TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TRAINING NEEDS FOR IMPROVED TEACHING AND LEARNING IN PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine teachers’ professional development training needs on the use of technology to enhance learning in public primary schools in Anambra State. Two research questions guided the study while two null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The population of the study comprised 5,995 teachers in all the 1,060 public primary schools in Anambra state. The sample size for this study was 384 teachers from the public primary schools in Anambra State. Multi-stage sampling procedure was employed in selecting the sample size. The instrument for data collection was researchers’ structured questionnaire titled “Questionnaire on Professional Development Training Needs on The Use of Technology (QPDTNUT) and Questionnaire on Professional Development Training Needs on Language and Communication (QPDTNLC). The instruments have three sections; A, B and C. Section A elicit demographic information of the respondents; Section B elicits information on the use of technology; while section C elicits information on language and communication skills. The
instruments were validated by three experts from Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. The data collected were analyzed using Cronbach Alpha method and a coefficient value of 0.81 and 0.79 respectively. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions. Hypotheses were tested using t-test statistics. Findings of the study revealed that the use of technology and language and communication skills were among areas of professional development training needs of public primary school teachers. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that School management should develop and implement training programmes that will enable teachers in public primary schools to acquire necessary knowledge and skills in using technology to improve teaching and learning.