School-based Teacher Professional Development

The purpose of this study was to identify the needs for school-based teacher professional development(TPD)for private secondary school(PSS)teachers in Kabul;to explore how school-based TPD is performed in PSSs in Kabul;and to disclose the challenges and facilities in performing school-based TPD in PSSs in Kabul.Education is suffering from different aspects in Afghanistan,especially from teachers’ poor performance.Private schools usually provide in-service school-based TPD.The school-based TPD has not been studied in PSSs in Kabul,besides there is a lack of academic supports and counseling for this program in PSSs in Kabul.Therefore,this study was conducted in PSSs in West Kabul.This study answered the following questions:(1)what are the needs for school-based TPD for PSS teachers in Kabul?(2)How school-based TPD is performed in PSSs in Kabul? And(3)what are the challenges and facilities in performing school-based TPD in PSSs in Kabul?A qualitative method was applied for this study and data was collected through interview.The study population was PSS teachers in the 6th and 13 th districts of Kabul city.The sample size was eight teachers and four principals from four PSSs in Kabul city in which two teachers and one principal was selected from each school.Finally,the data were analyzed by thematic coding.The findings of this study revealed that the most important needs for schoolbased TPD are poor educational background of teacher,speedy changes in the society,and competition for providing quality education among PSSs.The performance of school-based TPD is divided into winter vacation programs and school year programs.Low teachers’ motivation,lack of resources,job instability,and heavy workload are the most common challenges and previous school-based TPD experiences,school leadership supports like planning school-based TPD,preparing materials like articles,books,internet,and other equipment were the significant facilities in performing school-based TPD.