Perspectives on the Barriers to and Needs of Teachers’ Professional Development in the Philippines during COVID-19

Due to COVID-19, remote or distance education has become the norm in the Philippines. Yet even in its second year, remote teaching and learning still face ongoing challenges, as does the need for teachers’ professional development. This paper describes a study that examined teachers’ perspectives on barriers and needs in professional development. The study involved 174 teachers who were teaching online courses in the National Capital Region. The participants completed a survey detailing their professional development frequency, perspectives, barriers, and needs, while eight teachers agreed to participate in a follow-up interview. Results from hierarchical multiple regression analysis have shown that teachers’ pedagogical and information technology skills requirements are influenced primarily by their prior professional development experiences and their need to apply active learning and innovative teaching ideas. Qualitative analyses indicate that teachers’ professional development needs are mostly focused on skills related to online teaching, information technology literacy, and conducting research. In addition, data indicated that barriers to professional development were primarily caused by financial and time constraints and a lack of teacher motivation and logistical support. In summary, for remote education to be sustainable, teachers need ongoing professional development as well as adequate logistical support.

Research on the Ethnic Minority English Teachers in Middle Schools’ Perplexity of Professional Development and Its Solution

This study makes an empirical study on the professional development of ethnic minority English teachers in middle school. Four ethnic minority English teachers of different ages who volunteer to participate in qualitative interviews are selected to conduct the in-depth interviews to analyze their professional development. According to the analysis of research results, it is found that the main puzzles of ethnic minority English teachers’ professional development are how to balance the gap between the content of teaching materials and the actual teaching situation; how to avoid the emergence of teaching tendency in teaching; how to realize the positive transfer of professional development in mother tongue cultural environment. Finally, the solutions are put forward to solve the confusion from the social level and personal level.

THE INTERNATIONAL POPULARISATION OF LESSON STUDY: EARLY STUDIES AND THEIR RELEVANCE IN LATER LITERATURE

Lesson study (LS) is a teachers’ professional development practice with a Japanese origin that, at present, is practiced in more than 30 countries. Literature on LS acknowledges the works of Stigler and Hiebert and of Yoshida in 1999 as the origin of its internationalization. However, earlier studies described its practice and have mostly remained under the radar of LS previous researcher. This historical and documentary literature review sheds light on these previous studies describing LS, analyses their bibliometric relevance, and uncovers the first use of ‘lesson study’ as the terminology adopted in the international literature. Results reveal eight studies clearly describing LS before 1999 and more oblique references in the 1980s. ‘Lesson study’ appeared first in 1997, but we make the case for the previous use of other terminology. Findings also show that only those studies written by authors who later became key in the field of LS have received a high number of citations. These results bring attention to LS-related literature that has infrequently been cited, granting it recognition in the international history of LS, and expanding our current view in relation to its practice.

A genre shift in disseminating knowledge: Student teachers’ experiences of communicating their master’s theses as popular science

Previous research shows that there is a challenge in balancing research-oriented activities, including the master’s thesis, in a way that promotes teachers’ professional development. This study aims to investigate student teachers’ experiences of communicating their master’s theses as popular science to schools and school communities. Data (logbooks, videos and text submissions) were collected from Finnish student teachers (n = 38) during a campus-based course from 2019 to 2020. The results show that most students had difficulty shifting from a science to a popular science approach and found this experience of genre shift during dissemination as challenging.

Analysis of the main activities of regional teachers associations

Introduction. Regional pedagogical associations are a mechanism of teachers' professional development, their creative growth, competence enhancement. The research purpose was to analyze the areas of regional teachers association's activity, to identify the most important and interesting types of work in professional communities. Materials and methods. As part of the study, the experience of regional pedagogical associations' work was analyzed and the main areas, forms and types of their activities were identified. A survey of primary school teachers in Nizhny Novgorod was carried out, in which 117 teachers with various work experience in school took part. Research results. Based on the survey results, it was determined that teachers consider the most important and interesting areas of the regional pedagogical association's activity the informational and advisory support of teachers (more than 75% of the respondents), raising the prestige and popularization of the teaching profession (more than 65%), professional development (more than 55%), exchange of work experience (over 65%), conducting scientific-educational events for schoolchildren and their parents (over 60%). The most significant types of the association's work are as follows: advising teachers in the field of protecting their rights and protecting the interests of the teaching community on topical issues of professional activity; informing teachers through the association's website about education-related documents and materials and ongoing activities; conducting master classes, open lessons and other events for the exchange of work experience by teachers. Discussion and conclusion. The teachers' assessment of the importance of areas of the pedagogical association's work can be used to develop indicators of efficiency of professional associations' activities.

Effect of Teacher’s Professional Development on The Teachers’ Instructional Practices in Special Education

The study was performed to see the effect of Teachers' Professional Development on the Teacher's Instructional Practices in Special Education. The aims of this research include exploring the use of special education teacher instructional practices in schools and studying the influence of professional development on instructional practices of teachers. The study was quantitative in nature and used a self-developed survey for the collection of data from respondents. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data. The result indicates that instructional practices differ on the basis of gender; however, qualification has no influence on instructional practices. Moreover, the distance (division)of respondents, duration of training did not affect the professional development of respondents. Moreover, professional development had a direct relationship with the instructional practices in special education.

Pedagogical in-Service Courses and Novice Teachers' Professional Development

Current study aims to investigate the effect of in-service training courses on novice teachers’ professional development. Moreover, the study seeks to examine the types of in-service courses that novice teachers need. The study population is 30 English high school teachers with teaching certificates in the southern district of Israel. The instrument of the study is an online questionnaire with additional open-ended questions. Study findings showed that 47% of the participants prefer courses in social interaction and educational knowledge. However, few participants showed an interest in self-esteem related courses. The researcher advises novice teachers to priorities their needs in social interaction and educational knowledge courses in order to steadily develop professionally. Moreover, further studies need to be explored in order to examine the effect of pedagogical in-service training courses on veteran teachers' professional development and compare the data between two studies.

Dynamics of Gender-Specific Behaviors in the Digital Educational Environment

During the social distancing, an increasing number of people use communication applications, various types of digital tools and programs. Various video conferencing platforms are regularly used in the educational environment. The study presents the analyses how intensive is the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the educational environment and how it can change cognitive-behavioral gender differences. This is particularly important to pay a special attention to the analysis of gender as a dynamic category, to take into account the processes of gender socialization and transformation of gender identification in the changing social environment. The research methods also included a set of additional methods, such as a focus group on different aspects of gender-specific behavior in the digital learning environment, putting together collages, as well as the method of the unfinished sentence related to the impact of ICT on teachers' professional development and well-being. In the course of the study, it was recognised that the design of social models of male and female gender-specific behaviour includes more than the basic gender identity and gender stability: in today's society, there is a multiplicity of views on the similarities and differences of gender-specific behaviours, and a rapid change in the accepted social guidelines and behavioural patterns is in progress, socio-cultural norms that define the psychological characteristics of women and men, their patterns of behaviour.