Abstract

This study sought to design a novel and effective approach for designing and delivering professional development opportunities for novice teachers of English in Cameroon rural secondary schools. The researcher relied on the action research design to attain the research objectives. Furthermore, the researcher-facilitator designed a mobile community of practitioners whereby, Professional Development (PD) needs analysis of 05 novice teachers of English posted in rural areas were identified. Upon identifying these needs, the latter were graded in order of priority and in a collaborative manner. All participants contributed in finding out context-appropriate solutions to the problems they face in their teaching environment. Following the pre-acting, the acting and the post-acting phases of the study, many findings were revealed. First, the collaborative design and delivery of mobile PD opportunities proves to be effective for novice teachers of English in rural areas. Second, the bottom up approach to PD is more suitable for this category of teachers than the top-bottom approach to PD, which remains so widespread. Third, reference documents are shared on the mobile community of practitioners in order to help novice teachers prepare and submit pedagogic documents within reasonable deadlines. Fourth, participants design context-appropriate schemes of work, question papers and also learn how to fill in the record of work book and the statistics sheet following the requirements of the Competency-based Approach and the skill-based approach. Sixth, participants also learn how to organize instruction in under resourced rural area classrooms as well as extra-curricular activities. Finally, participants are all unanimous that the novel approach to PD delivery is highly effective and that their teaching styles as English language teachers have significantly improved. The researcher strongly suggests that teacher in-service training should be revamped by blending traditional face-to-face PD delivery with technology-enhanced teacher PD. Another suggestion is that actors in charge of the supervision of instruction should exploit the huge potentials offered by mobile learning and rely on the new model that the researcher has designed which is known as a Mobile Professional Development Model for Novice Teachers in Difficult Circumstances (MPDM4NTDC).

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Mobile Learning (ML) has been, in the recent years, one of the top priorities of many states. This came because of recent innovations in ICT. According to a UNESCO series of reports (2012) on mobile learning, and other reports since the inception of the Mobile Learning Week (MLW) initiated by UNESCO in 2011, there are many reasons for governments and education partners to invest in ICT. In the sub-Saharan Africa and Middle East region as well as the Asian Pacific region, research show how ICT is being imbedded into the curriculum from primary to tertiary education. This introduction of ICT- related subjects into the curriculum has not only been geared towards the improvement of learners’ skills, but it has gone a long way to deliver and disseminate the results of classroom-based research and classroom successful and poor practices (Gu, 2012). While some states are advanced in the design and implementation of Technology Enhanced Teacher Professional Development (TETPD), others are still lagging behind (Gu et al., 2012).  Besides, different countries rely on different frameworks to develop their TETPD. While some countries, in a bid to develop Teacher Professional Development (TPD) follow one of the models identified in the literature (Top-down model versus bottom-up, formal versus informal) other countries are yet to embark on the formal introduction of TETPD.

The official introduction of technology in Cameroon education system in 2001 has had a great impact on the training received in teacher training institutions. This impact has come as a result of the introduction of educational technology courses in teacher training programs in order to equip student teachers with ICT-related skills that will facilitate the preparation and delivery of their classroom practices upon graduation. Despite the zeal observed during educational technology classes at various teacher training institutions across the country, the will to see the same dream spread in classroom instruction remains a call for concern. Many reasons have been identified as barriers to the smooth and effective integration of ICT in teaching subjects at primary and secondary school levels in Cameroon (Ngajie and Ngo Mback, 2016). This notwithstanding, since 2017 it has been observed that more and more teachers are having recourse to ICT in lesson planning and delivery and also surprisingly many mid-career teachers as well as novice teachers are getting involved in the creation of online and mobile communities of practitioners. The latter are platforms that are created by groups of teachers who feel the necessity of sharing their experiences and practices. A good example that is worth presenting here is a well known Facebook group for Cameroon Teachers better known in French as “Les Enseignants du Cameroun” (LECA) and that counts more than 20,000 active members. This is just the tip of the iceberg as many other minor groups and sub groups also exist on other social media like WhatsApp.

Various officials of the Republic of Cameroon from the Head of State to ministers cherish the idea of cultivating a young generation of citizens that will seize the opportunity given by digital economy to positively impact the lives of citizens at various levels. That is the reason why all of these authorities have been encouraging the integration of ICT in teaching and learning.

The benefits of integrating ICT in teaching and learning cannot be overemphasized. Countries like China and Sweden which have designed a good policy in this regard have bridged the digital gap amongst teachers found in towns and suburbs. This shows that traditional teaching, if blended with innovative teaching methods, can assuredly take education everywhere and further participate in the Education for All (EFA) goal that up till today is still to be achieved by many countries. This notwithstanding, there are some prospects that need to be considered for developing nations. It is the case with Cameroon where, teachers do not integrate the teaching field in the same smooth way. While novice teachers who graduate from teacher training colleges are posted in towns enjoy the privilege of using ICT for teaching and professional development opportunities, those in villages are left on their own. One of the most fundamental reasons why novice teachers in general, and those in rural areas in particular, face so many challenges during the first years of their career has for long been attributed to many causes. First, after graduation from teacher training institutions, there is the absence of a strong and systematic professional development scheme to accompany novice teachers in the classroom. Second, traditional PD remains the only option offered them by pedagogic inspectors. Third, pedagogic inspectors hardly tap from the opportunities offered by mobile learning to design and deliver differentiated context-appropriate PD contents.

The teaching profession in Cameroon, nowadays, is witnessing an overflow of novice teachers who graduate from teacher training institutions at a very young age. Once these novice teachers are posted to various schools, they often face so many challenges. These challenges range from the preparation of lessons, their delivery, the design and drafting of pedagogic documents like schemes of work and progression charts, to name only these few. In rural areas, the situation is often worse. This is due to the fact that as soon as these novice teachers land in remote areas, they are no longer in contact with their peers on a daily basis. Besides, they do not have the opportunity to be monitored and coached by more experienced peers during the hard times they face.

The static manner in which the design and delivery of TPD is delivered in Cameroon has not always helped novice teachers in remote areas to be fully integrated in the teaching profession upon graduation. The highly-centralized, traditional and formal model of TPD needs to be revamped in order to accept changes that will lead to the integration of TETPD. Also, the new paradigm shift that is needed to be integrated within the domain of TPD has to be systematically based on the needs of teachers and filled with contextual realities. It is in this regard that Hargreaves (2006), cited in Gu et al. (2012); and Goodson and Hargreaves (2003) maintain that instead of teachers giving in to demands for change from above (Top-bottom model of PD) teachers searching for continuous learning should be encouraged. Today, with the increasing population of novice teachers who graduate and are posted to remote areas where they are isolated from mentoring and coaching opportunities offered by pedagogic inspectors and mid-career peers there is a crucial need to look into their professional development needs and treat them with a lot of professionalism. The success of designing and delivering TPD opportunities for this set of teachers that is fast growing highly depends on the capacity of main actors of the supervision chain in the Ministry of Secondary Education (MINESEC) to adapt to innovative models of PD that are deeply rooted into ICT and their related skills that are spread across educational technology for professional development design and delivery. The fact that most, if not, all novice teachers in rural areas do not have access to PD opportunities remains a call for concern from the foregoing discussion. It is owing to these existing facts and challenges that the interest of researchers is being aroused.

The globalization of education has not left Cameroon education out of this phenomenon. That is why this study focuses on how a TETPD can be designed, delivered, monitored and evaluated through the use of a community of practitioners of novice English as a Foreign Language Teachers who work in rural areas or in difficult circumstances in the Republic of Cameroon.

1.2 Problem Statement

Previous studies have shown that teachers in general and novice teachers in particular face an uneven access to context appropriate PD (Agbor and Wamba, 2017). Another study by Mbangwana (2008) revealed that teachers use ICT to facilitate teaching but the huge potential offered by mobile phones to deliver PD opportunities via communities of practices remains untapped. This same idea is corroborated by another study which was carried out in Cameroon and that showed to what extent teachers are facing difficulties in effectively using ICT tools to improve on the quality of instruction (Ngajie and Ngo Mback, 2017). Despite many efforts done by teachers at initial training to inculcate in novice teachers the need to design PD opportunities in a collaborative way, the situation on the field needs more action research that will be problem-solving and have an influence on classroom practices (Nkwenty Ndonfack, 2015a & b). In September 2018 during the official Re-opening of the school year, the Minister of Secondary Education and the Inspector General for Education acknowledged that there is a huge gap between novice teachers’ classroom practices in rural areas and their counterparts in urban areas. The problem that therefore arises from this observation is the absence of context-appropriate and technology-enhanced professional development for rural areas novice teachers of EFL in Cameroon secondary schools. In Cameroon, when a novice teacher is posted to a remote area at the beginning of his or her career, he or she can spend more than five years without being supervised by an external member of the pedagogic supervision chain – Regional Pedagogic Inspectors and Pedagogic Counselors – and this absence of coaching at the career beginning deeply affects the classroom practices of the novice teacher of rural secondary schools in various negative ways.  As a result of this lack of context-appropriate and technology-enhanced pedagogic support from inspectors, novice teachers tend not to see the importance of professional growth and development for the rest of their career. Also, such teachers develop bad pedagogic behaviors as their classroom practices do not comply with those recommended by inspectors all over the national territory and which are identified in schools that are often visited by pedagogic inspectors. Furthermore, the absence of pedagogic support for novice teachers may also be explained by the fact that their schools are located in landlocked areas that is; areas with poor road networks and void of basic facilities like electricity and telephone network. Despite the fact that novice teachers graduate from teacher training colleges with a fair amount of knowledge on reflective teaching practice, it usually takes a long time for them to start reflecting on their teaching methods and techniques in order to align them with current practices. Under such circumstances, novice teachers in rural areas are left to themselves and do not enjoy professional development opportunities offered to their peers in towns or in other rural areas which are accessible through better road networks. This finally results in frustration, lack of commitment for the job, poor instructional sequences in classroom, poor mastery of the subject didactics, and poor organizational skills. All these flaws have a negative impact on novice teachers’ ability to prepare pedagogic documents. Some of these documents include; schemes of work, progression charts, departmental meetings minutes and many other teaching-related activities that improve the quality of classroom instruction and far beyond. In a response to all these facts, which are not exhaustive, there is a gradual process in which novice teachers have embarked. In fact many novice teachers who freshly graduate from teacher training colleges are usually posted to remote areas where they often teach in a whole secondary school without any support from peers or an external coach like an inspector. Nowadays, these teachers have identified the necessity not to rely on traditional PD opportunities and are expressing the wish to blend activities relating to traditional PD with mobile learning opportunities for their category. Hence, the aim of this action research is to look into how the collaborative design and delivery of TEPD – Mobile Professional Development (MPD) – can improve upon teachers’ competences. Novice teachers of English for this action research will be selected from schools found in remote areas of The Republic of Cameroon. It should be noted that these PD opportunities will be designed by the said teachers for themselves but with the help of the researcher. The latter who is a mid-career teacher has been teaching in a rural area and has passed through the same difficulties as the novice teachers with whom he has carried out the project.

1.3 Overall and Specific Objectives of the study

1.3.1 Overall Objective

The main objective of this study is to collaboratively design, deliver, and evaluate context-appropriate and effective mobile professional development contents for novice teachers of English in Cameroon rural area secondary schools. Put differently, the research aims at finding a new model of mobile PD that is feasible and effective among novice teachers of English in rural secondary schools.

1.3.2 Specific Objectives of the Study

The study revolves around four (04) specific objectives:

1. To identify context-specific needs of teachers and design suitable mobile professional development activities that will enhance their competences
2. To describe how mobile professional development is effectively delivered on a mobile community of practitioners
3. To demonstrate how Mobile professional development activities are monitored and evaluated on the mobile community of teachers
4. To investigate the opinions of participants and evaluate how collaborative mobile professional development design and delivery has improved upon teachers’ competences.