Delivering Quality Education Through inclusive Teacher Professional Development Pedagogies in Kenya

Abstract

Delivery of quality and equitable inclusive education requires innovative approaches in teacher preparation. Transition of learners with disabilities to secondary schools and their retention therein has been impaired by lack of teacher preparedness. Teacher Professional Development (TPD) requires involvement of teachers individually and collectively. There has been lack of a systematic continued capacity development of teachers to deliver quality education in inclusive setting. Kenya Institute of Special Education in collaboration with Commonwealth of Learning (COL) conducted a study to explore how inclusive teacher professional development strategies can be used as a driver of access to quality education and lifelong learning for all. The aim of the study was to explore the use of teacher communities of practice made up of teacher educators and practicing teachers as an innovative step in building teacher professional capacity in inclusive education. The study involved 39 classroom teachers, 12 head teachers and 6 policy makers in the education sector. Semi structured questionnaires were used to collect data from the respondents and data analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The study revealed that creating a network for specialist teachers to meet and share the teaching of concepts with teachers of regular schools in secondary schools is positively correlated with enrolment of learners with learning disabilities, improved school infrastructure as well as improved subject performance among many students. It was also found that the community of teachers sharing knowledge makes teaching of abstract topics easy to teach regardless of whether the learner has a disability or not. The study concludes that: inclusive teacher professional development pedagogies are instrumental in enhancing student support and personalized learning; teachers need networks, where they link up and share on new and developing methodologies that are effective in delivering academic content to a diverse community of learners including those with disabilities. // Paper ID 263