View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Digital Library of Open University of Tanzania TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT NEEDS FOR EFFECTIVE SECONDARY SCHOOL MANAGEMENT IN NACHINGWEA DISTRICT ALBANO MIRUNDE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTERS OF EDUCATION IN ADMINISTRATION, PLANNING AND POLICY STUDIES OF THE OPEN UNIVERSITY OF TANZANIA 2015 ii CERTIFICATION The undersigned certifies that he has read and hereby recommends for acceptance by the Open University of Tanzania a dissertation titled “Training and Professional Development Needs for Effective Secondary School Management in Nachingwea District” in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in Administration, Planning and Policy Studies of the Open University of Tanzania. …………………………… Dr. John Soka (Supervisor) ……..……………………..….. Date iii COPYRIGHT No part of this dissertation may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronics, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the author or the Open University of Tanzania in that behalf. iv DECLARATION I, Mirunde Albano, do hereby declare that this dissertation is my own original work and that it has not been presented and will not be presented to any other university for a similar or any other degree award. …………………………………….. Signature …………………………………… Date v DEDICATION This paper is dedicated to my late father Albano Mchopa and my beloved two sons 1. Albano Mirunde 2. Collin Mirunde vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT In the journey of doing this study I have been helped and encouraged by many people. My most humble, profound appreciation and sense of compulsion goes to my supervisor Dr. John Soka for his inspiring guidance, consistent encouragement and dynamic supervision during the entire progress of study. My thanks also go to my research teacher Prof. Issa Omari Mcholo for his kind support which has always been a source of great inspiration to my study. My special gratitude goes to my lovely wife Lilian Pwirira for her heartfelt and fortitude support during the entire time of my studies. vii ABSTRACT This study was conducted to investigate the training and professional development needs for effective secondary school management in Nachingwea district. The specific objectives of the study were; to determine the training and professional development needs for heads of schools, to examine the training and professional development skills given to secondary school administrators and to determine the difference in training and professional development needs between non-degree and degree holding heads of school. Triangulation approach on questionnaire and interview was employed, the data was collected from 40 heads of schools that were selected purposively by virtue of their position and analysed in quantitative and qualitative way. The findings indicate that 93.7% of the respondents mentioned that training and professional development for effectiveness of their roles are highly needed by both heads and deputy heads of school. Only 6.3% of the deputy and heads of secondary schools did not need further training out of the skills questioned. In training skills given to heads and deputy heads of school, the data shows that, only 19.03% of the skills tested are given in training program and the remaining 80.96% was not given to heads and deputy heads of secondary schools, lastly the findings show a slightly difference on training needs of 3.9% (67.2 by 63.3)between non- degree and degree holding heads of secondary schools. Conclusively, recently most of the secondary schools are managed ineffectively as school heads lack appropriate skills on school management hence causing poor academic performance of the students. It is recommended that the ministry of education and other educational stakeholders should conduct continuous training and professional development programs for school administrators. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATION................................................................................................. ii COPYRIGHT ....................................................................................................... iii DECLARATION ...................................................................................................iv DEDICATION ........................................................................................................v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .....................................................................................vi ABSTRACT ..........................................................................................................vii LIST OF TABLES................................................................................................xii LIST OF FIGURES.............................................................................................xiii CHAPTER ONE .....................................................................................................1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................1 1.1 Background to the Problem ...........................................................................1 1.2 Statement of the Problem...............................................................................5 1.3 The Purpose of the Study...............................................................................7 1.4 The General Objectives of the Study..............................................................8 1.5 The Specific Objectives of the Study .............................................................8 1.6 Research Questions .......................................................................................8 1.7 The Significance of the Study........................................................................9 1.8 Limitation of the Study..................................................................................9 1.9 Delimitation of the Study...............................................................................9 1.10 Organization of the Study............................................................................10 CHAPTER TWO..................................................................................................11 ix LITERATURE REVIEW.....................................................................................11 2.1 Introduction................................................................................................11 2.2 Conceptual Definitions ...............................................................................11 2.2.1 Training Needs for School Administrators...................................................11 2.2.2 Professional Development for Secondary School Administrators.................12 2.2.3 Effective School Management .....................................................................14 2.3 Conceptual Framework................................................................................15 2.3.1 Educational Level of Heads of School .........................................................17 2.3.2 Teaching Work Experience..........................................................................18 2.3.3 Training Needs for School Administrators...................................................18 2.3.4 Professional Development for School Administrators ..................................18 2.3.5 Effective School Management .....................................................................19 2.4 Theoretical Frame Work of the Study ..........................................................19 2.4.1 The Deficit Model in Professional Development..........................................19 2.4.2 Two-Factor Theory......................................................................................21 2.5 Empirical Facts on training and Professional Development of Heads of Schools........................................................................................................21 2.5.1 Overview of Western Countries..................................................................22 2.5.2 Africa Overview.........................................................................................26 2.5.3 Facts from Tanzania ...................................................................................28 2.5.4 Research Gap of the Study..........................................................................28 CHAPTER THREE..............................................................................................30 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.........................................................................30 3.1 Introduction................................................................................................30 x 3.2 Area of the Study........................................................................................30 3.3 Population and Sample Size.........................................................................31 3.4 Sampling Techniques .................................................................................31 3.5 Research Design.........................................................................................32 3.6 Data Collection Methods .............................................................................32 3.7 Data Collection Instruments ........................................................................32 3.7.1 Questionnaire