Perception of Teachers’ Professional Development Needs, Impacts, and Barriers

Abstract

The article reports on findings from the TALIS (Teaching and Learning International Survey) 2013 study for Abu Dhabi which gathered teachers' views on teaching and learning with a focus on professional development. The aim of this study is to better understand teachers' perceptions of professional development needs and impacts as well as the barriers faced by teachers from secondary schools in Abu Dhabi. The study provides some insights into the variations of those perceptions relative to other independent variables such as teachers' age and gender, and type of schools. With regard to the perceived need for professional development activities, the most significant variation is observed with regard to public or private schools. With regard to the impact of those activities, male teachers almost consistently assign higher perceived impact scores than female teachers. Public schools also assign higher perceived impact scores for all activities that they participated in. However, female teachers assign significantly higher perceived barrier scores to five of the seven listed barriers to participating in professional development activities. The research has implications for professional development providers to ensure the effectiveness of professional development opportunities for educators in Abu Dhabi.

Attitudes and Expectations of Khmer Ethnic Student-Teachers Majoring in English Education toward Participation in VSTEP for their Professional Development

“…Thus, in teaching and learning process, student-teachers are challenged to create encouraging environment with the content relating to VSTEP for students to explore. This findings matches work by Badri (2016), who claims that proficiency test might limit the teachers and learners to whatever content, organization, or style is dictated by the organizer.…”

“…They have more targets for teaching career as well as progressive attitude in training generations of students. Through interviews, the researchers (Badri et al, 2016) found that the teachers test results had no direct personal impact on them, the teacher became more comfortable and fearful, so the effect of the test also dropped.…”

A Structural Equation Model of Determinants of the Perceived Impact of Teachers’ Professional Development—The Abu Dhabi Application

“…The continuous feedbacks and evaluations should be able provide effective recommendations and redesign when necessary. Badri et al (2016) used the same sample and reported ANOVA of the individual variables of the two constructs of perceived needs and perceived impacts of professional development. Their study provided some insights into the variations of those perceptions relative to other independent variables such as teachers' age and gender and type of schools.…”

The Influence of Principals' Technology Leadership and Professional Development on Teachers’ Technology Integration in Secondary Schools

“…Many studies related to the use of technology in secondary schools (Fullan, 2001;Senge, 1990;Michael, 1998;Johnston & Cooley, 2001;Hamzah, Juraime, Hamid, Nordin & Attan, 2014) agree that principals play a key role in the use of ICT in the classroom. Additionally, studies such as by McLeod (2011), Wang (2010), Badri, Alnuaimi, Mohaidat, Yang, and Al Rashedi (2016), and Evers, Van der Heijden, and Kreijns (2016) suggest that professional development should be further examined.…”