Professional Development Needs of Physical Education Teachers in the North West Geopolitical Zone

Continuous professional development is essential for maintaining instructional quality and ensuring that physical education teachers remain current with evolving curriculum, pedagogical innovations, and health education research. This study identifies the professional development needs of physical education teachers in secondary schools across the North West geopolitical zone of Nigeria, encompassing Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto, and Jigawa States. A descriptive survey design was adopted, with 340 physical education teachers completing a validated professional development needs assessment instrument covering instructional skills, content knowledge updates, assessment and evaluation, inclusive education, technology integration, health education updates, and sports management. Needs are ranked by frequency of identification and self-rated competency deficit scores. Findings indicate that the highest-priority professional development needs cluster around disability-inclusive physical education, contemporary health education topics including mental health and non-communicable disease prevention, ICT integration in physical education, and updated curriculum delivery for revised national curriculum content. Teachers with more than 10 years of experience report greater needs in technology integration, while newer teachers identify content knowledge depth as a primary need. Regional disparities reveal that teachers in rural areas of Zamfara and Kebbi States express significantly higher overall professional development deficits. Recommendations include designing differentiated professional development programmes addressing identified need priorities, creating a zonal physical education professional learning network, and formalising mandatory annual professional development through the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria. Keywords: professional development, physical education teachers, North West Nigeria, training needs, teacher competency