Attitudes of basic school teachers in the cape coast municipality toward staff development activities

Abstract

Continuing education through staff development activities meant to enhance skills, knowledge, abilities, and beliefs are inextricably linked to effective teaching and learning. This study sought to determine the attitude of basic education teachers in Ghana toward staff development programmes. Two hundred and twenty-two (222) basic school teachers from Uper primary and Junior Secondary Schools (JHS) in the Central Region were selected using stratified random sampling method for the study. The main instrument used for the data collection was a researcher-designed questionnsire following the princioples of the LIkert Scale to ascertain teachers’ personal characteristics and attitudes towards staff development programmes. The data obtained was analysed using the Statisticak package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The study showed that basic school teachers in Cape Coast Municipality have positive attitude towards staff development programmes. However, a more positive attitude is possible if staff development programmes are organised on regular basis and teachers are encouraged to appreciate the importance of staff development activities to the teacher and the school as a whole. The study also revealed that there is no systematic evaluation of the impact of staff development activities especially the Ghana Education Service (GES) to enforce proper supervision and evaluation of the impact of such programmes.