LITERATURE REVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Everyone is continually developing as a person and, every day in the workplace, we are always learning Tomorrow will be different from today and we all need to be prepared for change Whether you think your role is changing or not, you need to be prepared for the next development opportunity so you don‟t miss out
Professional development has become a major focus in EFL teacher education programs worldwide since it is undoubtedly beneficial and essential for professional growth and more effective teaching In the paper presented at the first General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland Annual Lecture in Belfast in March 2006, Geoff Whitty for Institute of Education, University of London states that: Contemporary education reform – including marketisation and centralization, but also a new emphasis on the involvement of a wider range of stakeholders – has resulted in a period of significant change for teachers It has also raised for new questions: for example, what is teacher professional development? How should we understand the roles of teachers?
What professional development activities are available and accessible to teachers, and what are the factors affecting teacher‟s participation in those professional development activities? The purpose of this thesis isthus to refocus on our attention on teachers‟ views, especially on urgency of providing teacher professional development that change teachers behaviours in ways that lead to improvement in students‟ performance In addition to calling attention to the ongoing need for effective teacher professional development, I will describe characteristics of high quality professional development and make a case for an unconventional approach to professional development that, unlike “one-shot” workshop and inservice days, allow teacher to acquire and practice new skills over time
While the end result of all education reform should be student improvement, every reform initiative, if it is to succeed, must begin with recognition of the importance of teachers in raising student performance (Ferguson, 1991; Armour-Thomas, Clay, Domanico, Bruno, & Allen, 1989)
In other words, “student achievement is the product of formal study by educators” (Joyce and Showers, 2002, p.3) We cannot expect students to change what they do if we are content for teachers to continue doing what they have always done As an old adage puts it, “If you do what you‟ve always done, you will get the results you‟ve always gotten.”
This thesis firstly presents the theoretical issues about the roles and nature of EFL teachers in professional development Chapter I – Introduction
To clarify these issues, the definition of terminologies is mentioned in chapter
II The next chapter is the presentation of the objectives, aims, methodology used for the research and its findings The conclusion which includes some comments and recommendations is presented in chapter IV
In consideration of these problems, as an English teacher, I really want to clarify the topic here with my knowledge and my supervisor‟s guidance to analyze, understand the situation of teaching and learning English at HaiAn high school Thanks to it, I will find out lessons, experience for myself and make a small contribution to enhancing the effectiveness in teaching this subject
The major aims of the study are:
- to gain understandings of secondary school teachers‟ motivation for professional development; and define what is meant by motivation
- to discuss some common professional development activities
- to identify factors that affect either positively and negatively teachers‟ motivation for professional development
Given the rationale and the aims of the study, it is necessary to limit the study to the areas which are manageable Benefits of teacher professional development create the effectiveness of students‟ learning which focuses on two factors: developing teachers‟ motivation in participation in PD and factors affecting this process The subjects under the study are at HaiAn High
The study attempts to find the answers to the following research questions:
- What are EFL teachers‟ attitudes to professional development?
- How motivated are they for professional development?
-What are the common professional development activities secondary school teachers participate in?
- What factors that affect teachers‟ motivation for professional development in the secondary school context ?
Because the primary purpose of this study is to gain understanding of the phenomenon under investigation, the main methodology used is qualitative
Specifically, data for this study were merely obtained by means of face-to- face interviews
The study is organized around three parts:
Part I – Introduction – provides the rationale for the study and sets up the aims, scope, research questions and methods of the study
Part II – Development – consists of three chapters:
- Chapter 1: Literature review_ is concerned with the literature review of the study
- Chapter 2: Methodology _ describes the study population, the research design as well as data gathering instruments
- Chapter 3: Results and discussion _ analyses and discusses data
- Chapter 4: Findings and implications_ presents findings and implications Limitations and suggestions for further research are also provided
Part III – Conclusion – summarizes and makes a conclusion to the main points which have been explored in the study, gives out recommendations to develop the effectiveness of teacher professional development, some suggestions for future research and the limitation of the study
Each individual theory tends to be rather limited in scope However, by looking at the key ideas below, you can gain a better understanding of motivation as a whole
According to http// Psychology.about.com, Motivation is the force that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors It is what causes us to take action, whether to grab a snack to reduce hunger or enroll in college to earn a degree The forces that lie beneath motivation can be biological, social, emotional or cognitive in nature
In everyday usage, the term motivation is frequently used to describe why a person does something For example, you might say that a student is so motivated to get into a clinical psychology program that she spends every night studying (http// Psychology.about.com)
There are three major components to motivation: activation, persistence and intensity Activation involves the decision to initiate a behavior, such as enrolling in a psychology class Persistence is the continued effort toward a goal even though obstacles may exist, such as taking more psychology courses in order to earn a degree although it requires a significant investment of time, energy and resources Finally, intensity can be seen in the concentration and vigor that goes into pursuing a goal For example, one student might coast by without much effort, while another student will study regularly, participate in discussions and take advantage of research opportunities outside of class
In workplaces, professional development refers to the acquisition of skills and knowledge both for personal development and for career advancement Professional development encompasses all types of facilitated learning opportunities, ranging from college degrees to formal coursework, conferences and informal learning opportunities situated in practice It has been described as intensive and collaborative, ideally incorporating an evaluative stage.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_development - cite_note-
1 There are a variety of approaches to professional development, including consultation, coaching, communities of practice, lesson study, mentoring, reflective supervision and technical assistance.
Professional development is a broad term, encompassing a range of people, interests and approaches Those who engage in professional development share a common purpose of enhancing their ability to do their work At the heart of professional development is the individual's interest in lifelong learning and increasing their own skills and knowledge
Professional development is defined as “the process of improving staff skills and competencies needed to produce outstanding educational results for students” (Hassel, 1999)
The “professional” in professional development implies expertise, pursuit of advanced training, and maintenance of currency in an evoking knowledge base (Four &Eaker, 1998)
Teacher professional development is the process of teaching teachers new strategies to improve the quality of instruction
Student achievement is linked to numerous factors, but quality teachers are one of the most important components of students‟ success If a school district‟s teachers do not have the tools they need to teach students effectively, their students will suffer To teacher effectively, teachers need access to ongoing teacher professional development This professional development enables teachers to improve their own education through seminars, workshops, and classes
WHY IS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IMPORTANT?
On the website www.learningforward.org, Stephanie Hirsh indicates that professional development refers to many types of educational experiences related to an individual‟s work Doctors, lawyers, educators, accountants, engineers, and people in a wide variety of professions and businesses participate in professional development to learn and apply new knowledge and skills that will improve their performance on the job
Many fields require members to participate in ongoing learning approved by the profession, sometimes as a requirement for keeping their jobs
Professionals often also voluntarily seek new learning
In education, research has shown that teaching quality and school leadership are the most important factors in raising student achievement For teachers and school and district leaders to be as effective as possible, they continually expand their knowledge and skills to implement the best educational practices Educators learn to help students learn at the highest levels.As Thomas Guskey (2000, p4) states, “One constant finding in the research literature is that notable improvements in education almost never take place in the absence of professional development.” PD is key to meeting today‟s educational demands
Many people may not be aware of their local school system‟s methods for improving teaching and student learning Professional development is the only strategy school systems have to strengthen educators‟ performance levels Professional development is also the only way educators can learn so that they are able to better their performance and raise student achievement
3 1 Why do educators need professional development? Did they learn what they need to know in college?
College and university programs cannot provide the extensive range of learning experiences necessary for graduates to become effective public school educators Once students graduate, meet their state‟s certification requirements, and are employed, they learn through experience As in all professions, new teachers and principals take years to gain the skills they need to be effective in their roles The complexity of teaching is so great that one- third of teachers leave the profession within three years (Ingersoll, 2003)
Even experienced teachers confront great challenges each year, including changes in subject content, new instructional methods, and student learning needs Educators who do not experience effective professional development do not improve their skills, and student learning suffers
In short, professional development provides ongoing opportunities for educators to continue to improve their knowledge and skills so they can help students achieve When educators learn, students learn more Anyone concerned about students‟ futures will want to support a cycle of continuous professional development.(Professional development.A Proccess Not an event.)
3 2 Why do new educators need extra support?
New teachers juggle an overwhelming number of unfamiliar issues, such as classroom management, instruction, curriculum, school culture and operations, test preparation and administration, state standards, parent relations, and interaction with other teachers Left to themselves, they may develop counterproductive behaviors With extra support, however, new teachers learn more effective practices to apply to daily challenges
Additional support also helps district retain new teachers and set them on the path to becoming effective educators Many school systems provide mentors and induction programs for novice teachers These programs are required in many states for teachers to earn a professional license Most importantly, research shows that new teachers who received intensive mentoring had a significant effect on student achievement after as little as two years (Strong, Fletcher, &Villar, 2004; Serpell& Bozeman, 1999)
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
As PD varies from different educational traditions and contexts
Teachers‟ PD, in a general term, means teacher learning in an ongoing way
PD implies the improvement of the school as well as the professional advancement of individuals; in other words, PD can embrace personal development (individualized learning) and staff development (the collegiality of group learning/ co-learning) „ (Bell, 1991a)‟ On this point, Day (1999) gives a similar but useful definition about professional development, stating that: professional development consists of all natural learning experiences and those conscious and planned activities which are intended to be of direct or indirect benefit to the individual, group or school and which contribute to the quality of education in the classroom (Day, 1999:4)
Thus professional development encompasses all activities that cater both for the individual needs of teachers and for the institutional needs of the whole school (Bell, 1991) The teacher, the school and the students thus benefit from such a process of professional development (Bell, 1991)
Due to changing demands on the new roles of teachers in the 21 st century, traditional approaches to PD such as formal courses or one-off seminar are criticized for their shortcomings of being unable to get teachers prepared for the new role of knowledge facilitator rather than knowledge transmitter (e.g Darling-Hammond, 1998: Lieberman, 1996) Instead, two theoretical perspectives lead the alternative approaches to PD which support teachers learn more effectively (Kwakman, 2003) These two perspectives include cognitive psychological and professional development perspective
Cognitive psychological Perspective Student learning and teaching are the same from cognitive psychological perspective (Borko and Putnam, 1996; Putnam and Borko, 2000) Teachers are assumed to learn like what students do in which teachers are considered as constructors of knowledge who learn actively in a self-directed way Such kind of learning occurs when interacting with the learning context and it is strongly affected by prior knowledge individual earner (Borko and Putnam,
1996) In other words, this kind of learning is situated and influenced by the interplay of the individual‟s existing knowledge and the learning environments Thus, teacher learning takes place when favorable learning environments are provided in which teachers are responsible for their own learning (Bransford, Brown and Cocking, 1999) whereas staff developers play an important role in creating favorable learning environments for teacher learning
Professional development perspective Instead of emphasizing the provision of favorable environments for enhancing teacher learning, from professional development perspective, it stresses that teachers have to learn how to teach for understanding where they ought to learn new conceptions of content and pedagogy and take on new roles (McLaughlin, 1997) Hence, the working context is understood to be the best place for teachers to acquire competencies that they need to fulfill their new roles through practice (Hargreaves, 1997; Kwakman, 2003; Retalick, 1999)
The working context for teachers can be the daily teaching context, including classrooms, school clusters, and other forms of communities such as partnership with universities, networks, etc In other words, teacher learning occurs at the workplace in which their learning is situated and closely aligned with teachers‟ work in classrooms and schools (Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman, and Yoon, 2001; Huffman, Thomas, and Lawrenz, 2003; Sparks and Loucks-Horsley, 1989), and it can be at individual level and collaboration level (Kwakman, 2003)
In conclusion, according to the “Why does professional development matter, issued 2005” teacher PD activities are grouped into these typical models below
- Study groups among peers focused on a shared need or topic
- Observation: teachers observing other teachers
- Coaching: an expert teacher coaching one or two colleagues
- Mentoring of new educators by experienced colleagues
- Team meeting to plan lessons, problem solve, improve performances, and/ or learn new strategy
- Faculty / grade- level or departmental meetings
- Workshop to dig deeper into a subject
- Conference to learn from a variety of experts through the country/ area/ world
- Proprietary programme by private venders.
FACTORS AFFECTING TEACHERS‟ PARTICIPATION IN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Few studies were conducted to examine factors affecting teachers‟ participation in PD activities over the decade in different countries Kwakman
(2003) conducted an empirical study about a number of factors affecting teachers‟ participation in PD in the Netherlands In her study, three factors, personal factors (i.e professional attitudes, appraisals of feasibility, appraisals of meaningfulness, emotion exhaustion, loss of personal accomplishment), and task factors (i.e pressure of work, emotional demands, job variety, autonomy, participation) and work environment factors (i.e management support, collegial support, intentional learning support) were used to examine the effects on teachers‟ participation in PD As a result, of these three factors, personal factor seem to be more significant in predicting teachers‟ participation in PD activities than task and work environment factors However, this study may over-generalize the factors may be understated (e.g family factor) and not context-specific to other situations or cultures
Another study conducted by Lee (2002) identified a number of factors facilitating and inhibiting effective professional development, „ relevant/ realistic content‟ was the most important factors were „ presenter with recent experience‟ (9%) and „ based on practice‟ (9%) The details of the results are listed in Table 1 He also examined factors inhibiting effective professional development The most commonly cited factor that inhibits effective professional development was „insufficient resources to implement learning‟
(21%), whilst the least frequently cited factor was „ school not supportive of PD‟ (13%) (see Table 2) Some other factors related to PD providers, including contents, formats, and presentation of PD activities, should be considered in affecting teachers‟ participation in PD activities, and they should be supplementary to the factors in Kwakman‟s(2003) study as mentioned above.To sum up, the above studies examined a number of factors that affect teachers‟ participation in PD activities This study takes an exploratory approach to further explore the factors affecting teachers‟ participating in PD in Hai An high school context.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Participants
There are 8 teachers of English, including the researcher, aged from 29 to 34 All of them graduated from universities The number of female teachers formed the majority (7 female teachers and 1 male teacher) All of them are enthusiastic with their careers and have at least 5 years of experience in teaching English
This case research involves only 6 teachers from the group of English, HaiAn high school These participants are chosen on a voluntary basis of the professional development When the researcher presented her research proposal and called for participation, six teachers volunteered to take part in the study and one afternoon per week we have an informal meeting to exchange ideas about the research area.
Data collection instruments
Study on teacher learning to improve their professional development is to do a research of a complex phenominence in teacher activities: what knowledge about the areas the teachers have, and how they gain the knowledge This involves both individualand social issues, which are both short- term and long- term Thus, while doing the research, the researcher is aware that no methodology is perfect.In this study interviewing was used as the sole instrument of data collection
Frey and Oishi (1995:01) define a research interviewas "a purposeful conversation in which one person asks prepared questions (interviewer) and another answers them (respondent)" This is done to gain information on a particular topic or a particular area to be researched Interviews are a useful tool which can lead to further research using other methodologies such as observation and experiments (Jensen and Jankowski 1991:101) Interviews can have one of two basic structures They can be either structured (closed interview style) or unstructured (open interview style) Open-ended or unstructured interviews are defined by Nichols (1991:131) as "an informal interview, not structured by a standard list of questions Fieldworkers are free to deal with the topics of interest in any order and to phrase their questions as they think best." This type of structure uses a broad range of questions asking them in any order according to how the interview develops (Breakwell, Hammond and Fife-Schaw 1995:231) Open-ended questions allow the interviewer, if they wish, to probe deeper into the initial responses of the respondent to gain a more detailed answer to the question (Wimmer and Dominick 1997:156) The richness of the data is therefore entirely dependent on the interviewer They themselves, must judge how much or how little they should probe or say themselves
There are of course both advantages and disadvantages to this type of structure It is particularly useful as a pilot study, to test out what peoples responses would be to a particular issue It may throw a completely different light on an issue that the interviewer had previously never considered
(Wimmer and Dominick 1997:139) Freedom for the respondent to answer how they wish to is important in giving them a feeling of control in the interview situation This version also has its disadvantages, namely in terms of the amount of time needed to collect and analyse the responses (Wimmer and Dominick 1997:139) Due to the varied nature of the responses, it is necessary to use the content analysis technique to analyse it This is what takes the time Open questions used in this unstructured interview approach can cause confusion either because of the lack of understanding of the question by the informant or by the lack of understanding of the respondent's answer by the interviewer (Wimmer and Dominick 1997:140) Despite some of these disadvantages, open-ended questions are very important Gray (1987) showed this when she studied women‟s relations to video technology It was found that women wanted to tell their stories therefore needing open-ended questions to enable them to talk freely (Jensen and Jankowski 1991:155)
After explaining the purpose of the study to the teachers of English at Hai An high school, they all agreed to participate Then, the interviews were conducted with individual teachers All the interview questions were open- ended questions so that the participants were able to express their views freely All the questions focused on teachers‟ attitudes to PD, their motivation for participating in PD as well as the challenges they had in participating in
PD activities.The researcher took notes of the participant responses Each interview lasted approximately half an hour
This chapter has described in detail the background to the study, the research methodology the participants and procedures of data collection The findings are presented in the following chapter.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Data analysis approach
In this study, an inductive approach to data analysis was adopted After the data had been collected, they were analyzed and categorized into patterns
The researcher then read the data again to choose segments for illustrating the patterns
2 Findings 2.1 Teachers’ perceptions of the importance of PD
When asked, all the participants agreed that professional development is very important for them For example, one teacher said,
Education is the first national priority investment, and teachers play a key role in its success A teacher has great influences on many student generations Only when teachers are efficiently qualified, does their work become effective When they are good at their professionals, they will have the ability to adjust and apply the teaching methods in an effective way to suit each particular student
Therefore, PD should be compulsory for EFL teachers
Sharing this idea, another teacher stated that PD is very integral in her career She said, “the more I learn, the more I get With good qualifications, my knowledge is improved, which can help me learn effectively through the internet, films, or books.”
Another teacher stated that by participating in PD activities , she was able to learn from her colleagues and from her own teaching She said,
Having good qualifications means we are capable of assessing our own lessons and our colleagues‟ lessons in order to draw experiences for ourselves and our colleagues for mutual development
The participants believed that as teaching is an art which demands teachers to be creative, deeply and widely qualified For the demanding work but rewarding, teachers have to continually learn new things in their fields of career as well as the outside fields to fulfill the requirement Without PD, the teaching becomes boring, dull and of course the students will suffer By participating in PD activities they could become “more professionally mature and confident” in their teaching, said one teacher
2.2 Teachers’ self-reported PD activities they often participated in
The PD activities that teachers reported to have participated in are classified into three categories, which are presented below
All the teachers actively attended professional training courses when these courses were offered to them They stated that these professional training courses helped them to
- Communicate with each other, exchange their knowledge and experience,or learn from each other in training courses
- Listen to experts on professional areas to share Listening to them in standard English makes them aware of their pronunciation when speaking English, which they often simplify or even "Vietnamize" in low level classes
- Participate in the practice of their professional fields
One teacher talked specifically about the workshop in 2007 by the British Council in collaboration with Haiphong Education and Training
Departments in which she participated The theme of the workshop was
“Classroom English to motivate Students' speaking skills" The workshop gave her an opportunity to practice teaching with the theme of "How to give feedback to motivate students' performance" After the workshop, she understood the importance of giving feedback and from which she has applied it in her teaching and found its effectiveness
Another teacher said she attended the workshop, “Building capacity for teaching English language through Innovative practices and problem- solving Strategies" by the U.S Embassy in collaboration with the
University of Haiphong held in October 2013 At this workshop she was provided with the softwares that support her teaching and the one that impressed her most is the Praat software Praat is used for phonetic stress pattern analyses and sound manipulation, particularly with Yes/ No and Wh-questions Her results show that Praat can enable students to refine their pronunciation By having instant visual feedback, students are able to associate what they normally might not be able to hear In addition, while English language teachers use Praat to present auditory sample to students, the visual pitch contour of the utterance is shown on the Praat object window to support their pronunciation illustration Teachers can also use Praat to measure students‟ pronunciation, which allows teachers to pinpoint student problems efficiently
Another software that she finds interesting in designing the exercises of word combinations, collocation is Wordle Wordle is a web-based tool for creating word clouds to motivate students‟ language learning By logging on to wordle.net and typing the text in a provided box, teachers can easily create “word clouds” with options of language, font and layout It can also be printed out for offline activities
She reconfirmed that Wordle-related activities are fun and in her class, they proved to be useful for teaching different language skills such as speaking, listening, reading, writing as well as teaching vocabulary It is simple to prepare, effective to motivate the students and appropriate to be adapted in a wide range of contexts
In addition to the training courses, teachers reported that they improved their professional competence by participating in the following activities:
- giving monthly topic-based lessons
- doing entrance exams once a week to practice using test- doing skills, moreover, by participating in this activity teachers can
- reading books or other online materials on the internet, which provide a lot of good exercises or beautiful pictures, or fun stories to apply in each particular unit or even ways of giving comments to students (e.g., IELT preparation site, VIOLETsite)
- consulting their colleaguesabout difficult professional problems
- teaching topical lessons attended by professional groups in schools, in the city One teacher gave a specific example of this about the topic "How to do mistake correction exercises effectively “One teacher mentioned an interesting PD activity She watched English movies in order to improve her listening skills, and expand her vocabulary as well as to enrich her background knowledge which she could share with her students
The result of the interviews also reveals that teachers frequently observed their colleagues‟ lessons as a form of PD They agreed that the peer- observation was very useful for their professional development The post- observation discussions could help them to exchange opinions and concerns about teaching By observing other teachers they said they managed to learn both the good things and things that needed improving in their own teaching
One teacher gave a concrete example of the benefits of peer-observation She said she observed one of her colleagues (Unit 11 English 11), and she found that using deductive method in teaching grammar for a class of good students was rather suitable She observed that the students taught with a deductive approach could review grammar explicitly and thus having more time practicing the grammar item that was being taught However, she also found that her colleague talked too much and often repeated her commands that made teacher‟s talking time longer than necessary She told her colleague about this and her colleague, in her following lessons, adjusted her talking time, making the lesson more effective
Another teacher said when observing one of her colleague teaching Unit 12
- Language Focus section- from English 10 in class 10C5, she learned a lot
She saw the students excited, passionate; the lesson was well-planned making the learning process more natural She and other observers also found it interesting that the observed teacher led and connected all the tasks of the lesson in a very logical and natural way The use of information technology into lesson also contributed to the success of her lecture Since then she no longer thought that interesting lessons were only conducted in classes with good students It is important that teachers have to be creative, understand students and have appropriate teaching plans
Reading was commonly mentioned by the participant teachers However, they acknowledged that they did not really spend much time reading books; they only read when they needed to look for something for their teaching To be more exact, they just read to look for the teaching materials available on the internet The books they read were largely those that provided needed grammatical exercises The books the teachers mentioned include:
- A Practical English Grammar by AJ Thompson & AV Martinet
- Intermediate Language Practice by Michael Vince
- Advanced Language Practice by Michael Vince
- Explaining English Grammar by Mai LanHuong
- University Entrance Exam Tests by Xuan Ba
- Advanced Grammar in use by Martine Hewings
- Listen in by David Nunan
All teachers agreed that reflecting on their teaching was important to their jobs and they did it very often Right in the teaching process, they immediately recognized the strengths and the limitations of their teaching
For example, one teacher stated that she experienced real progress in the following points through self-reflection:
+ time management was more reasonable, not too long or too short
+ pair or group work was organized more effectively Sometimes when shewas not familiar to it yet, she failed to control group work
+ eaching content was presented in a more realistic way
Discussion
Effective professional development enables educators to develop their knowledge and skills they need to address students‟ learning challenges (Hayes Mizell 2010) To be effective, PD requires thoughtful planning followed by carefully implementation with feedback to ensure it responses to educators‟ learning need Educators who participate in PD then must put their knowledge and skills to work PD is not effective unless it causes teachers to improve their instruction
Findings from this study show that while teachers who participated in this study appeared to have a strong motivation for their professional development They all were well aware of the importance of PD for their career advancement They were also positive about the benefits that PD may bring about to their teaching and their students‟ learning
However, PD to the participant teachers seems to be limited to few basic activities such as attendance at in-service teacher training workshops or seminars organized by the local Department of Education and Training, searching the internet for supplementary teaching materials and peer- observation Although they did mentioned reflection as a means of PD, their reflection seemed to be immediate, on-the-spot, and superficial Most of the reflection they described can be classified as reflection-in-action (Schon,
1983) The teacher also mentioned self-monitoring which refers to “a systematic approach to the observation, evaluation, and management of one‟s own behaviour in order to achieve a better understanding and control over the behaviour” (Richards and Farrell, 2005: 34)
When asked about the effectiveness of reflecting of their teaching lessons, all the participants said they do it every day It is considered as a reminder of reflecting on their teaching One teacher said that at first he was unwilling to go over his lesson again but afterthat he found it very effective and considered it as a mandatory activity in the work of the teacher's expertise He made room for writing journals in his teaching plans called „self- assessment‟ Since doing it, he‟s aware that it‟s something he should do as an EFL teacher Before participating in this activity, he sometimes thought of his teaching, usually there‟s something really important Always, he remembered the matter at the thinking time, but then he forgot
Some teachers also emphasized that „self- assessment‟ or writing journals makes the reflection deeper and more serious, when writing down they can get more insights into the teaching problems, they can spend time looking at the lesson in details and keep what they can learn from their mistakes for later use
Reflecting lesson is also regarded as a means that helps the EFL teachers realize their own teaching features After reviewing the teaching lesson, the EFL teachers here just only focus on the time division of the lesson, the completion of their lesson, the pair or group work as well as the task contents
But in reality, „self- assessment‟ makes them quite flexible, capable of dealing with unexpected situations, then they will feel confident and have high self- esteem, also they know their weaknesses Another reflection is that it enables EFL teachers to realize their teaching styles, sometimes they need to change their teaching styles to suit their students For example, students in different levels, genders, ages and so on
„Self- assessment‟ is greatly useful for the teachers who teach the same syllabus to two classes, thus they have the chances to implement several solutions One teacher said: she really likes it when she can apply what she can learn from teaching the first class to another class right away She can see changes It‟s the wonderful sense of achievement and progress
As any teacher, EFL teachers prefer observing their colleagues‟ lessons, which is compulsory in their profession, but they all find this activity useful All the participants held a positive attitude toward this activity
Through this activity, they can exchange matters related to their profession, they can learn positive things and even from the limitations of their colleagues They know for sure that in the peer observation, it is more important to see how much learning is happening in the lesson, why the observee is doing these or those teaching activities than what he/ or she is doing Observers can have the value of both observable things and unobservable ones Moreover, observing colleagues‟ lessons make them change their teaching “styles”, they realize sometimes it‟s worth changing
For example, one teacher said she usually follows a reasonable teaching procedure, and she finds her lessons are quite okay However, when attending another colleague‟s lesson she realizes teacher talking time is really important If teacher talking time is too high, it takes time for the students of involving in the learning On the contrary, if it‟s too low, it‟s hard to create an exciting atmosphere
Also, reading books is what EFL teachers do in their PD but not much
In general, the EFL teachers have not really spent much time reading books; they only read when they need to look for something Mainly they exploit the material for his teaching through the internet; the books they read are mostly related to practical grammar with exercises In other word, they just only focus on teaching grammar, they have not developed the theoretical methodology to have long term improvement in their careers This leads to a big problem, because students need developing their English skills to communicate in the real world, not only to “circle the best answer” in their test papers As a result, our students (with many years of learning English ) fail to use English in their work
3.1 Factors affecting EFL teachers in PD
Firstly, teachers all agreed that they received assistance from colleagues in improving their professionals Twice a month, they have group meetings in which they can share their difficulties both in professional and in class controlling And, they are young teachers so they can exploit a lot of useful resources on the internet
Thirdly, the encouragement and support rom the management is also very important: seminars and lecture festivals are annually organized by inter- schools and the department of education and training for teachers to exchange knowledge and experience to and from each other
Summary of the chapter
This chapter investigates the current situation of EFL teachers‟ professional development at Hai An high school through interviews and questionnaires, then carries out data analysis, comparison, findings and discussion Obviously,student learning will be transformed only if teachers‟ classroom practices reflect high standard That is the best way to raise the academic achievement of our students Professional development plays a key role in teacher preparation to meet the students‟ needs, a key focus of Vietnam efforts to improve education The PD of EFL teachers brings motivation and effectiveness to the students at Hai An high school
In conclusion, in the process of participation in PD, EFL teachers have many advantages as well as disadvantages from their insights and also from the work environment factors To be successful in their teaching, EFL teachers must be creative to strengthen their insights so that they will outweigh the difficulties
CONCLUSION
Recapitulation
In summary, the study deals with the theories of the motivation for EFL teachers in participation in PD It is important that it is carried out to investigate the case of EFL teachers at Hai An high school
The researcher uses the methods such as interviewing closely EFL teachers to understand their attitude to professional development, and the participants all have positive attitude toward PD At the same time, the researcher studies the professional development activities that EFL teachers participate In accordance with the theory mentioned in chapter one, the EFL teachers all take part in the same formal and informal PD activities, especially the reflective practice Also, the participants are asked to talk about their opportunities and challenges for their professional development
The result shows that the EFL teachers have strong motivation for PD, although they have some certain obstacles in participation in this process
The study also gives suggestions of measures to overcome difficulties when taking part in professional development.
Conclusions
While the teachers participating in this study were highly motivated for professional development, their understanding of the concept of „professional development‟ seems to be limited For them, PD just means searching supplementary materials on the internet, peer-observation, attending the training workshops or seminars organized externally and peer-observation
These are also professional activities that, according to their self-reports, are available to them Other activities such as teacher support group, keeping a teaching journal, teaching portfolios, peer coaching, analyzing critical incidents (Richards & Farrell, 2005) were not mentioned by any of the participant teachers The greatest challenge to their PD, in their opinion, was related to the management such as the policy for them to study for the Master‟s Degree and the professional expertise of the managers with whom they could share their concerns and from whom they could seek professional help.
Implications for teacher professional development
Vietnam government regards the high level proficiency in English for its students as being vital to its effective participation in the global economy
Towards that goal, the country needs to have competent EFL teachers It‟s necessary that EFL teachers should have motivation for PD and participate in its process including all formal and informal activities
Teachers, as mentioned above, may have positive attitudes towards the professional development but they need to improve their understanding of what PD means and what is involved in PD Also, their self-reports on the importance of PD does not guarantee their full actual participation in PD and their application of what they gain from PD to their classroom teaching
The most prominent factors in this study that influence teachers‟ participation in PD identified in this study namely lack of managerial supports; technical supports; lack of professional training forms; lack of teachers‟ positive attitudes and confidence Besides, regimes and policy were also a comparatively big problem that also discouraged the teachers from their professional development
In accordance with the findings, some suggestions for educational authorities and for the teachers are offered to ensure a smooth and successful implementation of EFL teachers‟ motivation for professional development
Educational administrators and teachers educators need to help teachers have a better understanding of PD and common PD activities, especially those that are available locally Establishing teacher support group, training the peer-observation skills, skills in doing action research are all effective PD activities that do not cost much
The first thing is to invest and improve the quality of classroom facilities and technology equipment The most urgent demand is that a Hi-tech room should be available so that teachers can adopt new software in their teaching and students can enjoy E-learning
The second is the number of students in each class should be urgently narrowed The current number is too big, which is very hard for a language teaching and learning to be effective
The third is to implement and provide better professional training courses to help EFL teachers gain further knowledge of their professional fields, of IT and familiarize with some applications of IT such as Violet, Hot Potatoes, Adobe Audition, and website designing… in their daily jobs
Another suggestion is to make PD compulsory Even though it is for their own profession and should derive from teachers‟ willingness to implement, it is a good idea to provide an urge for them, especially at the early stage of the practice Taking teachers‟ burden of huge loads of work and lack of motivation, this idea may help them maintain the activity and gradually form a habit
Finally, regime and policy should be constant and focused on teachers realistically so that EFL teachers don‟t have too much other concerns which take their time of professional development
As Thomas Guskey (2000, p4) states “One constant finding in the research literature is that notable improvements in education almost never take place in the absence of professional development” Professional development is key to meeting today‟s demand, so EFL teachers should be aware of this importance
And each of them has his/ her own way to do this activity
Research and experience help us recognize that high-quality ongoing professional development deepens EFL teachers‟ content knowledge and pedagogical skills; provides opportunities for practice, research, and reflection; and includes efforts that are jog-embedded, sustained and collaborative will assist in the goal to remain up-to-date (Spark, 2000)
Research by Joyce and Shower (1988) concludes that levels of teachers learning and strategy use are greatly increased when coaching, study team, and peer support are provided Thus, EFL teachers should confidently taking part in their professional development events held by the city, the school, interschool, especially their professional group
Furthermore, each EFL teacher should strengthen their inners to get over the personal difficulties as well as environment obstacles for their own professional development for their own sake.
Limitations of the study
It should be pointed out that there are certain limitations to this study First of all, the population of the study is rather small, which is hard to generate the findings in this study for EFL teachers in general Secondly, the research duration is quite short, thus possibly making it difficult to clarify the responses of the participants Finally, the study only use interview as the main means to collect data which has some certain disadvantages such as: it takes time to use the content analysis technique to analyze the varied nature of the responses from the interviewees.And open questions used in this unstructured interview approach can cause confusion either because of the lack of understanding of the question by the informant or by the lack of understanding of the respondent's answer by the interviewer.
Suggestions for future research
As the result of the findings from the research and the limitations of the study, several issues are worth considering for future research Firstly, a similar investigation should be implemented with a large number of participants or in longer duration so that the result will be more reliable
Secondly, the research can be carried out with some other means such as questionnaires, observation to investigate the changes in teaching practice in reality Finally, it is hoped that the implications in this study will be applied to assess the EFL teachers‟ motivation in professional development
1 Beatrice F Birman, Laura Desimone, Andrew C Porter, and Micheal
S Garet Designing Professional Development that works
2 Borko, H (2008) Professional development and teacher learning:
Mapping the terrain Educational Research, 33(8), 3-15
3 Desimone, L Porter, A Garet, M., Yoon, K.S., &Birman, B (2002)
Effects of professional development on teachers’ instruction: results from longitudinal study Educational evaluation and Policy Analysis,
4 Foddy, William Constructing Questions forInterviews, Cambridge
5 Geoff Whitty (2006) Institute of education, University of London
6 Guskey, T (2000) Evaluating professional development Thousand
7 Guskey, T R (1988) Teacher efficacy, self – concept and attitudes towards the implementation of instructional innovation Teaching and Teacher Education, 4(1), 63 – 69
8 Ingvarson, L., Meier, M., & Beavis, A (2005) Factors affecting the impact of professional development programs on teachers’ knowledge, practice, student outcomes &efficacy
9 Joyce, B.,& Shower, B (1988) Student achievement through staff development New York Longman
10 Kvale, Steinar Interviews An Introduction to Qualitative Research
11 McNamara, Carter, PhD General Guidelines for Conducting interviews, Minnesota, 1999
12 Richards, J C., & Farrell, T S C (2005) Professional development for language teachers: Strategies for teacher learning Cambridge:
13 Sandra H Harwell, Ph.D Teachers’ professional development It’s
NOT an event It’s a process
14 Schone, D A (1983) The reflective practitioner New York: Basic Books
15 Spark, D (2002) Designing powerful professional development for teachers and principals Oxford HO: National Staff Development Council
16 Watson, S., & Evans.S (2012) Observing changes in teachers’ practice as a consequence of taking part in professional development: developing a protocol for the observation of lessons
17 https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/ /research.pdf?
1 According to you, how is professional development important for teachers?
2 According to him (her), there are other forms of professional development for teachers?
3 Do you regularly attend professional training courses or not? Why do you attend such training courses?
4 In addition to teacher training courses, which form of training do you self- study to improve your pedagogy?Why do you use those activities?
5 Do you often attend your colleagues‟lessons or not? Why and Why not? If yes, do you learn anything through your fellows‟ classes?
6 Do you often think of the lessons you‟ve taught? Why and why not? Did you learn something after thinking of your previous lessons again?
7 Do you often read professional books? If so, why? What kind of books do you often read? Why do you often read those kinds of books?
8 Have you ever conducted research on students or improved your teaching hours? Why and why not? If so, how often? Please give an example?
9 Do you have any advantages and disadvantages of improving your professionals?
1 Theo anh (chị) việc phát triển nghiệp vụ có tầm quan trọng thế nào đối với giáo viên?
2 Theo anh (chị) thì có những hình thức phát triển nghiệp vụ nào cho giáo viên?
3 Anh (chị) có thường xuyên đi dự các lớp bồi dưỡng nghiệp vụ không?
Vì sao anh (chị) tham gia các lớp bồi dưỡng đó?
4 Ngoài các lớp bồi dưỡng giáo viên tập trung anh (chị) tự học để nâng cao năng lực sư phạm của mình bằng những hình thức nào? Vì sao anh chị lại sử dụng những hoạt động đó?
5 Anh chị có thường xuyên dự giờ của đồng nghiệp không? Vì sao có? Vì sao không? Nếu có anh (chị) học hỏi được gì qua việc dự giờ đồng nghiệp?
6 Anh (chị) có thường xuyên suy ngẫm lại giờ dạy của mình sau mỗi tiết dạy không? Vì sao có? Vì sao không? Nếu có anh (chị) học được gì trong mỗi lần chiêm nghiệm hay suy ngẫm lại giờ dạy của mình?
7 Anh chị có thường xuyên đọc sách chuyên môn không? Nếu có vì sao?
Những loại sách anh chị thường đọc? Vì sao thường đọc những sách đó?
8 Anh chị đã bao giờ tiến hành các nghiên cứu về học sinh hoặc cải tiến giờ dạy của mình không? Vì sao có? Vì sao không? Nếu có thì có thường xuyên không? Hãy cho một ví dụ?