Self-Directed Professional Development: EFL Teachers' Understanding Surendra Prasad Bhatt

  

Self-Directed Professional Development: EFL Teachers' Understanding
Surendra Prasad Bhatt

Kathmandu University School of Education / Charles Darwin Academy Kathmandu, Nepal

By Amornteb  Intasorn

Abstract

The study explores the experiences of secondary-level English language teachers in the practice of self-directed professional development strategies within the theoretical framework of adult learning theory. Based on the telephone interviews with five English teachers teaching English at the secondary level of Dadeldhura district (one of the districts of Nepal), this study explored the experience of practicing self-directed learning strategies. The study reveals that teacher teaching at the secondary level faces challenges like large classes, less effective teacher training, improper use of CAS, and lack of teaching material in the teaching profession. To tackle these challenges, they adopt different strategies themselves. This study showed that methods like reading printed materials, Internet and ICT tools, action research, reflection, and collaboration among teachers are standard for their professional development. These strategies are very often and accessible for their professional development. Despite being in remote areas of Nepal, secondary-level English teachers are self-motivated to adopt different strategies for their professional development.

 

METHODOLOGY

1. Research Design

This study explores the perception and experiences of the English teachers teaching in secondary, primarily in under-resourced situations: remote areas. This study is qualitative which explores secondary level English teachers' experiences on adopting self-directed professional development. This study draws meaning from the participants' experiences and practice of different self-directed professional development strategies in their professional life connecting adult learning theory.

This study was conducted in Dadeldhura, a remote district of Nepal. As Dadeldhura is a remote district, there are fewer seminars, conferences, and training than the urban or developed areas for professional development. In this situation, teachers can't get much support from others. Since teachers do not get many opportunities from institutions, training centers, and government agencies, they generate and adopt different strategies for their professional development. In this condition, exploring their practice and experience adopting their self-directed and self-initiated strategies is more significant.

2. Participants of the Study

For this study, I have chosen four English teachers teaching English at the secondary level purposively. They have more than five years of teaching experience. The rationale of selecting four teachers with more than five years of teaching experience assumes they must have challenges as  they  are  in  a  remote  area  and  have  some  experience  coping  with  these  problems.  The experienced story provides active, multi-voice, and accessible data on sensitive issues and topics challenging to grasp through questioning (Aarikka-Stenroos, 2010).

 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

            The result and discussions are based on the gathered data from the participant's experiences and the notion of self-directed learning theory as an essential component of adult learning theory. Following this, I drew the themes; Challenges in the teaching profession and self-directed strategies for professional development and sub-themes like dependency in printed reading materials, digital tools and Internet, reflection, action research, and collaboration. These themes are directly related to the self-directed learning theory.

            1. Challenges in the Teaching Profession

When interviewed, most English language teachers teaching at the secondary level reported that they are well aware of professional development and its crucial role in their personal lives. Their responses regarding the reason for choosing this profession are their passion and respect from society and students. As the teaching profession is their passion, the hunger to sharpen their profession is seen among the teachers of Dadeldhura. To polish their profession means they adopt different strategies and activities themselves despite being in remote areas. Talking with the participants, they explored teaching in remote regions brings challenges and obstacles.

2. Self-Directed Strategies for Professional Development

In the second part on how they tackled the challenges and maintained the professional development, they reported that most ideas and strategies are self-regulated and initiated. Teachers in Dadeldhura are active and conscious about professional development. Despite having many challenges and less support from school and training, they search for innovative strategies for their professional development. They are self-motivated and self-directed for tackling the challenges they face in their profession. As Demir (2017) stated, self-motivation and self-initiation can support professional development; teachers of this area are self-directed and motivated. To maintain professional development and tackle everyday challenges, they mainly rely on reading printed material, surfing the Internet, and collaborating with co-workers.

3. Dependency in Printed Reading Materials

Teachers teaching in Dadeldhura heavily rely on reading materials like newspapers, articles, and monthly magazines. Reading materials helps remove obstacles in everyday teaching and learning (Bozkus & Bayrak, 2019). Though there aren't sufficient reading materials epically in English language teaching, they take the maximum benefit. The most commonly used reading material for teachers of this area is a monthly magazine "Sikshaka" (Teacher). Sikshya is a monthly magazine published, including news and success stories in education. It brings the success stories of teachers, policies, and talk on education, new methodologies, and many more for the teacher. Regarding the use of Sikshaka, a monthly magazine, my fourth participant said, "I read Sikshya every month. It helped me in managing the noisy class.

4. Digital Tools and Internet For the teachers of Dadeldhura, the Internet and digital devices are sources to acquiring knowledge and learning skills. Using information communication technology in professional development helps in material designing, classroom management, content collection, and learning classroom etiquettes (Padurean & Margan, 2009). Participants reported the maximum use of digital tools. Although we found a lack of sufficient training on ICT tools, teachers use these for their professional development. The same notion is seen here with my participants: they use the Internet and other ICT tools to reduce their professional stress. As professional development is to keep up to date in new skills, techniques, and methodologies in profession and self-satisfaction, my participants more or less take help from the Internet and different digital devices.

5. Reflection, Action Research, and Collaboration

By constantly looking into their actions and experiences, teachers can professionally grow in their workplace, self-initiated and self-motivated (Gnawali 2013). Reflecting own work for changes and improvement is one of the easiest and most common practices among teachers. Teachers of Dadeldhura also have similar kinds of practice. They use reflection as a strategy to sharpen their profession. What will be better is the question of reflection.

 

CONCLUSIONS

This study aimed to explore the practice and experience of adopting self-directed professional development strategies following Adult learning theory. The finding above shows that teachers, while teaching in a remote area, face challenges like large classes, diverse learning attitudes of the learners, lack of teaching materials, improper use of CAS, and lack of support from institutions in professional development. They stated that their training was all just for the culture, not for addressing their need. Similarly, regarding the strategies to tackle these challenges, they rely on reading material, Internet and digital devices, reflection, action research, and collaboration for their professional development. These strategies are self-directed where there is minimum or no support from the institution. These strategies are to hone their teaching skills and to deal with everyday problems. They were all aware of the professional development, and they chose this profession because of their passion. Based on the findings, there are a few recommendations. First of all, English language teachers teaching Dadeldhura are thrust into professional development so, the concerned authority should manage different conferences, seminars, need-based training, and ICT skill. The awarding of prizes to those teachers who work hard in their work is needed. This study develops one sort of understanding and comprehension on self-directed strategies adopted by the teachers for their professional development. Despite the new insight from this study, numbers of limitations need to be addressed. Firstly, it was limited to four participants from remote areas of Nepal. In addition, only depending on telephone interviews may not be helpful to explore the actual situation of adopting different strategies. Nevertheless, I hope this study raises the teachers, teacher leaders, and stakeholders to adapt to different self-initiated strategies for professional development. Finally, further research can be on the effect of these strategies of self-directed professional development in another part of the nation.