Pre-school Teachers’ Opinions about Professional Development Applications and Teaching Partnership

Abstract

The purpose of the current study is to determine pre-school teachers' opinions about the current applications to promote their professional development and level of readiness to Teaching Partnership system to be constructed through the adaptation of My Teaching Partner-MTP implemented in America to Turkey. My Teaching Partner was planned to promote teachers' professional development and to enhance the quality of their instruction. The study group of the current research employing a qualitative research method is comprised of 8 pre-school teachers working in a city of Central Anatolia. The participants were administered a structured interview form developed by the researchers. The data collected through the interview form aiming to elicit the teachers' opinions about the current applications were organized and interpreted within the themes of teacher education, graduated university and evaluation. The data collected to elicit the participants' opinions about teaching partnership were analyzed on the basis of positive and negative perceptions. It was concluded that the teachers experience many problems during the existing professional development applications and cannot obtain the desired benefits from these applications. Three of the participants were found to be both positively viewing teaching partnership and willing to participate in the construction of such a system.