Senior high school mathematics teachers’ continuous professional development: Evidence from Keta municipality in Ghana

To improve students’ learning and academic performance, educational reforms have been proposed and implemented. One of these reforms was the introduction of teacher participation in Continuous Professional Development (CPD). The purpose of this study was to investigate the type of CPD workshops organised by stakeholders and the kind of motivation senior high school mathematics teachers get in participating in such workshops in the Keta Municipality in Ghana. The study was conducted using a phenomenology design and a semi-structured interview guide as the research instrument to collect data from the respondents. A purposive sampling technique was used to select eighteen (18) public senior high school mathematics teachers. The findings of the study show that CPD workshops that were subject-based were less organised for mathematics teachers and non-subject-based CPD workshops do not have much impact on their mathematics teaching and learning abilities. Again, some mathematics teachers participated in CPD workshops because of allowances and certificates for promotion exercises, not necessarily being motivated to improve their mathematical knowledge and competencies. The study recommends that CPD trainers should organise more subject-based workshops for mathematics teachers in senior high schools to increase their knowledge and teaching skills. Again, National Teaching Council should educate teachers on how important continuous professional development is to their teaching profession and clear the misconception that they attend CPD workshops for allowances and promotion purposes.

Keywords: Continuous Professional Development (CPD), Mathematics, Teachers