Exploring primary teachers' professional development management practice: a case study in Sabah

Abstract

The study was designed to determine the primary schools' professional development (PD) management practice and primary teachers' competencies differences based on teachers' gender and years in service in Sabah. Besides, this study also tries to examine the relationship between teachers' professional development management practice with their level of competencies as classroom teachers. Sample for this study involved 2,017 teachers from six zones in the state of Sabah. Descriptive statistics were utilized to examine primary teachers' demographic profiles and also their level of practice for professional development management. Further, the inferential statistics namely the MANOVA was used to identify differences of practice in professional development practice and primary school teachers' competency based on gender and years of service. The findings revealed that the level of practice for teachers' professional development management and their competency were considered as high. In addition, there are significant differences in terms of practice for professional development management based on gender and years in service except for the aspects of planning, internal training and maintenance in years of service. Based on the competency aspect, the study shows a significance difference based on gender and years of service.