Teacher perceptions of effective professional development: insights for design

Abstract

ABSTRACT A considerable number of empirical studies have led researchers to identify key characteristics that indicate effective professional development (PD). However, few studies have attended to teacher perceptions of PD characteristics across international contexts. This article reported on an exploratory study utilising latent class analysis (LCA) to identify similarities and distinctions in teacher perceptions regarding commonly agreed-upon characteristics of effective PD. Data used in this analysis were from the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2018, which consisted of 113,667 lower secondary (e.g., grade 7 through 9) teachers from 45 education systems. The LCA identified four classes of teachers who shared similarities in their perceptions. The researchers labelled the four categories as Low-Perception-Space/Time Rater (37.66%), High-Perception Rater (31.35%), Mixed-Perception Rater (15.55%), and Low-Perception Rater (15.44%). Results showed that a significant discrepancy existed in teacher perceptions of PD programmes that were school-embedded and extended. Additionally, cross-nation analyses revealed an evident difference in the distribution of class membership across education systems. Considering these findings, we provide implications for future research investigating how to design PD that supports personalised learning experiences.