Exploring the influence of in-house professional development on the perceptions and practices of secondary English language teachers in two private schools of ABC organization in GB Pakistan
Date of Award
7-2015
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Master of Education (M. Ed.)
Department
Professional Development Centre, Karachi
Abstract
The present study explored the perceptions of secondary English language teachers regarding the in-house professional development courses they attended and the influence of these courses on their practices. This study is conducted in two private high schools of ABC organization in the context of Gilgit Baltistan. Case study approach within qualitative research paradigm guided the study design. The research participants were two English language teachers who teach at secondary level. The data was collected from the ELTs through semi- structured interviews, classroom observations, formal and informal talks, and field notes and documents analysis. The findings of the study are developed into two separate cases and cross case analysis is done to identify the key findings. The findings of the study revealed that both the ELTs perceive in-house PD as an ongoing process to update themselves with new learnings and teaching techniques to cope with the challenges. ELTs also believe that other supporting factors like support from school context, principal, colleagues, family, their own self efforts and creativity, challenging students and their parents play significant role to grow professionally. The study also found that both ELTs have attended many general PD programmes, but few subject- based PD programmes. Both the ELTs demonstrated enhanced content and pedagogical skills during classroom teaching which showed that they have benefited from both formal and informal ways of PD. However, the findings also revealed some of the hindrances in implementation of learnings from PD. These included theory practice gap, limited subject and context relevant PD courses, lack of research based PD, problems of dealing variety of students, parent’s involvement and IT integrated teaching. There is little difference found in the perceptions and practices of both the ELTs. However, challenges differ in some ways due to personal and contextual differences. The findings of the study suggested pedagogical content knowledge based ongoing PD to further enhance ELTs content and pedagogical skills.
Recommended Citation
Begum, S. (2015). Exploring the influence of in-house professional development on the perceptions and practices of secondary English language teachers in two private schools of ABC organization in GB Pakistan (Unpublished master's dissertation). Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.