The Need for More Effective In-service Training for Professional Development of English Language Teachers

Abstract

Both prior to entry into the profession across teacher education programs and in-service practices, there has been a growing emphasis for sustainable and high-quality professional development opportunities. Even though candidates start to get acquainted with these opportunities prior to their entry into profession, their experiment with those opportunities maturate once they enter the profession. However, to what extent the professional development opportunities have been cultivated is yet to be studied. It is widely recognized that appropriate professional development opportunities result in the transformation of beliefs and practices in a positive way. However, designing programs detached from the practitioners’ perspectives would be poorly grounded as in-service teacher perspectives will help design the subsequent opportunities better. This article aims at describing the impact of in-service training activities for professional development of English language teachers in Turkey. As well as informing both national and international audience about the general in-service training (INSET) programs of the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) of Turkey, the study reports on the findings of empirical research into 297 English language teachers' participation in and perspectives of in-service professional learning programs. Implications are discussed and developments in practice are suggested.