Teachers' Perceptions on the Use of Culture of Inquiry for Their Professional Development

Abstract

This thesis entitledTeachers' Perceptions on the Use of Culture of Inquiryfor theirProfessional Developmentaimed tofindstrategies used by the teachers fortheir professional development. In order to achieve the objectives of the study,Iemployedmixedmethodresearch design in general and survey research design inparticular. All thesecondary level English teachers of Nawalpurdistrict were thepopulation of the study. Out of them,30secondary level English teachers were takenas the sample. They were selected by following purposive non-random samplingmethod. A set of questionnaire including both open and closed-ended items was usedto collect the data from the sample. The collected data were analyzed bothdescriptively and statistically byfollowing simple statistical tools as well as itemanalysis. The research findings showed that the teacherspreferred action research,aesthetic awareness, case study, workshops, attending havingdialogue session, classroom observation, journalswritingand reflective diaries to developtheir sense ofculture of inquiry in teaching profession. As a part of the usefulness of the strategies,90% of the selected teachers viewed that they usedaction research as the mosteffective strategyto develop culture of inquiry for their professional development. The thesis consists of five chapters viz. introduction, review of relatedliterature and conceptual framework, method and procedures of the study, analysisand interpretation of results and conclusion and recommendations. The first chapterconsists of background of the study, statement of the problems, objectives of thestudy, research questions, significance of the study, delimitationsof the study andoperational definition of the key terms. Similarly, the second chapter includes thereview of theoretical literature,review of the empirical literature,implication of thereview of the study and conceptual framework of thestudy. Similarly,the thirdchapterdeals with the methodology adopted to carry out the research. It consists ofdesign, and method ofthe study, population, sample and sampling strategy, studyare/field, data collection tools and technique, data collection procedures and data analysis and interpretation procedures, in the same way, chapter four consists ofanalysis and interpretation ofthe data and it also present summary/discussion offindings chapter five consists of the conclusion and recommendations of the study.Recommendations have been presented in policy related, practice related and furtherrelated. The final part of the study consists of references and appendices.