School-based continuous Teacher Professional Development in Addis Ababa : An Investigation of Practices, Opportunities and Challenges <Special Issue : Study results of the Africa-Asia university dialogue for educational development network second phase>

The purpose of this study was to examine opportunities and challenges in practicing Continuous professional Development (CPD) in selected schools in Addis Ababa City Administration. Questionnaire pilot tested in two primary schools was administered to 300 randomly selected primary school teachers in Addis Ababa. With regard to the variable "Teachers' self-reflection", male respondents tend to use self reflection techniques more than female respondents to improve their career development. The mean score for teachers teaching at the second cycle was found to be statistically higher than that of teachers working in the first cycle of primary education indicating that teachers in the second cycle tend to use peer discussion, self-assessment of one's own daily routines, and use of portfolio more often than their counterparts teaching in the first cycle. The mentoring process stood as number one contributing factor for teacher professional development followed by action research and school in-house workshops. Lack of knowledge and experience on the theoretical underpinnings, implementation inconsistencies, lack of budget to run the program at school level, lack of incentive procedures to recognize teachers who made utmost efforts to change themselves and their colleagues were major problems identified from the qualitative data. Despite these problems, the new CPD has entailed a number of opportunities and useful experiences in terms of empowering school teachers and ameliorating school-based problems related to the teaching learning process. Future implications of the research were also suggested.