ADDRESSING TRAINEES’ CONCERNS IN A PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME FOR INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore concerns of 10 academics at a university in South Africa who participated in an in-house professional development programme and recommend how such concerns could be addressed. Guided by the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM), a qualitative, interpretive research design was adopted. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed qualitatively. The results indicated that organisers of successful staff development programmes need to inform the participants (informational concerns) about the nature of the programme and to explain the impact of the programme on individual participants (personal concerns). Participants were also concerned about how the change due to training would be managed in practice (management concerns) and the consequences of the programme on the students (consequence concerns). The study confirmed that being aware of trainees’ concerns enables programme organisers to give relevant assistance to individual trainees and reinforce attraction to the programme. It is recommend that concerns of trainees be addressed pre and during the process of training.

Keywords

• Staff development,Trainees,Concerns,Innovative teaching,Learning,Training

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