Educational Programmes and Enhancement of Senior Secondary School Teachers’ Creativity and Critical Thinking Skills in Emohua LGA, Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the pivotal and crucial roles of educational programmes such as professional development workshops, mentorship and coaching programmes, technology integration trainings in enhancing senior secondary school teachers’ creativity and critical thinking skills in Emohua Local Government Area, Rivers State, Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. Three research questions and 3 hypotheses guided the study. The population of the study comprised of 1,650 SSS I & II teachers in senior secondary schools in Emohua L.G.A. A sample size of 350 respondents was used for the study. Census and stratified random sampling technique were used to determine the sample. A structured questionnaire captioned: “Roles of Educational Programmes in Enhancing Teachers Creativity and Critical Thinking Skills Questionnaire (REPETCCTSQ)” was used to obtain responses. The validity of this study was ensured by presenting the instrument to three experts. Cronbach’s Alpha reliability statistics was used to determine a reliability index of 0.88 for the instrument. Three hundred and fifty (350) copies of the questionnaire out of the initial figure of three hundred and eighty (380) copies earlier distributed to the respondents were successfully retrieved and used for data analysis. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer research questions, while t-test was used for testing the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed that professional development workshops, mentorship and coaching programmes, technology integration trainings significantly enhance male and female teachers’ creativity and critical thinking skills in senior secondary schools in Emohua Local Government Area, Rivers State. Among others, the study recommends that professional development workshops should be designed to include interactive and hands-on activities that encourage teachers to explore innovative teaching methods by fostering an environment where teachers can actively engage with new strategies and share experiences, these workshops should be structured to enhance their creativity and critical thinking skills and few others.