School heads and teachers as the frontline in the educational system need to develop a deep understanding of teaching phenomena and practices in schools. This understanding can be done through research. Most of the teachers are not motivated to conduct research even if they encountered lots of problems in the new normal. With this, the researchers determine the challenges in researching and provide an immediate response in overcoming challenges. Design/methodology /approach: The descriptive-quantitative method was used with 132 teacher participants selected randomly using the Raosoft application from District VIII. While online survey questionnaires and interviews, frequency, percentage, weighted mean, ranking, and t-test were used. Findings: The challenges faced by teachers before the conduct of upskilling are lack of knowledge and skills in completing the research; the upskilling is highly effective in terms of content, design, attitude towards the conduct of research, and knowledge and skills development. Meanwhile, the challenges faced after the upskilling are poor time management, and lack of self-confidence; and there is a significant difference before and after upskilling, thus, a proposed innovative Professional Development activity may be utilized to help teachers overcome their challenges.