DETERMINANTS OF TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL SKILLS DEVELOPMENT IN THE PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES OF BANGLADESH

Abstract

University teachers’ professional development programmes directly affect the quality of education and teaching in universities and tertiary-level education. This was a cross-sectional study and a total of 96 private university teachers were included in this study. The average age of the respondents was 33.17±4.904 years. The difference in age of respondents by sex was found statistically significant at the .003 level (x2 = 29.90, df = 8; Cramer’s V = .39). We found an association between respondents’ years of teaching experience and monthly income (x2= 38.25, df = 9, Gamma V= .36, Lamda λ = .39cOR= 1.69; 95% CI = 2.855–3.650; P = 0.003). The majority (83%) of respondents had no research training on how to train their students, followed by technology operating training (20%), scientific writing training (80%), personal quality improvement training (60%), and computer and internet use training (34%) (χ2 =24.60, DF= 7, p =.05). The majority of respondents seem unhappy regarding university authority policy about their professional skills development (χ2 =29.55, DF= 9, p =.002). Lack of participation in professional development activities (90%), not enough encouragement from university authorities to participate in professional development activities (75%), sharing common values related to professional development activities among colleagues (40%), lack of staff agreement on common values about student learning and teaching at university (45%) and high cost of travel expenses to participating in professional development activities at foreign countries are the common barriers to university teachers professional skill development. Career-oriented professional development activities can directly enhance the teachers' professional and personal growth, which positively impacts university development.