Attitudes of cycle two English language teachers towards the effectiveness of three professional development programs in Muscat
مؤلف
Al Bulushiyah, Noorjahan Mohammed Hassan.
الملخص الإنجليزي
This study explores ELF teachers' attitudes towards three types of professional development (PD) programs: Ministry of Education (MOE) workshops, school based professional development (PD) workshops and the British Council Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT) course in addition to the challenges that teachers face when participating in them. Thus the following research questions were investigated:
1. What are the attitudes of Omani EFL teachers concerning the effectiveness of the following three PD programs:
A. School-based
B. MOE-based
C. British Council based (TKT course)
2. Are there statistically significant differences between EFL teachers'
attitudes towards the three types of professional development programs in terms of their effectiveness?
3. To what extent do teaching experience and gender affect teachers' attitudes towards the effectiveness of the three types of PD programs?
4. What are the challenges that teachers face in PD programs (if any)?
5. Are there statistically significant differences between the challenges that
teachers face based on the three types of PD program?
6. To what extent do teaching experience and gender affect the challenges that teachers face when participating in the three PD programs?
The researcher used a cross-sectional descriptive approach to analyze the data. The data were collected by a questionnaire which was developed by the researcher using the Kirkpatrick four levels of training evaluation and after reviewing the literature and similar studies. One hundred cycle two EFL teachers from Muscat educational region participated in the study. The findings revealed that teachers held a moderately positive attitude towards the three PD programs. They also confirmed the effect of teaching experience and gender on teachers' attitudes and the challenges that they face when participating in the three PD programs. Recommendations and implications are presented at the end of the study.
