Continuous Professional Development and Teacher Effectiveness: A Structural Equation Modeling Study in the Somali State of Ethiopia

Background: Teacher professional development is a significant factor in the quality of the education system. Ethiopia continues to improve its educational institutions and develop teachers; however, the Somali Regional State faces several challenges, including inadequate institutional support, delayed and low salaries, inconsistent training programs, insufficient student motivation strategies, and inadequate learning environments. Purpose: This study examines the significance of teacher professional development in sustaining an efficient educational system in the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia, with a specific focus on the influence of institutional support, motivating promotion, and recognition of teacher professional development. Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional design was used to gather information from 265 teachers in the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia using a structured questionnaire instrument, which was analyzed in SPSS and PLS to investigate the relationships among factors of challenges in teacher professional development. Results: The result highlights effective teacher professional development, which requires the successful integration of institutional support and specific conditions. The findings demonstrate that the latent constructs explain more than 50% of the variance in the observed indicators. Examination of the measurement model suggests that the constructs also demonstrate adequate indicator reliability, internal consistency, and convergent validity. The strong outer loadings, high CR and rho-A values, and adequate AVE scores all together suggest that the measurement instruments have psychometric validity appropriate for examining structural models. Conclusion: The study concluded that, for the classroom process to become even more efficient, it should focus on professional development using technology and on increasing teachers’ abilities. This is a big deal for policymakers, school leaders, and sector professionals in their efforts to ensure the efficiency of teaching within educational institutions.