Teachers’ experiences of continuing professional development in a secondary school in Tembisa

M.Ed. (Educational Management)The Department of Basic Education initiated continuing professional development (CPD) for quality professional development aimed at supporting and revitalising teaching. Also, to encourage teachers to engage continually in life-long career development leading to improvement of learner achievement. Current research studies indicate that there is lack of knowledge and skills among teachers to internalise goals for professional growth and expand capacity to create the desired performance. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the following question: What are teachers’ experiences of continuing professional development in a secondary school in Tembisa, in order to improve their teaching practices and school effectiveness? The study employed organisational behaviour in education and experiential learning as a theoretical framework. A qualitative research approach was applied and an instrumental case study employed as a strategy to focus on a group of six teachers and four School Management Team (SMT) members. Data was collected through three focus group interview sessions with secondary school teachers and an interview with the SMT as a group. A thematic data analysis was applied. Four main themes emerged as a result of the thematic analysis and interpretation, and revealed teachers’ understanding of CPD, the experiences with CPD as teachers engaged in CPD programmes such as content-subject-based training workshops and the CAPS training programme, improvement of teaching practice, and the SMT creating opportunities for teacher learning and development. A thematic analysis of the interview data with the SMT as a group revealed two themes which were: understanding CPD, and SMT views on creating opportunities for teacher learning and development. Continuing professional development (CPD) in education is reflected as an ongoing experiential learning process by which teachers participate in learning through continual attendance of content-subject-based training programmes, curriculum training workshops, and through registering for those certificates and degree programmes offered by universities. Teacher learning takes place in a cyclical process that consists of experiencing, reflecting, thinking and acting on experiences through the application of acquired knowledge, improved skills and changed attitudes. The findings of the study revealed that teachers experienced CPD as an ongoing process in which learning took place through attendance of content-subject-based training and CAPS training workshops in which collaborative learning played an important role. Even though teachers indicated that their teaching practice was improved, they highlighted the challenges experienced regarding CPD programmes. These challenges included the limited time allocated for CAPS training and content/subject training meetings held after working hours. It was clear that the allocated times for teacher training workshops were not realistic for adequately empowering teachers with knowledge and teaching skills for effective teaching practice in real classroom settings. Teachers took ownership and leadership in their CPD by going an extra mile to seek assistance from professionals with specialised knowledge in Mathematics and commercial subjects, and they collaborated with colleagues from other schools to learn different approaches to teaching. CPD enhances teachers’ ability to set their goals for teaching and it broadens their knowledge and teaching skills, giving them the opportunity to reflect continually on their professional growth and experiment in teaching practice