EFL Instructors’ Attitudes towards Professional Self-Development

Year 2021, Volume: 8 Issue: 2, 172 - 191, 30.06.2021

Aydan Irgatoğlu , Bena Gül Peker

https://doi.org/10.33200/ijcer.894375

Abstract

This descriptive study aimed to find out whether instructors practiced self-development activities, whether some factors hindered the practice of self-development activities, and to what extent the instructors implemented self-development activities in their classes to solve a problem. Additionally, it aimed to find out whether the instructors differed in the use of self-development activities in terms of age, gender, experience, education level, and teaching hours. This study was conducted with 348 EFL instructors and four teacher trainers. Three research instruments including a questionnaire, interviews with teacher trainers, and four EFL instructors were used to investigate the self-development activities which were journal writing, self-appraisal, peer-observation, reading, writing a research paper, and action research. The analysis of data revealed that EFL instructors practiced self-development activities on a limited scale except for peer observation, which was carried out as a school policy. The results also showed that the workload was the most important hindrance in practicing self-development activities. Additionally, EFL instructors did not transfer the information gathered from self-development activities in their EFL classes to solve problems and they differed in the use of self-development activities to some extent in terms of age, gender, teaching experience, ELT qualifications like BA, MA, or Ph.D. and teaching hours. 

Keywords

self-development, professional development, peer-observation, action research, self-appraisal

References

• Alan, B. (2003). Novice teachers’ perceptions of an in-service teacher training course at Anadolu University. Master of Art Thesis. Bilkent University, Institue of Educational Sciences, Ankara.
• Alwan, F. H. (2000). Towards effective in-service teacher development in the United Arab Emirates: Getting teachers to be in charge of their professional growth. The University of Bath, Institute of Educational Sciences, United Arab Emirates.
• Balcıoğlu, L. (2010). An assessment of teacher training programs in public and foundation university foreign languages department preparatory school and the instructors' perception and relevance. Master of Art Thesis. Maltepe University, Institute of Educational Sciences, İstanbul.
• Burns, A. & Richards, J. C. (Eds.). (2009). The Cambridge guide to second language teacher education. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
• Doghonadze, N. (2016). The state of school and university teacher self-development in Georgia. International Journal of Research in Education and Science, 2, (1), 104- 113.
• Farrell, T. (2012). Novice-service language teacher development: Bridging the gap between pre-service and in-service education and development. TESOL Quarterly, 46(3), 435- 450.
• Ferris, J. and Samuel, C. (2020). A Self-Defined Professional Development Approach for Current and Aspiring Educational Developers. Teaching & Learning Inquiry, 8 (1), 209-220.
• Gebhard, J. G. (2005). Teacher development through exploration: Principles, ways, and examples. TESL-EJ, 9(2), 1-15.
• Genç, Z. S. (2012). Professional development and Turkish EFL teachers: Building context-sensitive pedagogical knowledge. Research perspectives on teaching and learning English in Turkey: Policies and practices. 3(2), 35-39.
• Gheith, E. & Aljaberi, N. (2018). Reflective Teaching Practices in Teachers and Their Attitudes toward Professional Self-development. International Journal of Progressive Education, 14 (3), 160-179.
• Grabsch, D. K. (2019). Student Affairs Professionals' Self-Reported Professional Development Needs by Professional Level. College Student Affairs Journal, 37(2), 144-156.
• Johnson, K. E. (2009). Second language teacher education: A socio-cultural perspective. New York, NY: Routledge.
• Korucu, S. (2011). The use of action research as a model in the professional development of an English teacher: A case study. Master of Arts Thesis. Institute of Educational Sciences, Selçuk University, Konya.
• Kulbak, H. (2019). Öğretmenlerin mesleki gelişime yönelik motivasyonları ve mesleki gelişimleri önünde algıladıkları engeller: Bir karma yöntem araştırması. [Teachers' motivations for professional development and barriers perceived by them in their professional development: A mixed method research]. Master of Arts Thesis. Institute of Educational Sciences, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale.
• Lejonberg, E. (2018). Developmental Relationships in Schools: Pre-Service Teachers' Perceptions of Mentors' Effort, Self-Development Orientation, and Use of Theory. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 26 (5), 524-541.
• Liyanage, I. & Barrett, J. B. (2008). Contextually responsive transfer: Perceptions of NNES on an ESL/EFL teacher training program. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(1), 1827-1836.
• McKay, S. L. (2009). Second language classroom research. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
• Personn, J. (2014). The effects of an in-service teacher training certificate program on the teaching practices of novice teachers. Master of Arts Thesis. Middle East Technical University, Institute of Educational Sciences, Cyprus.
• Roberts, A. M.(2020). Preschool Teachers' Self-Efficacy, Burnout, and Stress in Online Professional Development: A Mixed Methods Approach to Understand Change. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 41(3), 262-283.
• Richards, J. C. (2010). Competence and performance in language teaching. RELC, 41(2), 101-122.
• Richards, J. C. & Farrell, T. S. C. (2005). Professional development for language teachers: Strategies for teacher learning. New York: Cambridge University. Richards, J.C. & Rodgers, S.T. (2001). Approaches and methods in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
• Sarıyıldız, G. (2017). Novice and experienced teachers’ perceptions towards self-initiated professional development, professional development activities, and possible hindering factors. International Journal of Language Academy, 5(5), 248-260.
• Ural, A. & Kılıç, İ. (2006). Bilimsel araştırma süreci ve SPSS ile veri analizi. [Scientific research process and data analysis with SPSS]. Ankara: Detay.
• Ünal, D. (2010). Designing an in-service teacher training program for English language instructors and identifying the effectiveness of the program: An implication at Afyon Kocatepe University. Master of Arts Thesis, Gazi University, Institute of Educational Sciences, Ankara.
• Villegas-Reimars, E. (2003). Teacher professional development. An International Review of literature. Paris: IEEP Printshop.
• Yaşar, P. (2019). English language instructors' attitudes towards professional development and their engagement in self-initiated professional development. Master of Arts Thesis, Karadeniz Teknik University, Institute of Social Sciences, Trabzon.
• Yüksel, B. (2021). Professional development challenges experienced by language instructors at a foundation university: A case study. Master of Arts Thesis, METU, Institute of Social Sciences, Ankara.