Professional Development Programs and Efl Teachers’ Training Needs: A Simulation Study

Abstract

Professional development programs (PDPs) are the door for teachers to learn and acquire the latest approaches in the teaching process. This study aimed to find out the EFL teachers’ needs that should be incorporated in PDPs and the extent to which the current PDPs at Taif University English Language Center (TUELC) met the EFL teachers’ needs. These aims were fulfilled through an explanatory sequential research design which used questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that teachers need to be trained on most of the proposed educational skills such as teaching skills, research skills, and management skills. Furthermore, the current study revealed that years of teaching experience is not a factor in determining EFL teachers’ needs of PDPs. They also showed that the current PDPs have met EFL teachers’ needs to some extent. However, there were few important needs that should be focused on during the designing of PDPs. Therefore, this study recommended to have needs analysis before conducting any training program as success of PDPs depends on identification and understanding teachers’ perceptions and needs. Needs Analysis enables the training programs designers to focus on teachers’ needs without wasting their time and efforts. This study contributed to the knowledge of EFL teachers’ needs in PDPs which were identified based on its findings.

Identifying EFL Teachers’ Training Needs for Their Professional Development

“…. In order to prepare the items of the questionnaire, the researcher reviewed a number of questionnaires and surveys that dealt with identifying EFL teachers' training needs (e.g., Shabani, Alibakhshi, Bahremand andKarimi ,2018 andAlzahrani andMohamad Nor,2021) . In addition, the researcher interviewed a number of specialists in the field of TEFL.…”

“…Furtheremore, the researcher found a strong rationale through reviewing several previous studies that confirm and support the problem (e.g., Guefrachi and Troudi (2000) ;Locke and Latham Moeini (2008); Wall (2008) ; Lemperou , Chostelidou and Griva (2011) ; Rajab (2013) ; Demir (2015) ; Stickler and Emke (2015) ; Tawalbeh (2015); Asmari (2016); Topkaya and Çelik ( 2016) ; Ali (2018) ; Kourkouli (2018) ; Nijakowska , Tsagari and Spanoudis (2018) ; Nugroho (2018) ; Oudah and Altalhab (2018) ; Phothongsunan (2018) ; Qian et al (2018); Arslan , Mirici and Öz (2019) ; Karamifar et al . (2019) ; Pate ( 2019) ; Ibrahim and Kavlu (2020) ; Zulaiha and Mulyono (2020) ; Alzahrani and Mohamad (2021) ; Liu et al (2021) ; Kedir and Gutema (2022) and Sayyadi (2022).…”