Empirical Investigation of the Impact of Teacher Professional Development on Curriculum Delivery Quality in Public Secondary Schools in Anambra State

Teacher professional development is widely hypothesised as the most powerful school-level intervention for improving curriculum delivery quality, but its specific impact in the South East Nigerian secondary school context requires empirical documentation to guide policy investment decisions. This study empirically examined the relationship between teacher professional development participation and curriculum delivery quality in public secondary schools in Onitsha and Awka South LGAs, Anambra State, South East Nigeria. A retrospective cohort design was employed, with 150 teachers surveyed on their professional development participation history over 3 years and their curriculum delivery quality assessed through structured classroom observation (n = 75 observed lessons). PD types included state SUBEB workshops, WAEC examiners' conferences, private training, and university-affiliated programmes. Regression analysis showed that total professional development hours significantly predicted curriculum delivery quality scores (beta = 0.47, p < 0.001). Observation data showed a 28.3 percentage point quality score difference between high-PD participants (above 40 hours annually) and low-PD participants (below 10 hours). University-affiliated PD showed significantly stronger quality associations than government workshop PD (p < 0.05). The study concludes that professional development participation significantly improves curriculum delivery quality and recommends annual PD hour minimum requirements, PD quality differentiation policies, and university-school professional learning community partnerships as priority PD improvement strategies in Anambra State. Keywords: teacher professional development, curriculum delivery, secondary school, Anambra State, instructional quality