Staff Development as an Imperative Avenue in Ensuring Quality: The Experience of Adama University

Abstract

All endeavors were devoted to investigate the views and feelings of stakeholders on the implementation of teachers' professional development and its contribution to sustain academic programs quality at Adama University. A case study that constitutes qualitative and quantitative method was employed. In an attempt to achieve the objectives of the study, evidences were collected from students, staff members, professional development program coordinators, and management bodies. The data-collecting instruments for obtaining relevant information were questionnaires, interview, observation, and document analysis. The finding in relation to this study uncovers the fact that though continuous professional development has been perceived as the most useful avenue of teachers continuous and lifelong learning, for the most part, it is relegated to adhoc committees or interested group or institutional units in the system of university education/training. Moreover, the absence of PDP in the university organizational structure, clear mission and vision, defined and well-articulated policy, strategic plan, representatives in university senate meetings, adequate resources, well-identified and -preserved training facilities, and unit library were circumstances that in one way or another negatively affected the provision of effective professional development programs/trainings that may have adverse effect in the deliberation of quality education/training in Adama University.

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“…Atkins (2018) comments that the terminology itself has seen many iterations: in-service education and training, continuing professional development, training, professional learning, etc. Several authors equate professional development to all kinds of activities that are designed to develop teachers' skills, knowledge, expertise and any other characteristics that enhance their work performance (Caena, 2011;Gulamhussein, 2013;Seyoum, 2012) and that teachers do after initial training (Creemers & Kyriakides, 2013). Andersson et al (2018) argue that due to the dual professional competence of vocational teachers, they must engage in professional development that involves not only the teaching competence, but also knowledge and skills in their initial occupation.…”

The (un) Fruitful Training

“…In the context of any academic institution, especially higher education institutions, faculties need to be updated on recent trends, ongoing research in their field of interests and alike things so that they can contribute effectively to the development of own and students. Research [1], found that unable to attend to the training needs of faculty members have an adverse impact on the quality of educational delivery.…”

Organizational Policies on Personnel Training and Development: The Need to Increase Productivity in the Nigeria’s Tertiary Institutions Beyond Covid 19

“…Concurring, Kraiger (2003) states that successful organizations invest more in training and development than other organizations because these training and development programmes bring improvements in the organizational performance and results (Dolezalek 2005;Salas and Cannon-Bowers 2001). Thus, personnel training and development has become an inevitable mechanism to implement the recent higher educational reforms that consider interactive studentcentered teaching and learning approaches as an integral element (Seyoum, 2012). Elucidating further, Seyoum (2012) says it enables staff in universities to keep students up-to-date to the current educational trends and new theories, and refurbishes lecturers' repertoires of knowledge, skills, and attitudes.…”