Science teachers' professional learning in the context of a continuing professional development course

• Main Author: Kyeongsoon, Kim
• Published: University College London (University of London) 2013
• Subjects: 370.715
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.573058

Teachers' professional development has been one of the crucial aspects of educational change to make a difference to students' learning. Teacher development involves various conditions for learning and a complex interrelationship between the learning conditions. Numerous factors influencing teacher development have been identified and most of them are dependent on an individual teacher's learning conditions. While each teacher's conditions are different from another's, differentiated approaches have been little considered in continuing professional development (CPD) courses. This research examined how science teachers learn in the context of attending a CPD course. The research focused on two science CPD courses that took place in the Science Learning Centre London in 2006. Five types of data were collected including video-recording of the courses, face-to-face interviews, questionnaire surveys, documentation of the course details, and the mid-course tasks. An analytical framework is developed focusing on the interrelationship between the teachers, their schools and the CPD courses. This study confirms that teachers' professional developr ent is an outcome of the interaction between teachers' individual resources a. Id surrounding learning conditions. Teachers' professional backgrounds and contexts determine their needs, and school culture and policy influences the effectiveness of teacher learning. The research reveals that teachers differ in the value they place on a CPD course, and the courses have limited impact on teachers when teachers' needs are not effectively addressed. The lack of time and insufficient support in school are also identified as major obstacles against teachers' professional development while school culture and policy play a critical role in teacher development. This thesis offers implications for CPD programme providers to facilitate effective professional development courses.