Elementary and secondary school teachers' perspectives and solutions for the improvement of online teacher training in foreign language education

Abstract

This study investigates: 1) the current patterns and contexts of elementary and secondary school teachers` online teacher training; 2) elementary and secondary school teachers` perspectives on online teacher training; and 3) solutions for the improvement of online teacher training. A questionnaire was used to collect the quantitative data for this study. The subjects consisted of 680 elementary and secondary school teachers who had attended online teacher training programs for foreign language education in 65 online education centers in 2008. The results of the study showed that: 1) 85% of the teachers have participated in online teacher training program more than twice. Moreover, 99.6% out of them responded positively toward the possibility of participating in the program again. This result shows the possibility of online teacher training becoming the most popular method of teacher training near future; 2) the perspectives towards online teacher training were found to be positive in general. The participants were highly satisfied, especially with the environment of the program services and contents; 3) the participants preferred teaching-learning method involving learner participation, especially the ones requiring active participation such as practice, simulation, etc. Therefore, the development and enhancement of teaching method that allows active learner participation is needed; and 4) finally, it is suggested that learning support services, professionality and quality of the content, guide and manual for the program, evaluation and assessment need to be improved for better online teacher education.