Teachers' Perspectives on Continuing Professional Development
Remzi Y. Kıncal
Department of Education, Atatürk University, Erzurum, Turkey.
Arzu Daşcı-Derya
Department of Education, Kafkas University, Kars, Turkey.
Dilek Beypınar
Department of Education, Kafkas University, Kars, Turkey.
Fatih Topcu *
Department of Education, Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen University, Ağrı, Turkey.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Aims: A school in which professional learning occurs among teachers is beneficial to both teachers and students. Professional learning is something teachers do, as they learn and share information and materials, and strive to improve student learning outcomes. Teachers are engaged in collaborative learning process through PL in order to develop their teaching skills and knowledge.
Teacher collaboration has been acknowledged as critical in the teacher learning literature, but PL has been studied in a small number of research articles.
Research Design: This paper explores how teachers’ PL of planned or unplanned events is viewed and experienced within school.
Methodology: To research teachers’ social interactions, behaviors and views ethnographic approach was adopted as a qualitative method. For data collection semi-structured interview form is used.
Results: The findings from this research would show to what extent teachers’ views on how PL could be effective to enhance their teaching skills and whether they could identify basic components of PL within their own schools.
Keywords: Professional learning, professional development, teacher education.