Teacher Professional Development: Approaches and Lessons from a Pilot Study in Ethiopia

Abstract

Effective teacher professional development is the key to improving primary school teachers’ ability to implement learner-centered education; however, guidance on building such professional development programs for teachers in Africa that accommodates local realities and cultures has rarely appeared in the literature. Reported in this study, a collaboration between a Korean primary teacher education institution and a science and technology higher education institution in central Ethiopia produced a professional development program for primary school teachers in Ethiopia using the instructional systems design model. A five-phase development process, namely analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation was used to develop and implement a total of 60 lessons presented in 30 videos. Teacher participants were highly satisfied with the results, reporting significant improvement in their self-efficacy about using learner-centered education approaches after completing the program. Lessons learned are provided for those seeking to expand professional development opportunities for teachers in Africa.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Moon-Heum Cho

Moon-Heum Cho, Department of Instructional Design, Development & Evaluation, Syracuse University in the United States; Seongmi Lim, Department of Early Childhood, Youth, and Family Studies, Ball State University in the United States; Hongseop Hwang, Department of Social Education, Busan National University of Education in S. Korea.

Seongmi Lim

Moon-Heum Cho, Department of Instructional Design, Development & Evaluation, Syracuse University in the United States; Seongmi Lim, Department of Early Childhood, Youth, and Family Studies, Ball State University in the United States; Hongseop Hwang, Department of Social Education, Busan National University of Education in S. Korea.

Hongseop Hwang

Moon-Heum Cho, Department of Instructional Design, Development & Evaluation, Syracuse University in the United States; Seongmi Lim, Department of Early Childhood, Youth, and Family Studies, Ball State University in the United States; Hongseop Hwang, Department of Social Education, Busan National University of Education in S. Korea.