The Effect of Weblogging on Iranian English Teacher Professional Development
Azam Saeedan *
Department of English, Islamic Azad University Torbat-e Heydarieh Branch, Iran.
Hamid Ashraf
Department of English, Islamic Azad University Torbat-e Heydarieh Branch, Iran.
Khalil Motallebzadeh
Department of English, Islamic Azad University Torbat-e Heydarieh Branch, Iran.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
This paper reports on the effect of weblogging on Iranian English teacher professional development. Blogs, which are interactive, easy to access and manage technologies, enable ELT teachers to engage in online exchanges and to share information, consequently may improve their knowledge in their profession. The project was conducted on 50 ELT teachers who were divided into two groups of experimental and control. The same treatments were given to both groups, but experimental group received it by means of the designed blog and the control group received it in the pamphlet format. Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT)) was used as pretest and post test. The result revealed that blogging has significant effect on Iranian EFL teachers’ professional development.
Keywords: Blogging, professional development, teaching knowledge test, ELT teachers.