Teacher Professional Development

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Teacher professional development

Only in the past few decades have teacher development, professional development, teacher professional development become familiar terms in English language teaching domain. Villegas-Reimers (2003) says that there recently has been an increase in the level of interest of professional development and language teachers throughout the world are receiving in their professional development. There have been a great number of definitions about teacher development, professional development, teacher professional development suggested by many researchers (Underhill, 1986; Underhill 1988; Nunan & Richards, 1990; Crandall 1991; Brown, 1994; Head & Taylor 1997; Diaz-Rico, 1998; Hassel, 1999;

In the same way, teacher development is used to refer to the process of life long learning in teaching profession and it involves any activities aiming to achieve personal and professional growth for teachers (Crandall, 1991; Brown, 1994; Diaz-Rico 1998). Besides Head and Taylor (1997) says that the kind of development parallels the kind of learning experience that, as teachers, we want to provide for our students. Correspondingly, professional development, as characterized by Hassel (1999), is the process of improving staff skills and competencies needed to produce outstanding educational results for students. Besides Guskey (2000) supposes that professional development is the processes and activities designed to enhance the knowledge, skill and attitudes of educators so that they may improve the learning of the students. Likewise, Díaz-Maggioli (2004) describes professional development as “a career-long process in which educators fine-tunes their teaching to meet student’s needs” (p.5). Similarly, according to some other researchers (Rogan & Grayson, 2004; Tecle 2006) teacher professional development is defined as a process embracing all activities that enhance professional career growth. More specifically, it is used to

In fact, a number of studies have been conducted on the perception and practice of teacher professional development (e.g., Dang Kieu Diep, 2007; Komba & Nkumbi, 2008). The result of the Komba and Nkimbi’s study (2008) showed that most of the teachers in Tanzania primary schools perceived teacher professional development as the advancement of teachers in the teaching field and it enables them to improve professionally and academically, update teachers in line with the changes in curriculum and serve the students better. Dang Kieu Diep (2007) found that majority English foreign language teachers at some colleges in central Vietnam view teacher professional development as a crucial element that provides great contribution to their effective work and help them to “survive” in swiftly altering society like Vietnam at the present. Moreover, in these teachers’ opinion, teacher professional development means development of teachers’ English proficiency, enhancement of teaching methodologies and equipment of teachers with classroom