Professional competencies and the continuing professional development needs of Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) teachers in Kenya

Abstract

The development of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programs for vocational teachers in Africa has been hampered by a lack of relevant research on their CPD practices and learning needs. This study therefore investigated the learning needs of vocational teachers in Kenya based on the professional competencies vocational teachers identify as essential for their work and their self-perception of competence. Using a concurrent mixed methods approach, data was collected from 170 questionnaire respondents and sixteen interview participants from six Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions in Kenya. Despite TVET teachers perceiving themselves as highly competent, they were found to express a relatively high need for CPD. The need was most strongly expressed by teachers who had received Initial Teacher Education (ITE), which suggested that ITE has a positive influence in sensitising teachers on the need for CPD. New teachers were however found to have a lower perception of competence. Mentorship for new teachers is thus recommended. An unexpected finding was that while TVET teachers in Kenya identify good teaching skills as an essential competency for vocational teachers, they assume mastery of content translates to good teaching skills. It is thus recommended that the curriculum for TVET teachers in Kenya be reviewed to help teachers appreciate, identify, and develop subject-specific teaching skills.

The Influence of Continuous Professional Development on the Vocational Teachers’ Competence to Support the Professional Development of Learner Teachers

“…These results are supported by research [17] that there is a positive and significant relationship between teacher participation in subject teacher conference and teacher professional competence. A relationship exists between participation in development programs and teacher professional performance [15].…”

“…Education and training positively and significantly affect professional competence and teacher performance [14]. There is a relationship between participation in development programs and the professional performance of teachers [15]. There is a non-significant influence on the competence of VHST in terms of the length of time they have attended the training [5].…”

Measure for clinical supervision practices as factors of predictive indicators of teachers’ professional identity development in Tanzania

“…Table 2 shows that the study informants met all criteria for being secondary school teachers in Tanzania [ 126 ]. Additionally [ 127 ], states that teachers who have worked for less than five years are at an early career stage, between six and twenty years are in the middle career, and more than twenty years are in the late career stage. However, for the sake of getting informants with sufficient narrative data on measures for better clinical supervision practices and predictive indicators in developing teachers' professional identity, teachers whose working experience was five years and above were the most preferred.…”

Content and effectiveness of TVET teacher CPD in Kenya

“…These conditions have resulted in a large number of TVET teachers lacking adequate professional competencies and expressing a strong need for TVET teacher CPD. Indeed (Njenga, 2022a), found that TVET teachers in Kenya express a relatively high need for professional development.…”