PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES FOR ACTIVITY-BASED LEARNING: CASE OF HIGH SCHOOL HEALTH AND POPULATION TEACHERS IN KATHMANDU, NEPAL

Abstract

In education reform movements, there is an emphasis on health and population education teaching through activity-based instruction. Teacher education is an important part in this process. In this context, this study aims to investigate the effect of activity-based professional development training on high school health and population education teachers' beliefs and self-efficacy.. The data collection tools used was perceptions about activity-based learning strategies, activity-based teaching, self-efficacy and the teaching skills. A group of 30 high school teachers participated in the study. During two days short-term professional development training, the teachers attended four workshops that introduced the activity-based learning method. The analysis of the collected data showed that professional development training was effective in improving teachers' perceptions (t = −5.39; p = 0.00), self-efficacy (t = −5.12; p = 0.00), and process skills (t = −4.99; p = 0.00). The results of the study suggest that provision of workshops ultimately can gear up to the improvement of teachers' self-efficacy learning which transforms the belief system of teachers about teaching and learning by activity-based learning approaches.