English Teachers’ Needs, Participation and Barriers in Professional Development

Abstract

The present study entitled English Teachers’ Needs, Participation and Barriers in Professional Development is an attempt to find out the understanding of English teachers teaching in higher secondary schools about the participation in professional development, its needs and barriers in professional development. How much the English teachers of Morang and Sunsari districts are involved in professional activities, what their needs are and what factors inhibit them from such activities. The study was based on the primary source of data. In order to carry out the study, ideas about professional development had been collected through questionnaires from forty teachers. The objectives of the study were: to determine the need areas and the level of need in PD, to find out the teachers’ participation in the PD activities, and to identify the factors those prevent teachers from PD. The researcher had used both primary and secondary sources, a set of questionnaire was the research tool, forty higher secondary level English teachers were the sample of the population from Morang and Sunsari districts, data were described using simple statistics such as percentage.

The major findings of the study were: the participation in PD activities was 90%, the largest participation was in workshop and the least one was teaching portfolio, the age group ’30-39’ was found to be involved in PD actively, moderate level of impact was marked more than other three levels, teachers from Morang participated more than that of Sunsari, they needed PD in almost all need areas, 35 teachers needed ‘ICT skills for teaching’, 55% teachers marked ‘lack of institution support’ as a main barrier in PD.

This thesis comprises four chapters. Chapter one deals with introduction to professional development and its activities, needs of professional development and barriers to it. This chapter also introduces the literature review, objectives, and significance of the study. Second chapter contains methodology, which deals with sources of data, process of data collection and limitations of the study. Third chapter is devoted to the interpretation and analysis of the collected data. Findings and recommendations are included in Chapter four, which is followed by references and appendix.