Strategies for Professional Development: A Case of Secondary Level English Language Teachers

Abstract

This research work entitled “Strategies for Professional Development: A Case of Secondary Level English Language Teachers” was carried out to find out the strategies adopted by secondary level English teachers for professional development. In order to collect the data, both primary and secondary sources were used. Primary data were collected through interview, questionnaire and observation. For the primary sources of data six secondary level English teachers teaching in different schools of Arghakhanchi district were selected by using simple random sampling procedure. The interview included both close as well as open ended questions. This research shows that every teacher is directly or indirectly benefited from the different strategies in order to develop their professional skills. The major findings of the study showed that the teachers having below 5 years of experience used self monitoring, workshops, conferences, seminars, learning from colleagues, peer observation and team teaching and their self experience as the strategies to develop professional skills. They also faced problems of classroom management, conflict management, using teaching materials, making lesson plans etc. They learned that the conferences, seminars and workshops helped them to manage the classrooms and using teaching items in the classroom. Likewise, the teachers having 5-10 years of experience used self monitoring, workshops, seminars, conferences, case studies, learning from colleagues, peer observation, team teaching, student-centred techniques and their self experience as the major strategies to develop their professional skills. They faced problems like conflict management, effective use of teaching materials, implementation of new teaching-learning theories like task-based language teaching. They also learned that self-experience as the major tool to develop professional skills. The teachers having above ten years of experience used self-monitoring, workshops, seminars, conferences, student-centred techniques and their self experience as the strategies to develop professional skills. They faced less problems in comparison to other teachers having less than 10 years of experience. They do not face problems regarding implementation of new theories or the use of teaching materials rather their personal problems are major hindrances for them during teaching. Apart from this, they also faced political inferences as their problems. The overall comparison of the study showed that the teachers having below 5 years of experienced faced problems regarding the implementation of techniques, handling the materials and making lesson plans whereas teachers having 5-10 years of experienced faced problems of effective implementation of such materials and teachers having above 10 years of experience faced personal and political inferences as their major problems in teaching-learning. This thesis has been divided into four chapters. The first chapter consists of the introduction of the study. This chapter consists of general background, review of the related literature and objectives and significance of the study. The second chapter deals with the methodology, sources of data, sampling procedure and limitations of the study. Similarly, the third chapter consists of the analysis and interpretation of the data collected by the researcher. Finally, the fourth chapter includes the findings and recommendations on the basis of analysis and interpretation of the collected data. References and the appendices have been presented at the end of the research.