Developing a school based professional development program for improving technological skills and andragogical knowledge of teachers in private night high schools

Date

2018

Author

Aksoy, Afra Nur

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To improve the effectiveness of teachers in Private Night High Schools (PNHS), the main purpose of this study was to make the teachers in a particular PNHS participate in a School Based Professional Development (SBPD) program for their needs in educational technologies and adult learning theory (andragogy). This was a case study including quantitative and qualitative data collected through Principles of Adult Learning Scale (PALS), Questionnaire of Educational Technologies (QEdTech), classroom observations, group meetings, and interviews. 25 schools selected via cluster random sampling, PALS and QEdTech were administered to 227 teachers working at those schools. The target school was chosen through convenient sampling, and 17 teachers working in this school participated in a SBPD process. 4 teachers out of 17 teachers were selected through criterion sampling for classroom observation. Descriptive statistics for quantitative data and content analyses for qualitative data were utilized for data analyses. The results of QEdTech unfolded that knowledge level of teachers in PNHSs in terms of educational technologies was very low, and classroom use level of them was even lower. PALS results revealed that those teachers had problems in adult learning theory as well. The findings of classroom observations and group meetings were also consisted with the above mentioned results. After needs assessment process, professional development programs on social media in teaching and adult teaching practices were developed and implemented in the target school. Views of the teachers were taken related to whole SBPD process and they acknowledged that they found it both informative and beneficial.

Subject Keywords

Adult learning., Teachers, Teachers, Professional education.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12622675/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/27798

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis