Sustainability of Cooperative Professional Development: Focused on Teachers’ Efficacy

Abstract

In this study, we aim to gain critical insights into how cooperative professional development affects teachers’ efficacy. To this end, the purpose of this study is to identify cooperative professional development types (CPD-type) and to reveal the relationship between CPD-type and teachers’ efficacy in Korean middle schools, controlling for gender, age, years of experience and school climate. The data of this study are derived from the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) conducted by the OECD. The K-mean cluster analysis was used to identify distinct clusters of middle school teachers based on CPD. This process identified four specific groups: the disengaged group (36.8%), the collaborative group (11.3%), the activity-focused group (24.8%), and the coordinative group (27.1%). Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that all dummy variables of CPD-type were statistically significant, controlling for gender, age, years of experience, and school climate. Comparing the relative importance of each variable on teachers’ efficacy, the CPD1 (1 = the collaborative group) variable was most important. The results of this study provide a rationale for teachers to participate in collaborative professional development actively.