A Descriptive Exploration of a Self-Directed Approach to Teacher Professional Development

Abstract

Teachers are often invited or mandated to engage in professional development (PD) to improve their practice. However, an empirical understanding of how teachers learn from PD offerings remains elusive and incomplete. Often teachers claim not learning from models where they have little autonomy. While there is small body of research on teacher-driven models, there is a lack of sufficient evidence on whether these models enhance teacher learning and ultimately their practice. Therefore, this study utilized mixed methods to explore the process of a teacher-driven professional development approach and to describe the teachers' practices during this process.Teachers were found to self-direct their own PD in an iterative cycle and showed higher mean scores in aspects of their practice from the beginning of the study to the end. This study highlights implications for professional development practice, policy, and future research.