The purpose of this study was to investigate perceptions of self-initiated professional development of English language teachers at English Language School of BaSkent University. Within this framework, teachers& / #8217 / attitudes towards their professional development, their perceptions of major professional development activities, and the factors that hinder change and growth in teachers were investigated.
The data collection instrument used was a questionnaire administered to 110 English language teachers at BaSkent University. The questionnaire consisted of both open-ended and close-ended items and the data collected were analyzed descriptively to understand the general trends and differences among teachers.
The data analysis revealed that the teachers agreed with most of the concepts that reflect the importance of professional development. In addition, they were aware of the importance of major professional development activities for their growth. However, peer observation and action research, which are developmental activities, were not favoured as much as the other activities. In addition, it was found that the teachers did not make use of the activities as much as they gave importance to. Furthermore, teachers showed significant differences in importance given to and making use of the activities by the background variables. Female teachers, young teachers and the teachers who do not have much experience seemed to give more importance to and actualize some of the professional development activities more than the other teachers. Meanwhile, it was also noted that the listed factors that hinder growth were all found important by the teachers. The most important impediments to growth were indicated as excessive workload, lack of self-motivation and lack of institutional support for professional development.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/1217736/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 September 2003 |
| Creators | Karaaslan, Dilsad A. |
| Contributors | Yildirim, Ali |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | M.S. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for public access |
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