Teachers’ Professional Development in the Context of Experiential Learning Theory for Improved Instructional Delivery

The professional development of teachers is critical to their instructional delivery and academic engagement with their learners. This article explored how professional development activities for teachers can be situated within experiential learning theory to improve instructional delivery in schools. Kolb’s experiential theory, which underpins this study, describes effective approaches to improving teachers’ classroom activities. Thus, designing teacher professional development within the context of experiential learning theory will improve their pedagogical content knowledge and learners’ academic performance. The theoretical framework enables effective classroom instructional delivery for learning experiences in different contexts. Ten economics teachers were purposively selected from 10 randomly selected high schools in Lagos, Nigeria. The teachers were pre-and post-observed in classroom teaching before and after a 3-day experiential learning-based professional development workshop. These participants were engaged in a semi-structured focus group discussion to share their lived experiences. It was established that teachers had some professional needs that were identified before the workshop. The post-workshop observation showed that teachers were better equipped to deliver learning experiences to learners. Thus, the post-observation showed that the professional development of teachers can be strengthened within the context of experiential learning theory to critically engage teachers in what addresses their professional needs. The researcher, therefore, recommends that those responsible for designing teachers’ professional development conduct pre-and post-assessment on teachers’ classroom practices before designing activities for them. Regular and appropriate professional development activities should be situated within the context of experiential learning theory, to attain improved instructional delivery.