Opportunities and Challenges of Online Professional Development Training: Perspectives of Private Schools’ Teachers

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to explore the perspectives of English Language teachers in private Schools regarding opportunities and challenges of online professional development (PD) programs. It also investigated their attitudes towards these online programs. Methods: The qualitative method was employed to provide in-depth insights into the complex and nuanced perspectives of teachers regarding online professional development (PD), 5 Semi structured focus group interviews were conducted via Zoom platform with a subset of English Language teachers (N=20) randomly selected from a total of 100 male and female English Language teachers in 6 private international schools at Ajman Educational Zone. The interview main questions and follow up ones were validated by a jury of experts. Inter-rater reliability was also conducted to ensure the accuracy and precision of the results analysis. In addition, two research main questions were used to guide the study. Results: The results showed that Online Professional Development Programs granted teachers professional development training opportunities in terms of quality and quantity as well as types and varieties since these programs are flexible, and affordable. They could also save time, efforts, money, and energy. In contrast, the challenges lied in language barriers, and appropriateness for the specific needs of teachers, students, subjects, and context. Additionally, most teachers developed positive attitudes towards online professional development programs. Conclusion: It could be concluded that online professional development training programs were beneficial for teachers who developed mostly positive attitudes in various aspects like flexibility, affordability and variations though there were some barriers like appropriateness and language barriers.