Nurses’ Assessment of the Mandatory Continuing Professional Development Program in Osun State, Southwest, Nigeria

Continuing Professional Development Programs have been identified as an important strategy towards improving basic professional skills and competence of health care professionals. This study explored nurses’ perception about the Mandatory Continuing Professional Development Program (MCPDP) and assessed nurses’ satisfaction with the Continuing Professional Development Program in Nigeria.Study adopted sequential explanatory mixed methods, using both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. The quantitative aspect included 412 nurses in Osun state, Nigeria selected through multistage sampling. Data was analyzed at univariate, bivariate and multivariate levels using appropriate statistics, level of significance was p<0.05. The qualitative aspect of the study employed in-depth interview; responses were analyzed thematically. Findings showed that 72.8% of the nurses had positive perception about the MCPDP, 66.3% assessed the MCPDP training as very useful, 31.3% and 2.4% assessed the training as moderately useful and useful respectively, 57.0% were very satisfied with the MCPDP training, 41.5% were satisfied while1.5% nurses were indifferent. Regression analysis revealed that nurses’ years of working experience (OR = 0.24, CI = 0.10-0.62, p = 0.003) significantly influenced perception about the MCPDP. Study concluded that professionalism in nursing should focus on ensuring quality years of working experience and effective Continuous Professional Development for all categories of nurses.

The Effects of a Professional Development Program for Technology Integrated Algebra Teaching

This study examined technological pedagogical content knowledge change of middle school mathematics teachers who participated in a professional development program designed to integrate technology into teaching algebra. Twenty-eight middle school teachers from 20 different schools participated in the study. The data collection tools were technological pedagogical content knowledge survey, reflective journals, lesson plans, and program evaluation forms. The data analysis showed that the participants’ technological pedagogical content knowledge increased significantly. In addition, participants wrote lesson plans that included effective use of technology to teach algebra contents. The positive effects of the professional development program seem to be related to the following components of the program: the usability of the program activities in middle school classrooms, program’s focus on using technology in teaching algebra, the introduction of new technological tools and software related to mathematics, and the interactive nature of the program.

Repetita Iuvant? A Repeated Randomized Controlled Trial on the Effectiveness of an At-Scale Teacher Professional Development Program

Background A recent stream of literature recognizes the impact of good/poor implementation on the effectiveness of programs. However, implementation is often disregarded in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) because they are run on a small scale. Replicated RCTs, although rare, provide a unique opportunity to study the relevance of implementation for program effectiveness. Objectives Evaluating the effectiveness of an at-scale professional development program for lower secondary school math teachers through two repeated RCTs. Research Design The program lasts a full school year and provides innovative methods for teaching math. The evaluation was conducted on two cohorts of teachers in the 2009/10 and 2010/11 school years. The program and RCTs were held at scale. Participating teachers and their classes were followed for 3 years. Impact is estimated by comparing the math scores of treatment and control students. Subjects The evaluation involved 195 teachers and their 3940 students (first cohort) and 146 teachers and their 2858 students (second cohort). Measures The key outcome is students’ math achievement, measured through standardized assessment. Results In the first wave, the program did not impact on students’ achievement, while in the second wave, a positive, persistent, and not insignificant effect was found. After excluding other sources of change, different findings across waves are interpreted in the light of improvements in the program implementation, such as enrollment procedure, teacher collaboration, and integration of innovation in daily teaching. Conclusions Repeated assessment of interventions already at-scale provides the opportunity to better identify and correct sources of weak implementation, potentially improving effectiveness.

Indonesian Biology Teachers’ Perceptions about Socio-Scientific Issue-Based Biology Instruction

Promoting socio-scientific issue (SSI)-based instruction in Indonesian science classrooms requires competent science teachers. To understand teachers’ perceptions about the implementation of SSI-based instruction, a case study involving four biology teachers engaged in a teacher professional development program was conducted. The program consisted of four phases: reflection on teachers’ prior teaching experience and background knowledge, 3-day SSI-based teaching workshop, collaborative development and implementation of SSI-based learning in biology, and post-implementation reflections by teachers. Teachers’ perceptions were gathered via interviews and written reflections, which were analyzed qualitatively with an explanation building mode approach. Findings indicated a positive development along four dimensions: knowledge about SSIs and scientific literacy, the necessity of including SSIs in science instruction, situational factors related to addressing SSIs in class, and teachers’ attitude towards teaching SSIs. Further research needs to be conducted in Indonesian contexts to be able to extend the SSI teacher professional development program to different regions.