Need Assessment for the Professional Development of Teachers in Content Knowledge of Instructional Planning and Strategies

In 2009 the National professional standards were introduced for teachersin Pakistan to determine a nationwide quality of teaching. Thesestandards focus on the quality of teacher preparation from this timeonwards; the present study was initiated to determine the needs of theworkforce who are already in the practical field and how they mayachieve the established standard. Therefore, in the light of the prescribedstandard “Instructional Planning and Strategies (IPS)”this articleinvestigated the levels of content knowledge of IPS possessed by theteachers in secondary schools; it further determined the difference in thecontent knowledge levels of urban & rural, male& female teachersregarding IPS. It was a survey type quantitative study with a populationspread of secondary school teachers (SSTs) working in the fourprovinces and Federal Capital. A multistage sampling procedure wasadopted to collect data from 400 SSTs belonging to the population area.The need of the in-service teachers for acquiring content knowledge ofIPS was gauged through a questionnaire based on seven indicators ofcontent knowledge given in the professional standards; the teachersfurther prioritized their training needs in these defined areas. Moreover,data triangulation was done to ensure the validity of the study. The indepthanalysis revealed that SSTs possessed different levels on eachindicator of content knowledge of IPS but a meager number wascompetent in it. Independent sample “t-test” was applied to calculate thedifference between content knowledge of IPS possessed by the male&female, urban& rural SSTs.