning communities and system improvement.
Improving Schools, 13(2), 172-181. doi:10.1177/1365480210376487
Hattie, J. (2003). Teachers make a difference. What is the research evidence? Australian Council
for Educational Research, 1-17.
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analysis relating to
acheivement. New York, NY: Routledge.
Hord, S. M., & Tobia, E. F. (2012). Reclaiming our teaching profession: The power of educators
learning in community. New York: Teachers College Press.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

198
Imagine1day. (2018). Community driven primary education project progress report. Bale, Robe.
Johnson, R. B., & Christensen, L. B. (2015). Educational research: Quantitative, qualitative, and
mixed approaches, Ch. 10 (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Katzenmeyer, M., & Moller, G. (2009). Awakening the sleeping giant: Helping teachers develop
as leaders. Thousand Oaks, California: A SAGE Company.
Kennedy, A. (2014). Models of continuing professional development: A framework for analysis.
Professional Development in Education, 40(3), 336-351. Retrieved from
https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2014.929293
Killion, J. (2008). Assessing impact: Evaluating staff development. Thousand Oaks: Corwin
Press.
Kirkpatrick, D. L., & Kirkpatrick, J. D. (2006). Evaluating Training Programs: The Four Levels
(3rd Edition ed.). San Francisco: Berrett Koehler Publishers, Inc., pp. 1-114.
Leithwood, K., Harris, A., & Hopkins, D. (2008). Seven strong claims about successful school
leadership. School Leadership and Management, 28(1), 27-42.
Little, J. W. (2001). Professional development in pursuit of school reform. In A. Lieberman, &
L. Miller, Teachers caught in the action (pp. 23-44). New York: Teachers College Press.
Luneta, K. (2012). Designing continuous professional development programmes for teachers: A
literature review. Africa Education review, 9(2), 360-379.
doi:10.1080/18146627.2012.722395
Mayer, R. E. (2011). Applying the science of Learning. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.
McCann, T. M., Jones, A. C., & Aronoff, G. A. (2012). Teaching matters most: A school leader's
guide to improving classroom instruction. United States of America: A joint publication
by Corwin A SAGE compnay and Learningforward.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

199
Merriam, S. B., & Tisdell, E. J. (2016). Qualitative research: A guide to design and
implementation (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Brand.
Method, F., Ayele, T., Bonner, C., Horn, N., Meshesha, A., & Abiche, T. T. (2010). Impact
assessment of USAID’s education program in Ethiopia 1994-2009. Washington D.C:
Aguirre Division of JBS Internationalunder Task Order 27 of USAID’s Global
Evaluation and Monitoring (GEM) II BPA, EDH-E-27-08-00003-00.
Ministry of Education. (1994). Education and trainign policy. Addis Ababa: MOE.
Ministry of Education. (2002). The education and training policy and its implementation. Addis
Ababa: MOE.
Ministry of Education. (2008). General Education Improvement Package (GEQIP). Addis
Ababa: MOE.
Ministry of Education. (2009). Continuous professional development for primary and secondary
school teachers, leaders and supervisors in Ethiopia: The framework. Addis Ababa:
Ministry of Education.
Ministry of Education. (2009a). Continuous professional development for primary and secondary
school teachers, leaders and supervisors in Ethiopia: The framework. Addis Ababa:
Ministry of Education.
Ministry of Education. (2010). Education Sector Development Plan IV (ESDP IV): 2010/11 -
2014/15. Addis Ababa: MOE.
Ministry of Education. (2015). Education Sector Development Plan V (ESDP V) 2014/15-
2019/20. Addis Ababa: FDRE, MOE.
Ministry of Education. (2016). Annual education statistics abstract. Addis Ababa: MOE.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

200
Ministry of Education. (2017). 2015/16 Annual Education Statistics Abstract. Addis Ababa:
MOE.
Ministry of Education and USAID. (2008). Review of the Ethiopian Education and Training
Policy and its Implementation. Addis Ababa: MOE.
Mourshed, M., Chijioke, C., & Barber, M. (2010). How the world's most improved school
systems keep getting better. McKinsey and Company. Retrieved September 2017, from
http://mckinseyonsociety.com/how-the-worlds-most-improved-school-systems-keep-
getting-better/
Mpokosa, C., & Ndaruhutse, S. (2008). Managing teachers: The centrality of teacher
management to quality education. Lessons from developing countries. London and
Reading: CfBT and VSO. Retrieved from www.cfbt.com/evidenceforeducation
Muijs, D., Day, C., Harris, A., & Lindsay, G. (2004). Evaluating CPD: an overview. In C. Day ,
& J. Sachs, International Handbook on the Continuing Professional Development of
Teachers (pp. 291-310). McGraw-Hill Education.
National Planning Commission. (2016). Growth and Transformation Plan II (GTP 2). Addis
Ababa: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
Negash, T. (1996). Rethinking education in Ethiopia. Sweden: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet,
Uppsala.
Negash, T. (2006). Education in Ethiopia: From crisis to the brink of collapse. Stockholm,
Sweden: Elanders Gotab AB.
OECD. (2009). Creating effective teaching and learning environments. Paris: OECD.
OECD. (2015). Embedding professional Development in schools for teacher success. Paris:
OECD Publishing.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

201
Ono, Y., & Ferreira, J. (2010). A case study of continuing teacher professional development
through lesson study in South Africa. South African Journal of Education, 30, 59-74.
Pajares, F. (2010). Self-efficacy theory. Retrieved from Education.com:
http://www.education.com/reference/article/self-efficacy-theory/
Patton, K., Parker, M., & Pratt, E. (2013). Meaningful learning in professional development:
Teaching without telling. Journal of teaching in physical education, 32, 441-459.
Patton, K., Parker, M., & Tannehill, D. (2015). Helping teachers help themselves: Professional
development that makes a difference. NASSP Bulletin, 99(1), pp. 26-42.
Pierre, D. (1999). What do you mean by collaborative learning? HAL Archives Ouvertes, 1-19.
Pintrich, P. R. (2003). A motivational science perspective on the role of student motivation in
learning and teaching contexts. Journal of Education Psychology, 95(4), 667-686.
doi:10.1037/0022-0663.95.4.667
Piper, B. (2010). Ethiopia early grade reading assessment data analytic report: Language and
early learning. Prepared for USAID/Ethiopia under the education data for decision
making (EdData II) project, 15. Retrieved July 18, 2017
Rhodes, C., & Beneicke, S. (2003). Professional development support for poorly performing
teachers: Challenges and opportunities for school managers in addressing teacher
learning needs. In-service Education, 29(1), 123-140.
Robinson, V. (2011). Student-centered leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Rodgers, R. C. (2002). Seeing student learning: Teacher change and the role of reflection. Voices
Inside Schools, 72(2), 230 - 254.
Rubin, J. H., & Rubin, S. I. (2012). Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data. Los
Angeles: Sage Publications, Inc.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

202
Rueda, R. (2011). The 3 dimensions of improving student performance: Finding the right
solutions to the right problems. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Schein, H. E. (2004). Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Semela, T. (2014). Teacher preparation in Ethiopia: A critical analysis of reforms. Cambridge
Journal of Education, 44(1), 113-145.
Shepardson , D. P., & Harbor, J. (2004). ENVISION: The effectiveness of a dual‐level
professional development model for changing teacher practice. Environmental Education
Research, 10(4), 471-492. doi:10.1080/1350462042000291010
Stoll, L., Bolam, R., Mcmahon, A., Walla, M., & Thomas, S. (2006). Professional learning
communities: A review of the literature. Journal of Educational Change, 7, 221-258.
doi:10.1007/s10833-006-0001-8
Stoll, L., Harris, A., & Handscomb, G. (2012). Great professional development which leads to
great pedagogy: Nine claims from research. National College for School Leadership.
Sydow, D. (2000). Long-term investment in professional development: real dividends in teaching
and learning. Community College Journal of Research and Practice(24), 383-397.
Thashika, P. (2010). Critical perspectives on NGOs and educational policy development in
Ethiopia. Journal of Alternative perspectives in the social sciences, 2(1), 92-121.
The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral
Research. (1979). The belmont report: Ethical principles guidlines for the protection of
human subjects of research.
UN. (2017). SDG Report 2017. Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Retrieved from
https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2017/Goal-04/
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

203
UNESCO. (2014). Education for all global monitoring report: Teaching and learning: Acheiving
quality for all. UNESCO.
Vescio, V., Ross, D., & Adams, A. (2008). A review of research on the impact of professional
learning communities on teaching practice and student learning. Teaching and Teacher
Education, 80-91. Retrieved from www.sciencedirect.com
Villegas-Reimers, E. (2003). Teacher professional development: An international review of the
literature. Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning. Retrieved from
http://unesco.org/iiep
Wahlstrom, K. L., & Louis, K. S. (2008). How teachers experience principal leadership: The
roles of professional community, trust, efficacy, and shared responsibility. Educational
Administration Quarterly, 44(4), 458-495. doi:10.1177/0013161X08321502
Wenglinsky, H. (2002). How schools matter: The link between teacher classroom practices and
student academic performance. 10(12).
Whitworth, B. A., & Chiu, J. L. (2015, January 14). Professional development and teachers
change: The missing leadership link. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 121-137.
doi:10.1007/s10972-014-9411-2
WISE. (2015). 2015 WISE education survey: Connecting education to the real world. GALLUP.
World Bank. (2013). Secondary Education in Ethiopia. Supporting Growth and Transformation.
Washington, DC: World Bank.
World Bank. (2013a). International development association project appraisal: General education
quality improvement project II. Education sector unit for East and South Africa.
World Bank. (2013b). Secondary Education in Ethiopia. Supporting Growth and Transformation.
Washington, DC: World Bank.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

204
World Bank. (2017). Implementation Status and Results Report. Addis Ababa: World Bank.
Yoon, K. S., Duncan, T., Lee, S. W.-Y., Scarloss, B., & Shapley, K. L. (2007). Reviewing the
evidence on how teacher professional development affects student achievement. Regional
Educational Laboratory Southwest. . Retrieved from
http://libproxy.usc.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-
com.libproxy2.usc.edu/docview/62058850?accountid=14749
Zepeda, J. S. (2008). Professional development: What works. Larchmont: Eye on Education, Inc.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

205
APPENDIX A
SURVEY ITEMS
This questionnaire aims to look at your experience of CPD practice and activities and how these
are evaluated from your perspective. All responses will be in complete confidence. No school or
participant will be identified in any report of findings.
Instruction: Please complete and return this survey by hand to the researcher.
1. Gender:
o Male
o Female
2. Your age: _________________
3. How long have you been a teacher? ________
a. Out of your total service, how many years you served in this school? ______
4. What is your highest level of education?
 High School Complete
 College diploma
 BA/BSc degree
 MA/MSc degree
 Other, please specify________________
5. Which of the following CPD method have you experienced in your school over the last
12 months?
Often Sometimes Rarely Never
Action research
Collaborative learning
Single Workshops/courses
Visiting schools to see examples
of good practice

Visiting teachers to see examples
of good practice

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

206
Discussion meetings
Demonstration lessons
Planning lesson together
Peer observation
Observation of lesson and
feedback

Observation of students in lessons
Assessment of students’ work
before and after the CPD activity

Shadowing a teacher
Maintaining your professional
portfolio

Team teaching
Mentoring
Self-directed study
Other (please specify)
……………………………

6. Which one of the following areas were the focus of your CPD activities over the last 12
months?
Often Sometimes Rarely Never
Subject matter content
Teaching methodologies and
strategies

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

207
Classroom management
techniques

Life-skills
Continuous assessment
CPD framework
Action research
Other (please specify)
……………………………

7. Please rate the impacts of your engagement in CPD activities?
Highly
changed
Somewhat
changed
Not
changed
Improvement in my knowledge
and skills

Positive change in my attitudes
Positive change in my classroom
practice

Improved my student’s behavior
Improved my students’ learning
outcome

Enhanced collegiality with
colleagues

Other (please specify)
……………………………

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

208
8. Please rate the effectiveness of the following forms of CPD in enhancing your
professional Knowledge, skills and attitude?
Highly
effective
Somewhat
effective
Somewhat
ineffective
Ineffective Never
participate
d in this
type of
activity
Action research
Collaborative learning
Single
Workshops/courses

Visiting schools to see
examples of good
practice

Visiting teachers to
see examples of good
practice

Discussion meetings
Demonstration lessons
Planning lesson
together

Peer observation
Observation of lesson
and feedback

Observation of
students in lessons

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

209
Assessment of
students’ work before
and after the CPD
activity

Shadowing a teacher
Maintaining your
professional portfolio

Team teaching
Mentoring
Self-directed study
Other (please specify)
…………………

9. I believe collaborative learning is valuable for me in supporting my students to achieve at
least basic reading proficiency.
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
10. I believe learning through peer collaboration worth my time.
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
11. I believe engaging in action research is valuable for me in supporting my students to
achieve at least basic proficiency.
 Strongly Disagree
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

210
 Disagree
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
12. Active engagement in collaborative learning enables me to become an expert teacher.
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
13. I am confident in my ability to conduct action research.
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
14. The culture of our school encourages collaborative learning.
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
15. We have a strong collaborative learning culture at our school.
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
16. Our school principal is supportive in our action research engagement.
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
17. Our cluster supervisor is supportive in our action research engagement.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

211
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
18. The school principal is highly supportive of collaborative learning among teachers.
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
19. Our school provide enough time for teachers to participate in collaborative learning.
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
20. Our school provides enough time for teachers to conduct action research.
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
21. Our district allocates adequate resources to facilitate teachers’ active engagement in
collaborative learning.
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
22. Our district allocates adequate resources for teachers to engage in action research.
 Strongly Disagree
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

212
 Disagree
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
23. Over the last 12 months, I received appropriate training in the area of collaborative
learning.
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
24. Over the last 12 months, I received appropriate training in the area of action research.
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
25. The training I received on action research meets my needs.
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
26. Our school provides ongoing CPD opportunity.
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
27. The school provides sustained CPD.
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

213
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
28. Our school CPD plans have had clearly defined goals based on student learning outcomes
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
29. For the most part, my CPD experiences have improved my classroom practices.
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
30. I have been able to collect verifying evidence on improvements in student learning
outcomes to evaluate the effectiveness of CPD experience.
 Strongly Disagree
 Disagree
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
31. How many hours of CPD activities you were engaged in over the last 12 months?
 Less than 49 hours
 49-59 hours
 60 hours and above
32. What are the challenges you encountered in in your effort to practice effective CPD, if
any?

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

214
33. What do you propose to be done to ensure effective CPD practice by primary school
teachers in Ethiopia?

34. Please provide if you have any other feedback about teachers’ CPD practice in Ethiopia.

Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey!
To gain in-depth understanding about CPD, I will be conducting one-on-one cross-
sectional interview. If you are willing to participate in the interview, please complete the
interview commitment sheet on a separate sheet provided with this survey questionnaire.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

215
APPENDIX B
INTERVIEW PARTICIPANT RECRUITMENT SHEET
If you are willing to be considered to participate in an in-depth interview, please complete the
following information and return separately to the researcher.
i. Your name: _______________________
ii. Gender:
o Male
o Female
iii. Your age: _________________
iv. How long have you been a teacher? ________
a. Out of your total service, how many years you served in this school? ______
v. What Grade level do you teach? __________
vi. What Subject do you teach? ___________
vii. What is your highest level of education?
 High School Complete
 College diploma
 BA/BSc degree
 MA/MSc degree
 Other, please specify________________
viii. Your Cellphone Number: ________________
ix. In your opinion, how knowledgeable you are about teachers’ CPD practice in Ethiopia?
 Highly Knowledgeable
 Moderately knowledgeable
 Somewhat Knowledgeable
 Not Knowledgeable
Please note that your contacts will be used only to seek subsequent feedback on the researcher’s
interpretation and preliminary study findings; if needed.
Thank you for volunteering to be considered to participate in the interview.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

216
APPENDIX C
INTERVIEW PROTOCOL
Instruction: Interview two teachers from each selected school and among those who
volunteered for interview and have the highest years of teaching experience.
Thank you for volunteering to schedule this interview with me. I am a doctoral candidate
at Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California, USA. The purpose of this
research is to investigate the degree to which Barbare District Education Office (BDEO) teachers
are successfully engaging in effective Continuous Professional Development (CPD) practices.
It is anticipated that each interview will take approximately 45 minutes and will be
recorded. Your responses to the questions will be kept confidential and I will assign assumed
names to the interview to keep your identity confidential. Data collected from interviews and
self-administered surveys will identify the knowledge, motivation, and organizational challenges
for BDEO’s teachers to successfully engage in effective CPD practice. The study finding may
assist teachers, district policy makers, and school leaders in the quest for effective CPD practice.
In the informed consent you agreed to audio recording; once again I would like to remind
you that this interview will be recorded. After transcribed, the digital recording will be destroyed
to keep your identity confidential. With this in mind, is it ok if I record my entire interview
session with you today?

1. What comes to your mind when you hear the phrase “CPD”?
• What is CPD?
• What do you know about CPD framework; if at all?
• What is the purpose of CPD?
• Walk me through the CPD cycle?
2. What evidence do you or the school collect about the impact of your CPD at school,
teacher and student levels?
3. Tell me what you know about portfolio of CPD?
• Who is responsible to keep portfolio of CPD?
• What goes into the CPD portfolio?
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

217
• Walk me through the steps of keeping portfolio of CPD; if you know at all.
• What is the purpose of keeping portfolio?
4. Tell me your experience of using the national CPD toolkit?
• Do you use it? If yes, how? Give me an example of the last time you used it.
• What do you say about its clarity? Usefulness?
5. In your opinion, what are the characteristics of effective CPD? Give me an example of
effective CPD you experienced.
6. Think of effective CPD experience you had, what did you find most helpful?
o How your classroom instructional practice is different because of the
experience?
o How has your students’ learning experience improved as a result of this
positive experience?
o What evidence do you have to support your statement?
7. What makes CPD ineffective? Give me an example of the ineffective CPD you
experienced. What was missing?
8. What comes to your mind when you think of collaborative learning?
• Tell me ways you participate in collaborative learning, if at all.
• Give me an example of a collaborative learning experience you experienced
over the last 12 months.
• Was your collaborative experience useful? If yes, in what way do you find it
useful?
• How common is the peer classroom observation practice in your school? Tell
me more about your experience of it.
• Do you reflect about your classroom observation with other teachers?
• How do you judge the trust among the teachers to collaborate?

9. Tell me what you know about action research.
• Walk me through the steps you would take when conducting action research?
• What does the first step look like when implemented?
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

218
• Provide a recent example of a time when you conducted action research.
• What was your action research about?
• How did you collect the data?
• How did you analyze the data?
• Why about this topic?
• What did you do with the study?
• What do you need to master conducting useful action research?
10. Tell me about the last time you reflected on your learning needs; if at all?
• Who else was involved in the reflection?
• What did you have reflected on?
• What learning needs have you identified in that reflection?
• What steps have you taken with the outcome of your reflection?
• What did you reflect on commonly?
11. Tell me about the last time you reflected on your teaching practice; if at all?
• Who else was involved in the reflection?
• What did you have reflected on?
• What areas of your teaching have you identified to improve in that reflection?
• What steps have you taken with the outcome of your reflection?
• What did you reflect on commonly?
12. Is there anything more that you would like to share about teachers CPD practice in
Ethiopia?
Thank you so much for participating in this interview. For questions or additional
thoughts related to this study, feel free to contact me by email using seidamam@usc.edu
or call me at 251 935 99 89 16. May I also contact you for any follow-up clarifications?

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

219
APPENDIX D
DOCUMENT REVIEW CHECKLIST
Instructions: Review the teacher professional portfolio and action research to examine if teachers
have the knowledge, skill and organization support to successfully engage in effective CPD
practice. Place a tick ( ) for each activity or document present.

Description of document reviewed
Is it present?

Yes

No

Comments
I National Policy documents
The teacher has a copy of CPD framework
document.

The teacher has a copy of “The purpose of
professional Portfolio” document

The teacher has a copy of CPD modules
The teacher has “The Practical CPD toolkit”
manual

II Teacher Professional portfolio
The teacher annually updates her/his
professional portfolio

The teacher portfolio has been at least annually
reviewed

In the portfolio, the teacher clearly identified
CPD needs and articulated plan.

The portfolio includes detail analysis of
student’s achievement with analysis

The teacher documented self-reflection on
progress in her/his professional portfolio

III Action Research
The teacher has been conducting action
research.

The action research conducted by the teacher is
inquiry-based.

The action research conducted targeted
identified teaching and learning problems.

The action research conducted lead to
deliberate and planned action

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

220
APPENDIX E
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
INFORMATION SHEET FOR RESEARCH

(Effectiveness of Continuous Professional Development in Ethiopia: Evaluation Study)

You are invited to participate in a research study conducted by Seid Mohammed at the University
of Southern California. Please read through this form and ask any questions you might have before
deciding whether you want to participate.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
This research study aims to understand the degree to which Barbare District Education Office
(BDEO) is meeting its goal of 100% teachers successfully engaging in effective CPD practices.

PARTICIPANT INVOLVEMENT
If you agree to take part in this study, you will be asked to complete a 15 minutes self-administered
survey and return it to the principal investigator. You do not have to answer any questions you
don’t want to. If you are interested, you could also choose to be considered to participate in a 45-
minutes face to face in-depth semi-structured interviews which will be followed-up with a 15-
minutes document review.

PAYMENT/COMPENSATION FOR PARTICIPATION
Your participation will be voluntarily and there will be no financial incentive for participation.

CONFIDENTIALITY

Any identifiable information obtained in connection with this study will remain confidential. At
the completion of the study, direct identifiers will be destroyed, and the de-identified data may be
used for future research studies. If you do not want your data used in future studies, you should
not participate.

The members of the research team and the University of Southern California’s Human Subjects
Protection Program (HSPP) may access the data. The HSPP reviews and monitors research studies
to protect the rights and welfare of research subjects.

INVESTIGATOR CONTACT INFORMATION
If you have any questions or concerns about the research, please feel free to contact Seid
Mohammed at seidamam@usc.edu and/or 251 935 99 8916.

IRB CONTACT INFORMATION
If you have questions, concerns, or complaints about your rights as a research participant or the
research in general and are unable to contact the research team, or if you want to talk to someone
independent of the researcher, please contact the University Park Institutional Review Board
(UPIRB), 3720 South Flower Street #301, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0702, (213) 821-5272 or
upirb@usc.edu.
Thank you!
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

221
APPENDIX F
RECRUITMENT LETTER
Dear Participant,
I am a doctoral student conducting research under the supervision of Professor Rob Filback at
the University of Southern California. I will explain the study to you in detail and you should
feel free to ask me any questions about the study that you may have. If at a later time, you would
like additional information about this study, you should contact Seid Mohammed at 251 935 99
8916 and/or e-mail: seidamam@usc.edu.
The purpose of this research is to investigate the degree to which Barbare District Education
Office (BDEO) teachers are successfully engaging in effective Continuous Professional
Development (CPD) practices. Data collected from self-administered surveys and interviews will
identify the perceptions of primary school teachers about their CPD practice effectiveness.
Filling out the survey instrument will take about 15 minutes. Also, participants will be asked to
volunteer to participate in interview that will last approximately for 45 minutes. The risks
involved with participation in this study are no more than one would experience in regular daily
activities. The study finding may assist teachers, district policy makers, and school leaders in the
quest for effective CPD practice.
If you do decide not to participate, you may terminate your participation at any time with no
penalty. If you have concern about this study process, you may send your concerns to Dr. Rob
Filback, chairperson of my dissertation, by sending an email to rfilback@gmail.com.
Thank you for your time, I really appreciate your feedback.
Seid Mohammed Signature_______________

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

222
APPENDIX G
INFLUENCER AND PROTOCOL TABLE
A. Knowledge Influence and Protocol
Assumed Knowledge
Influence

Instrument
Type

How will it be validated (item)?
Teachers need knowledge
of the national CPD
framework, toolkit and
portfolio (K1).
Interview 13. What comes to your mind when you hear the
phrase “CPD”?
• What is CPD?
• What do you know about CPD framework;
if at all?
• What is the purpose of CPD?
• Walk me through the CPD cycle?
14. What evidence do you or the school collect about
the impact of your CPD at school, teacher and
student levels?
15. Tell me what you know about professional
portfolio of CPD.
• Who is responsible to keep portfolio of
CPD?
• What goes into the CPD portfolio?
• Walk me through the steps of keeping
portfolio of CPD; if you know at all.
• What is the purpose of keeping portfolio?
• How often updated?
• Who reviews it?
4. Tell me your experience of using the national
CPD toolkit.
a. Do you use it? If yes, how? Give me
an example of the last time you used
it.
b. What do you say about its clarity?
Usefulness?
Document
review

• The portfolio has been annually updated.
(Yes/No)
• In the portfolio, the teacher clearly identified
CPD needs and articulated plan. (Yes/No)
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

223

Survey

• The portfolio includes detail analysis of student’s
achievement with analysis. (Yes/No)
• The teacher documented self-reflection on
progress in her/his professional portfolio.
(Yes/No)

7 n and l. Which of the following CPD method
have you experienced in your school over the last
12 months (Maintaining professional portfolio,
assessment of students’ work before and after)?
8f. Which one of the following areas were the
focus of your CPD activities over the last 12
months (CPD framework)?
Teachers need to
understand the
characteristics of effective
CPD (K2)
Interview 5. In your opinion, what are the characteristics
of effective CPD? Give me an example of
effective CPD you experienced.
6. Think of effective CPD experience you had,
what did you find most helpful?
• Tell me about the teaching strategies that
you improved because of your experience.
How your classroom instructional practice
is different because of the experience?
• How has your students’ learning
experience improved as a result of this
positive experience?
• What evidence do you have to support
your statement?
7. What makes CPD ineffective? Give me an
example of the ineffective CPD you
experienced. What was missing?
Survey 35. What do you propose to be done to ensure
effective CPD practice by primary school
teachers in Ethiopia?
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

224
Teachers need to know
how to collaborate with
other teachers via
observation and reflection
to improve their own
teaching effectiveness and
that of others (K3).
Interview

Survey
8. What comes to your mind when you think of
collaborative learning?
• Tell me ways you participate in collaborative
learning, if at all.
• Give me an example of a collaborative
learning experience you experienced over the
last 12 months.
• Was your collaborative experience useful? If
yes, in what way do you find it useful?
• How common is the peer classroom
observation practice in your school? Tell me
more about your experience of it.
• Do you reflect about your classroom
observation with other teachers?
• How do you judge the trust among the
teachers to collaborate?
7. Which of the following CPD method have you
experienced in your school over the last 12
months (7b, 7d-7p) (Often, Sometimes, Rarely,
Never)?
Teachers need to know
how to engage in
conducting action
research(K4)
Interview 9. Tell me what you know about action research.
• Walk me through the steps you would take
when conducting action research?
• What does the first step look like when
implemented?
• Provide a recent example of a time when you
conducted action research.
• What was your action research about?
• How did you collect the data?
• How did you analyze the data?
• Why about this topic?
• What did you do with the study?
• What do you need to master conducting
useful action research?
Document
review

• The teacher has been conducting action research.
(Yes/No)
• The action research conducted by the teacher is
inquiry-based. (Yes/No)
• The action research conducted targeted identified
teaching and learning problems. (Yes/No)
• The action research conducted lead to deliberate
and planned action. (Yes/No)
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

225

Survey
7a. Which of the following CPD method have
you experienced in your school over the last 12
months (Action research)?
8g. Which one of the following areas were the
focus of your CPD activities over the last 12
months (action research)?
By reflecting on their
learning and teaching,
teachers need to be able to
identify key needs and
engage in planning to meet
these needs (K5).
Interview 10. Tell me about the last time you reflected on
your learning needs; if at all?
• Who else was involved in the reflection?
• What did you have reflected on?
• What learning needs have you identified in
that reflection?
• What steps have you taken with the outcome
of your reflection?
• What did you commonly reflect on?
11. Tell me about the last time you reflected on
your teaching practice; if at all?
• Who else was involved in the reflection?
• What areas of your teaching have you
identified to improve in that reflection?
• What steps have you taken with the outcome
of your reflection?

B. Motivation Influences and Protocol
Motivation
Construct
Assumed Motivation
Influence
Instrument
Type
How will it be Validated (item)?

Utility
Value
Teachers need to see
the value of
engaging in
collaborative
learning as a critical
component of
effective CPD
practice and in
supporting students
in achieving at least
basic proficiency
(M1).

Survey 9. Please rate the impacts of your
engagement in CPD activities (improvement
in Knowledge and Skills, positive change in
attitudes, classroom practice, students’
behavior, students learning outcome,
enhanced collegiality) –(Highly changed,
somewhat changed, and not changed)?
10b,10d,10e,10f,10g,10h,10I,10j,10k,10m,10
o,10p. Please rate the effectiveness of the
following forms of CPD in enhancing your
professional Knowledge, skills, and attitude?
(Highly effective, somewhat effective,
somewhat ineffective, ineffective, never
participated).
11. I believe collaborative learning is
valuable for me in supporting my students to
achieve at least basic reading proficiency.
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

226
(Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree,
Strongly Agree)
12. I believe learning through peer
collaboration worth my time. (Strongly
Disagree, Disagree, Agree, Strongly
Agree)
14. Active engagement in collaborative
learning enables me to become an expert
teacher. (Strongly Disagree, Disagree,
Agree, Strongly Agree)
31 For the most part, my CPD experiences
have improved my classroom practices.
(Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree,
Strongly Agree)
Teachers need to see
the value of
engaging in action
research as a critical
component of
effective CPD
practice and in
supporting students
in achieving at least
basic
proficiency(M2).
Survey 9. Please rate the impacts of your
engagement in CPD activities
(improvement in Knowledge and Skills,
positive change in attitudes, classroom
practice, students’ behavior, students
learning outcome, enhanced collegiality)
-Highly changed, somewhat changed,
and not changed?
10a. Please rate the effectiveness of the
following forms of CPD in enhancing
your professional Knowledge, skills, and
attitude (Action research)? (Highly
effective, somewhat effective, somewhat
ineffective, ineffective, never
participated).
13. I believe engaging in action research is
valuable for me in supporting my
students to achieve at least basic
proficiency. (Strongly Disagree,
Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree)
31 For the most part, my CPD experiences
have improved my classroom practices.
(Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree,
Strongly Agree)
Self-
efficacy
Teachers need to
believe they are
capable of
effectively engaging
in action research
and collaborative
learning (M3).
Survey 15. I am confident in my ability to conduct
action research. (Strongly Disagree, Disagree,
Agree, Strongly Agree)
32. I have been able to collect verifying evidence
on improvements in student learning
outcomes to evaluate the effectiveness of
CPD experience. (Strongly Disagree,
Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree)

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

227
C. Organizational Influences and Protocol
Organizational
Influence
Category
Assumed
Organizational
Influence
Instrument
Type How will it be validated (item)?
Cultural Model
Influence 1
The school needs
to cultivate and
embrace a culture
of collaborative
learning(O1)
Survey 16 The culture of our school encourages
collaborative learning. (Strongly
Disagree, Disagree, Agree, Strongly
Agree)
17 We have a strong collaborative
learning culture at our school.
(Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree,
Strongly Agree)
Cultural Model
Influence 2
The district and
school leadership
need to be
supportive of
teachers’
engagement in
action research
and collaborative
learning as
example of
CPD(O2).
Survey 18 Our school principal is supportive in
our action research engagement.
(Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree,
Strongly Agree)
19 Our cluster supervisor is supportive
in our action research engagement.
(Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree,
Strongly Agree)
20 The school principal is highly
supportive of collaborative learning
among teachers. (Strongly Disagree,
Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree)
30 Our school CPD plans have had
clearly defined goals based on student
learning outcomes. (Strongly Disagree,
Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree)
Document
review
The teacher portfolio has been at least
annually reviewed. (Yes/No)
Cultural Setting
Influence 1

The district needs
to allocate
adequate resource
and provide
sufficient time to
facilitate and
encourage
teachers to be
engaged in action
research and
collaborative
learning(O3).
Survey 21 Our school provide enough time for
teachers to participate in collaborative
learning. (Strongly Disagree, Disagree,
Agree, Strongly Agree)
22 Our school provides enough time for
teachers to conduct action research.
(Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree,
Strongly Agree).
23 Our district allocates adequate resources
to facilitate teachers’ active engagement
in collaborative learning. (Strongly
Disagree, Disagree, Agree, Strongly
Agree)
CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

228

24 Our district allocates adequate resources
for teachers to engage in action research.
(Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree,
Strongly Agree)
33 How many hours of CPD activities you
were engaged in over the last 12 months?
(Less than 49 hours, 49-59 hours, 60
hours and above)
Document
review
• The teacher has a copy of CPD
framework document. (Yes/No)
• The teacher has a copy of “The purpose
of professional Portfolio” document.
(Yes/No)
• The teacher has a copy of CPD modules.
(Yes/No)
• The teacher has “The Practical CPD
toolkit” manual. (Yes/No)

Cultural Setting
Influence 2
The district needs
to provide
appropriate
training in the
area of
collaborative
learning and
action research
(O4).
Survey 8.Which one of the following areas were the
focus of your CPD activities over the last 12
months? (Subject matter content, Teaching
methodologies and strategies
Classroom management techniques, Life-
skills, Continuous assessment, CPD
framework, Action research, Other.
25. Over the last 12 months, I received
appropriate training in the area of
collaborative learning. (Strongly
Disagree, Disagree, Agree, Strongly
Agree)
26. Over the last 12 months, I received
appropriate training in the area of action
research. (Strongly Disagree, Disagree,
Agree, Strongly Agree)
27. The training I received on action research
meets my needs. (Strongly Disagree,
Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree)
28. Our school provides ongoing CPD
opportunity. (Strongly Disagree,
Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree)
29. The school provides sustained CPD.
(Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree,
Strongly Agree)

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

229
Questions not linked to specific KMO factor
Following are items in the survey which are not directly linked to specific KMO factor.
1. Gender:
o Male
o Female
2. Your age: _________________
3. How long have you been a teacher? ________
a. Out of your total service, how many years you served in this school? ____
4. What Grade level do you teach? __________
5. What Subject do you teach? ____________
6. What is your highest level of education?
 High School Complete
 College diploma
 BA/BSc degree
 MA/MSc degree
 Other, please specify________________
34 What are the challenges you encountered in your effort to practice effective CPD,
if any?
35 What do you propose to be done to ensure effective CPD practice by primary
school teachers in Ethiopia?
36 Please provide if you have any other feedback about teachers’ CPD practice in
Ethiopia?
Question 1 to 6 were to get demographic data including participant’s gender, years of
teaching experience, subject thought, and qualification. These data was used to segregate the
findings by category and compare. Survey questions (34 – 36) are more open-ended question
seeking for additional inputs from the participants that might relate to any of the assumed
KMO influences.

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

230
APPENDIX H
MAP OF THE DISTRICT FOR THE STUDY

Abstract (if available)

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

Teacher role in reducing the achievement gap: an evaluation study

PDF

Perceptions of professional development from the lens of the global teacher in a rapidly evolving, linguistically diverse instructional environment

PDF

Collaborative instructional practice for student achievement: an evaluation study

PDF

Application of professional learning outcomes into the classroom: an evaluation study

PDF

The continuous failure of Continuous Improvement: the challenge of implementing Continuous Improvement in low income schools

PDF

Systemic multilayered assessment of global awareness in undergraduate students: an innovation study

PDF

Teaching quality in Zhejiang University of Technology

PDF

Professional development at an international school

PDF

Teacher perception on positive behavior interventions and supports’ (PBIS) cultivation for positive teacher-student relationships in high schools: an evaluation study

PDF

Teachers' perceptions of an effective teacher evaluation system and its key components in China

PDF

Modeling collaboration in K–12 teacher professional development

PDF

An evaluation study: quality contextual professional development

PDF

Fostering competent professionals: instructional systems specialists at the instructional systems technology program

PDF

Success in the sticky: exploring the professional learning and instructional practices that are sticky for distinguished secondary STEM educators of students historically…

PDF

Leading instructional shifts in emergent bilingual education: a principal's role

PDF

Learner-centered teaching in Uganda: an analysis of continuing educational needs

PDF

Career-related parent support in a high school in Shanghai: a needs analysis

PDF

The impact of Connecticut legislators on teacher diversity

PDF

Teacher retention in an urban, predominately Black school district: an improvement study in the Deep South

PDF

Creating a faith-integrated Bachelor of Science nursing program: an innovation model

Asset Metadata

Creator Mohammed, Seid Aman (author)

Core Title An evaluation study of effectiveness of continuous professional development in Ethiopia

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Global Executive

Publication Date 02/13/2021

Defense Date 07/15/2019

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag collaborative learning,continuous professional development,OAI-PMH Harvest,student learning outcomes,teachers' classroom practice

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Filback, Robert A. (committee chair), Crawford, Jenifer (committee member), Harju-Luukkainen, Heidi (committee member)

Creator Email seid_aman@yahoo.com,seidamam@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-215104

Unique identifier UC11663144

Identifier etd-MohammedSe-7790.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-215104 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-MohammedSe-7790.pdf

Dmrecord 215104

Document Type Dissertation

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Mohammed, Seid Aman

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA