The Effectiveness of Teachers and Schools Cluster Model of Primary School Mathematics Teachers Professional Development in Cross River State, Nigeria

It is believed that no nation can have the quality of her education rise above the quality of her teachers. The import of this statement is that teachers in Nigeria need to be adequately trained and positioned to ensure quality teaching which will invariably provide effective learning and qualitative functional education. Mathematics teachers’ production requires a deserved attention in the Nigerian educational system in that the demand for them outstrips the supply. A situation that has led to not so well qualified and motivated candidates to be re-directed to major in mathematics in tertiary institutions as professional teachers. These mathematics teachers in training struggle to graduate and are employed to teach mathematics in the schools. In this circumstance, re-training of such caliber of teachers becomes imperative. Workshops, seminars and in-service training of good quality become crucial for their professional development. However, the commonest method of re-training of these teachers had been the cascade approach in which five days of a week in one year are used for interaction between the teachers and commissioned facilitators who lecture them without proper coordination and consideration of the objectives of the re-training. However, late in 2013 the Cross River State Ministry of Education introduced the cluster model of re-training of teachers. Against this background, this study assessed the effectiveness of the teachers and schools cluster model of primary school mathematics teachers’ professional development to ascertain the impact on pupils’ achievement in mathematics. It was recommended that the cluster model of re-training professional teachers should be adopted. It was also suggested that all teachers in the primary school be given a chance of participating in the programme from time to time.

Keywords – Cluster model, professional development, mathematics teachers, functional education