STAFF DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES AND SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS’ WORK PERFORMANCE IN UYO SENATORIAL DISTRICT, AKWA IBOM STATE, NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Education is very important in the development of a nation in general and a person in particular. It is through education that individuals and groups realize their worth and potentials. This is why the government of developing countries, of which Nigeria is an example, make efforts to provide education for all their citizens making it more accessible to youths and investing a large proportion of its income in it. One of the most important components of educational system is the teacher. After God, it is the teacher that “makes” a person what he is. We are what we are because the teacher helped or did not help us to identify and develop the potentials God stored in us. Making a person is not a day’s task; it requires skills, techniques and methods. For school teachers, this task is made possible through effective teacher education (teachers’ pre-service education/training) and development programmes (on-the-job education/training programmes).
Lawal (2004) stated that teachers education as well as development programmes for teachers are important aspects of education processes that deal with the art of acquiring skills in teaching profession; they are essential exercises that enhance subject mastery, teaching methodology and classroom management. Aswathappa (2002) in his opinion said that successful candidates placed on the jobs need training to perform their duties effectively; they need to be developed in order to enable them to grow and acquire maturity of thought and action. He further suggested that training and development programmes must contain inputs that enable the participants to gain skills, learn theoretical concepts and acquire vision to look into the distant future. In addition to this, he said that, such programmes should impart ethical orientation, emphasize on attitudinal changes, stress upon decision-making and problem-solving abilities. Archibong (2002) believed that training and development refer to the imparting of specific skills, abilities and knowledge to an employee and should therefore constitute an ongoing process in any organization.
Goody and Kozoll (2005) said that staff development is often viewed as simply pulling teachers out of the classroom for a day or two a year to provide them with a “sit-and-get” session on educational matters; that although designing a relevant effective programme is challenging, the rewards for teachers and students are well worth the time and effort. Darling-Hammond and McLaughlin (1995) suggested that staff development also means providing occasions for teachers to reflect critically on their practice and to fashion new knowledge and beliefs about content, pedagogy, and learners. Smith (2002) said that effective staff development programmes address three types of learning situations – knowledge is gained about how learning is produced (function); about what happens when people learn (process); participants develop new knowledge and skills as teachers and administrators (product); hence, effective development programmes become vehicles for learning as well as an active process of transmitting new knowledge, values and skills into behaviour.
Mgbekem (2004) stated that staff development programme, which he otherwise refers to as in-service training or on-the-job training, implies a re-training given to an employee after he/she has been employed and deployed to work and has put up a number of weeks, months or years working. He added that in-service education also includes weekend courses, departmental interaction, committee findings, and exchange of views on crucial educational issues. Edem (2003) stated that staff development does not only refer to teachers’ in-service training, it also embodies a lot of other learning/training opportunities such as workshops, seminars, conferences, demonstration lessons, exchange visits, interest study groups, teachers’ meetings, classroom visits and supervision by school heads. Chukwurah (2004) added by saying that staff development also embodies short-term refresher courses, long-term refresher courses, part-time courses, distant learning, in-house training and holiday sandwich programme.
Mbipom (2000) said that staff development focuses on professional growth; therefore, the principal’s major function is that of facilitating maximum teacher participation in self-development and in-service educational programmes. Sergiovanni and Elliot (2000) stated that staff development programmes for teachers are programmes designed to help teachers to increase their capacity for knowing more about their work and to be able to use this know-how so that they can perform without direct supervision. Every successful teacher placed on the job therefore, needs to be trained and refreshed with new teaching skills, methods, techniques and professional abilities for managing classroom instruction and producing highly motivated, sensitive, conscientious and successful youths who will leave the secondary school with better educational achievement for higher education.
Moreover, in this age of Information Technology and usage of Computer in all facet of life endeavour, the secondary school staff need development programmes to make them aware of the usefulness of Information Technology in Education and to be conversant with modern methods of teaching, new techniques of assessment and evaluation of students, classroom organization and management, lesson planning and presentation, co-curricular activities, preparation and utilization of instructional materials, students’ disciplinary actions, among others.
A wide variety of re-training and development strategies are available. Griffin (1990) enumerated these strategies to include behaviour modeling method, in-house talent training, conference, lecture, in-service or on-the-job training, programmed instruction, interactive video (newly emerging technique using computers and video technology), workshop, seminar, vestibule training, role-playing, and case discussion. Aswathappa (2002) said that a multitude of methods of training are used for re-training and development and he categorized them as on-the-job and off-the-job methods. He referred to on-the-job methods as methods that are applied in the workplace while the employee is actually working; off-the-job methods as methods that are used away from workplace. On-the-job methods, according to him include orientation training, job-instruction training, job rotation, coaching, internships and assistantships. Off-the-job methods include vestibule, lecture, special study, films, television, conference, case study, role-playing, simulation, programmed instruction, seminar and workshops. Lanier and Little (2000) noted that staff development comes in many forms; that it can take place in the workplace or in some other environments, it can be required or voluntary, it can be offered by an organization or sought independently by an individual; two-hour lectures, three-day conference and year-long courses can all be considered as staff development. Sparks and Loucks-Horsley (1990) suggested that five types of staff development models are used for teachers and these include individually guided staff development (individuals identify, plan and pursue activities they believe will support their own learning); observation/assessment (teachers are observed directly and given objective data and feedback about their classroom performance); involvement in a development/ improvement process (teachers develop curriculum, design programs, or become involved in school improvement processes to solve general or specific problems); training (teachers engage in individual or group instruction in which they acquire knowledge or skills); and inquiry (teachers identify and collect data in an area of interest, analyze and interpret the data, and apply their findings to their own practice). Nwachuku (1994) said that selection of a particular method or methods depends on many considerations such as training content, cost, time, number of trainees, and whether the re-training is to be done by in-house resource person or by a resource person outside.
Esu (1997) confirmed the above statement by stating that, there has been a greater awareness that teachers who were trained some few years ago are not adequately equipped to perform effective teaching today except complemented by in-service teachers’ training. This, according to her means that, 2 – 4 years teacher preparation programmes do not adequately prepare teachers for their teaching job as there are too little time in which to cover it. Ekanem (2005) in her study found out that secondary school teachers produced from our colleges and universities are not properly equipped for the effective implementation of the secondary school programmes. The ill-equipped teachers, according to her, find it difficult to perform creditably in the classroom, they cannot defend what they claim to know, and may from time to time face disgraceful situation when faced with challenges. To take care of these inadequacies, The National Policy on Education (2004) pointed out that teacher education will continue to take cognizance of changes in methodology and in curriculum, that, no matter the efficiency of the pre-service training given to teachers, there will necessarily be areas of inadequacies; in-service education of teachers will therefore continue to fill those gaps. With the numerous roles of teachers, which range from co-curricula responsibilities to instructional, counseling, administrative, supervisory, and curriculum development responsibilities as well as their roles as psychologists, sociologists, social workers, baby-sitters, coaches, club advisers, guardians, mothers and fathers to the children left in their care for about eight hours a day, a teacher training programme in which an initial teacher training is intimately and permanently linked with regular development programmes is advocated by some educationist. For instance, Chukwurah (2004) suggested that in-service education for teachers is essential because pre-service training is inadequate for the making of a complete and fully effective teacher as well as for continued success in teaching. Fullan (1991) explained that staff development continues to be a critical element that contributes to teacher effectiveness and school improvement. Chukwurah (2004) said that education is a life-long process; no formal training in any teacher training institution can fully prepare a person for professional service. This means that, the much pre-service training can do for any teacher, is to expose him to existing knowledge and create in him a desire to seek new knowledge as he progresses in his profession. Where such a desire is found wanting, according to him, a teacher’s knowledge begins to stagnate and sometimes becomes outdated, his performance becomes ineffective and sometimes may endanger his position too; hence, Guskey (1985) stated that staff development approaches, given time and support for full implementation, can and do have direct, dramatic impact on teachers’ performance.
In Akwa Ibom State, government public secondary schools have on their teaching staff rolls trained (professional) and untrained (non-professional) teachers. Many of the trained teachers have not received any other form of education/training after their pre-service training; the untrained teachers on the other hand, have never received any form of teacher training. Uche and Enukoha (2004) stated that teaching is a profession, and all who desire to belong to the teaching profession should be well grounded in the art of teaching. Apart from this, the society is fast changing due to technological advancements; teachers are not sensitized, informed or educated about these recent changes. Ekanem (2005) stated that some teachers in Akwa Ibom State at the secondary school level, find it very difficult to interpret the curriculum properly and are incapacitated in the subject matter; they find it difficult to make use of instructional materials since they lack the methodology of how to present the materials to the learners. This therefore confirms the fact that the initial training every professional teacher has at Teacher Training College, College of Education and the University, is not enough to carry the teacher through the number of years he has to put-in in the teaching service. For the non-professional teachers, subject mastery at any higher institution does not guarantee effective impartation of knowledge to teenagers in secondary schools.
The concept of work performance therefore, is one of the chief concerns of management in general and educational administrators in particular. The fact is that work manifests significance over and above its strict economic function by providing meaning, social relationships, self-esteem, sense of personal worth, respect from others and a sense of identity, yet many employees including teachers demonstrate an unsatisfactory work performance in their places of work. According to Griffin (1990), the study of job performance began in earnest with the famous Hawthorne Studies conducted by Elton Mayo and his team of researchers at the Eastern Electric Company in the outskirts of Chicago from 1927 – 1933. The implicit expectation was that a satisfied employee would produce more than an unsatisfied employee; that increased pay system would bring about increased production. This was not the case from their findings, rather, it was discovered that employees increase their production under varying working conditions. Basically, educational administrators and stakeholders have sought for ways to improve teachers’ work performance in Akwa Ibom State. They have tried several ways such as increased and regular monthly pay for teachers, provision of other monetary incentives such as car loan, furniture, house, meal and transport allowances, provision of non-monetary incentives such as regular promotion and up-grading, and of course, regular school supervision, yet secondary school teachers still put up poor work performance. Mgbekem (2004) in his contribution for a solution to poor work performance suggested that staff development, otherwise referred to as on-the-job training is a very important strategy for improving the skills and the performance of an employee in an organization. If the performance of an employee is to be maximized, according to him, on-the-job training in an organization is imperative. Frase and Sorenson (2002) confirmed that staff development encourages teachers to enhance pedagogical skills and knowledge of subject matter through advanced academic study at the graduate level or through conferences, workshops or other training opportunities including in-service programmes. Lieberman (2003) argued for a radical rethinking of professional staff development that encourages teachers’ growth. She believes that teachers must have opportunities to try out new practices by taking new roles and creating a culture of inquiry.
Since problems relating to effective teaching and learning have been of concern to all, the falling standard of education assumes a national prominence, the educational system becomes a system besieged by handicaps ranging from poor work performance of teachers to poor performance of students in examinations with corresponding dropout syndrome among students, concerned educational administrators endeavour to find out what can be done to motivate teachers to positive work performance. Jacob (2004) said that effective staff development programmes can enhance teachers’ performance and this in turn will bring about improvement in students’ achievement. This therefore, means that staff development practices are considered as effective motivational strategies for improving skills, competence and performance of teachers.
It is in the light of this background that the researcher became interested in finding out the extent to which teachers’ participation in staff development programmes relates to secondary school teachers’ work performance in Akwa Ibom State.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Teaching staff in secondary schools in Uyo senatorial district are made up of trained and untrained teachers. Some of the trained teachers have not been retrained after their pre-service training and as the society is fast changing due to technological development, such teachers are not sensitized, informed or educated about the recent changes. The non-professional teachers are not well grounded in the art of teaching as such they lack the skills of imparting knowledge of their subject specialization to the students. Some teachers are unable to assess and evaluate the students continuously, as such, they cannot measure the progress being made by the students in the learning task that they are guiding; some are still found wanting in planning/preparation of their lessons ahead of class time and some cannot state instructional objectives in measurable terms. Keeping of various school records is a problem to some teachers and some of them are still using either teacher-centered approach or curriculum-centered approach in the teaching/learning processes. Some teachers do not have the capability for further studies, as such; they leave their teaching responsibility and regress to buying and selling even during official hours.
Parents, students, educational administrators, educational stakeholders and members of the public have been complaining about poor work performance of teachers in secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State as a whole, (Eshiet, 1998). To give attention to these complain and solve the problem of teachers’ negative work performance, the State’s government adopted several strategies such as increased and regular salary, monetary and non-monetary incentives, frequent school supervision, and regular promotion with in-built responsibility in order to motivate teachers to put up positive work performance, yet, the situation has not changed.
Due to the fact that, in human resource administration, staff development programmes are seen as motivational strategies that can help employees to increase their capacity for knowing more about their work and being able to use this knowledge effectively such that they can perform without direct supervision, (Griffin, 1990), the researcher became interested to find out whether this can be true in secondary schools in Uyo senatorial district of Akwa Ibom State with regards to Staff Development Programmes and Teachers’ Work Performance. Thus, it became necessary for the researcher to raise the question, “to what extent do secondary school teachers’ participation in Staff Development Programmes such as teachers’ in-service training, teachers’ conference, teachers’ seminar, teachers’ workshop and teachers’ in-house training relate to their work performance?”
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The general purpose of this study was to find out the relationship between staff development programmes and secondary school teachers’ work performance in Uyo senatorial district of Akwa Ibom State. Specifically, this study aims at finding out whether:
- There is any relationship between teachers’ participation in in-service training and their work performance.
- There is any difference between the work performance of teachers who attend teachers’ conference and those who do not.
- There is any effect of teachers’ levels of participation in teachers’ seminar on their work performance.
- There is any relationship that between teachers’ participation in teachers’ workshop and their work performance.
- There is any difference between the work performance of teachers who participate in in-house training and those who do not.
1.4 Research Questions
