An Assessment of TVET Teachers' Continuous Professional Development Practices: A Case Study of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

The process of developing a teacher's knowledge, abilities, competence, attitudes, and other traits is known as continuous professional development for TVET teachers. Teachers are the most important change agents in the educational system, which makes technical and vocational education and training teachers' ongoing professional growth crucial.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the Assessment of TVET teachers’ continuous professional development and its impact on the Addis Ababa TVET College and Institute. The effectiveness of Technical and Vocational Education and Training largely depends on the continuous professional development of its teachers.

The main objective of this study is to analyze the current status and positive impact of Continuous Professional Development on Technical and Vocational Education and Training teachers and identify the current need for TVET teacher CPD. The study is guided by positivism and constructivism theories of learning. A mixed research method, both quantitative and qualitative, is employed in the study. The researcher has collected questionnaires randomly from 204 Technical and Vocational Education and Training College and Institute teachers (one hundred seventy-four males and thirty females). To substantiate the study, in-depth interviews were conducted with eight purposefully selected academic leaders (department head, faculty dean, research director, and college dean). The result of the study indicated that the majority of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training teachers had professional skills of knowledge and understanding of the main major subject field(s), knowledge and understanding of instructional practices (knowledge mediation) in their main major subject field(s), and ICT skills for teaching. Also, the majority of TVET teachers replied that they need knowledge of curriculum development and new technology adoption in the workplace due to the fact that technology changes from time to time. As indicated in the result, they need different types of CPD in order to improve students’ outcomes. The professional development of teachers has to be improved by providing capacity building on different types of continuing professional development and modifying the TVET policy. For this, CPD organizers and teacher educators should conduct a careful needs analysis before designing and implementing continuous professional development programs for TVET teachers.