Teacher In-service Programs Research Articles

Influence of In-Service Training of Teachers on Teachers’ Motivation in Public Secondary Schools in Chato District, Geita Region, Tanzania

In-service training is an essential component of teacher professional development, which helps teachers to improve their knowledge, skills, and instructional practices. The aim of this paper was to determine the influence of in-service training of teachers on teachers’ motivation in public secondary schools in Chato District, Geita Region, Tanzania. The study used descriptive research design and targeted 140 teachers. A sample size of 103 respondents was attained through the use of Krecjie and Morgan formula. Proportionate and simple random sampling was used to select the 103 teachers while purposive sampling was used to select 6 school chairpersons. Validity was attained by consulting experts in the field of educational management while reliability was tested by pilot testing the research instruments and calculating Cronbach Alpha. A Cronbach value of 0.912 was obtained and thus the instruments was considered reliable. For interviews, the researcher ensured that data collected information did not have any minor errors. Quantitative data was analyzed using frequencies, means and standard deviations while thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. there was a significant positive correlation between in-service training and teachers’ motivation in public secondary schools in Chato District, Geita Region, Tanzania was (r = .587 ; p = .000). This means that at 95% confidence level the r value for in-service training was .587 showing a moderate correlation with teachers’ motivation. The paper concluded that there was a significant positive correlation between in-service training and teachers’ motivation in public secondary schools in Chato District, Geita Region, Tanzania showing that enhanced teacher in-service programs enhances teachers’ motivation. It was recommended that policymakers and educational institutions should invest in effective in-service training programs to support the ongoing professional development of teachers Key words: In-Service; Training, Teachers, Motivation, Public Secondary Schools DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-9-12 Publication date: March 31 st 2023

ICT Infrastructure, ICT Competencies, and Teachers’ Workload: Critical Factors that Influence Social Studies Teachers’ Integration of Technology in the Kwahu West Municipality of Ghana

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors that influence basic school social studies teachers’ integration of technology in the teaching of Social Studies in schools within the Kwahu-West Municipality of Ghana. The study sought to address the following objectives: To what extent do ICT infrastructure, teachers’ ICT competence and work load influence basic school social studies teachers’ integration of technology in their lessons in the Kwahu-West Municipality of Ghana? The study was a descriptive survey. Proportional simple random technique was employed in selecting sample size of eighty-one (81) Junior High School social studies from 46 public basic schools within the Kwahu West Municipality of Ghana. The data for the study was collected using questionnaires to solicit responds from the teachers. A Cronbach Alpha value of .860 was obtained for the reliability of the items on the questionnaires. The data of the study was analyzed using Multiple Regression Analysis which established Rsquare (R 2 ) value of 0.7090 at 0.05 alpha level of significance. From the analysis, it was established that basic school teachers’ integration of technology in their social studies lessons were heavily influenced by the ICT infrastructure of their school, their ICT competence and their workloads in terms of number of periods they handled a week and other co-curriculum activities they have been asked to engage in. It was recommended that Government through Ministry of Education and other relevant stakeholders should ensure the provision of art-of-craft ICT infrastructure in basic schools within the municipality coupled with organization of regular in-service programs for teachers to upgrade their knowledge on technology integration. Keywords: Basic School, Kwahu West, Technology, Workload, Social Studies, Integration. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-14-08 Publication date: May 31 st 2020

Iranian teachers’ reflective teaching practice in relation to self-efficacy perceptions: investigating teachers’ discipline

ABSTRACTAlthough there have been several studies investigating the role of self-efficacy and reflective teaching in the literature, no research, to date, investigated teachers’ reflective practice teaching from different academic disciplines. The present study was a survey research that attempted to bridge this gap. For this purpose, a total of 70 teachers from the hard science, soft science and EFL disciplines from both private and public universities in Iran took part in this study. All teachers had over 10 years of teaching experience, with the majority being PhD holders. The Teacher Efficacy Scale (TES) and teacher reflection questionnaire were used to investigate teachers’ senses of self-efficacy and reflective practice, respectively. Results of Pearson correlation coefficients revealed that except for the ELT teachers, other discipline teachers’ self-efficacy perceptions were not related to their reflectivity. The present study has a number of implications for teacher development and in-service teacher education programs.

Qualitative Evaluation of Emotional Intelligence In-Service Program for Secondary School Teachers

This paper is an attempt to evaluate the Emotional Intelligence (EQ) In-Service Program on the basis of experiences of 20 secondary school teachers who attended the program in a private school in Turkey. A phenomenological approach, with a focus group method was used. The first objective of this study was to evaluate EQ program on the basis of teachers’ experiences. The second was to explore the teachers’ perceptions about the implications of EQ skills in classroom situations. The results were discussed in terms of the evaluation of the EQ program and its implications for learning and teaching activities in the classroom.

New National Curriculum and the Impact in the Education Sector of Kosovo: Implications for Successful Implementation

In August 2011, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) adopted a new national curriculum. Among other concepts, the Ministry committed to focus on learning outcomes, competencies, differentiated learning, and learner centered education in the new national curriculum. The impact of these changes rippled across the education sector requiring professional capacity building within the Ministry of Education, redesigning teacher pre-service preparation program, re-structuring teacher in-service program, innovating staff development and teacher mentoring for professional capacity building in schools, re-writing textbooks and creating supporting teacher resource materials. It was calculated that it would take ten years to implement fully these curriculum concepts. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the consequences of a Decision to create new national curriculum across the education sector and determine the best approach to implement it. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n2p413

Sources of efficacy information in an inservice program for elementary teachers

AbstractLow teacher self‐efficacy is an important factor constraining the teaching of science at the elementary level. This study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of particular sources of efficacy information for enhancing the science teaching self‐efficacy of practicing elementary teachers. Twelve teachers participated in an intervention that was designed to provide them with cognitive mastery, enactive mastery, modeling, and verbal persuasion. Data were collected prior to, during, immediately after, and 2 years after the intervention. The results showed that increases in self‐efficacy were mainly due to cognitive mastery (i.e., perceived success in understanding how to teach science) and in situ feedback (i.e., verbal persuasion given after observation of the teacher teaching his/her own class). © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 95:577–600, 2011

Guidance Counselors [Pipelining

The Teacher In-Service Program (TISP) enables IEEE volunteers to share their technical expertise and demonstrate the application of engineering concepts to support the teaching and learning of science, mathematics, and technology disciplines.

Food Safety Inservice Educational Needs of Agriculture Teachers

The purpose of this census study was to determine the food safety inservice educational needs of agriculture teachers in Iowa. The population for this study was all of the 211 agriculture teachers in the state out of which 161 were accessible. The response rate was 54.03% of the accessible population and 41.23% of the total population. Eleven food safety topics were identified with input from experts in agricultural education, food science and human nutrition, and animal science, as well as some input from the agriculture teachers themselves. The teachers were asked to rate the extent of their perceived need for inservice education on each topic on a six–point Likert–type scale. The findings indicated that these teachers needed more inservice education on all of these topics. Teachers indicated a greater need for inservice education focusing on foodborne illnesses, food safety, bacterial contamination, food irradiation, food processing, and pesticide pollution. Hence, these topics were identified as the critical professional development areas in food safety. It was recommended that all of the topics be included in the food safety inservice programs for agriculture teachers, with priority given to the identified critical professional development areas.

Coming closer to literature: Learning and instruction in a constructivist spirit.

The Israeli educational system is a centralist one—the Ministry of Education sets goals and objectives, establishes detailed curricula, and maintains a supervisory mechanism. One of the objectives set for teachers, beginning in 2007, was a transition to meaningful learning and teaching, using "thinking development teaching". To attain this objective, the supervisory body for the teaching of literature runs in-service programs for teachers, aimed at introducing the teachers to approaches to thinking development in the teaching of literature. Teaching that emphasizes the fostering of cognitive skills requires a change in the perception of the roles of teacher and student as well as a change in teaching and learning strate-gies, in learning environments and in methods of evaluation. The process of teaching and learning that fosters cognitive skills is based on constructivist principles of education This article presents a study conducted among 79 teachers of literature in junior high schools and high schools in Israel, who participated in in-service programs for teachers, in 2007-2008. The study was carried out using a mixed method, combining quantitative and qualitative methods. The findings present a picture of teachers’ attitudes toward the goals of teaching literature and of the school teaching environment in general and of that of teaching/learning in literature classes. It also demonstrates that teachers hold constructivist attitudes toward teaching while exercising conservative teaching behavior.

Secondary Science Teachers' Awareness and Perceptions of Students' Misconceptions about the Particulate Nature of Matter

Identifying students' misconceptions by teachers is the primary step in using constructivist teaching strategies. We investigated how secondary science teachers were aware of students' misconceptions about the particulate nature of matter and analyzed the total number of differences of predicted misconceptions by their background variables. We also investigated how they addressed students' misconceptions in their instruction, and how necessary they thought it was to identify students' misconceptions for teaching science concepts. A survey was administered to 87 science teachers at 28 middle schools in Seoul. Teachers' predictions were compared with the misconceptions of 240 seventh-grade students. The teachers, as a group, identified almost all the misconceptions held by the students. However, they were unable to predict which types of misconceptions were more frequent. The total number of misconceptions predicted by the teachers who had careers of less than 10 years, possessed Master's degrees, or majored in chemical education was significantly higher. Although most teachers stated that knowing students' misconceptions was needed for their instruction, they rarely and simply addressed them in their instructions. Many techers faced misconceptions in classroom activities, and only few teachers found them through publications relating to students' misconceptions, teacher preparation courses and/or in-service training programs. Educational implications are discussed.

Membership notes

In this issue, we have a report from our Chapter in Uruguay. A very important event was organized locally with many results. From May 9th-10th, the Teacher in Service Program (TISP) from IEEE, a Latin-American workshop, was held in the Montevideo Sheraton Hotel. This event was declared by the Ministry of Education as of National Interest and was supported by the "Consejo de Enseñanza Secundaria" (Secondary School Council), the "Universidad del Trabajo del Uruguay" (Technology University of Uruguay) and the local IEEE Section.

Stem the tide [Education Department News

D uring the last week of May 2008, I attended the 2007-2008 Engineering, Science, and Technology Council of Houston Annual Awards Banquet to support 1) the two IEEE Section winners of the Houston Museum of Natural Science Summer Intern Program, who are selected from the winners of the Science and Engineering Fair of Houston, and 2) the local IEEE Section, which was receiving an Excellence in Education Award for its ongoing Teacher In-Service Program (TISP), featuring IEEE Section volunteers who developed and presented technologically oriented subject matter to local preuniversity educators in an in-service or professional development setting.

Development and effects of an early childhood teacherin-service training program for inclusive education

Development and effects of an early childhood teacherin-service training program for inclusive education

The National Writing Project, Teachers' Writing Lives, and Student Achievement in Writing

This survey research on National Writing Project (NWP) teachers and comparison teachers (N = 35) in a southeastern state found that the NWP teachers wrote more than the comparison teachers did and that the participating teachers' writing was associated with students' achievement in writing. The pattern of the impact of writing life on achievement was different among the NWP teachers than it was among the comparison teachers: NWP teachers who wrote had students whose achievement in writing increased significantly, whereas comparison teachers and NWP teachers who wrote less did not. This finding of an interaction effect between NWP affiliation and teachers' writing life in association with student achievement suggests that the writing by teachers central to NWP professional development may combine with the two other core elements of the NWP's programs across its 198 sites (demonstrations of practices for teaching writing and professional reading and study) to improve student achievement in writing. In light of the nature of modeling and feedback during NWP summer institute and extension programs, these findings have implications for preservice teacher education and in-service programs serving elementary as well as secondary teachers and across the school subjects.

Issues and Challenges for Middle School Mathematics Teachers in Inclusion Classrooms

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate typical middle school general education mathematics teachers' beliefs and knowledge of students with learning disabilities and inclusive instruction and to gain an understanding of the process of inclusion as it is implemented in middle school classrooms. In‐depth interviews, surveys, and classroom observations were conducted with seven teachers. The constant comparative method was used to analyze all interview and observation data. The findings reveal that even teachers who believe that inclusion is being successfully implemented are unclear about their responsibilities towards included students and the learning characteristics and specific mathematics teaching approaches that would be effective. The general educators feel that they were grossly under‐prepared during preservice and inservice for the realities of inclusion teaching. The study provides insights that can be used to enhance preservice and inservice programs for teachers and underscores the necessity for building teamwork and collaboration among general and special education middle school teachers.

학교수준의 과학과 교육과정의 개발 과정과 내용에 대한 실태 분석 - 7∼10 학년을 중심으로 -

This study investigated how the science curriculum were developed at school level, especially on 7th through 10th grade. In order to examine the reality of science curriculum design at school level, the nationwide survey with 311 science teachers, interviews with teachers and analysis of school curriculum were conducted. It was found that science teachers showed the tendency to develop science curriculum at school level jointly, and involve only in the area of their majors. And they suffered from the insufficient time to develop the science curriculum and the shortage of reference materials. When science teachers developed science curriculum at school level, they gave the priority to the characteristics of unit and the achievement level and interest of the learners in the perspective of reorganization. And they considered the achievement level, interest, cognitive development level, needs and expectation of the learners in the perspective student-centeredness and diversification/ specialization. When science teachers planned the instructional methods, they emphasized the various instructional methods and materials with considering the characteristics of the learners, and they considered the relevant factors of evaluation thoroughly during planning the evaluation. To improve the process and contents of science curriculum design at school level, this study provided suggestions that sufficient time to develop the curriculum and high-quality teacher in-service programs need to be provided and science teachers involve in curriculum design actively.

Teacher Development Through Action Research : a Case Study in Focused Action Research.

'Focused action research' was employed in a teacher inservice program which sought to develop a fusion between trainer-centred input and teacher-centred action research. The areas of input to teachers were learning strategies, thinking skills, questioning skills and the teaching of study skills. During the four months of this action research project of the teacher educators, teachers experienced two cycles of action research, one investigating their students' learning strategies and the second implementing a plan to improve some aspect of their students' learning - such as summary writing, remedial reading, hotseating, introducing group work, vocabulary-learning techniques - and wrote reports on their work. Although there was no evidence that the gains made transferred into the following school year the teachers both displayed and reported an increase in reflection during the project and immediately after it. Issues of sustaining transfer need to be addressed.

Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating a Teacher In-Service Program Enabling 6th-12th Grade Rural Teachers to Integrate Holocaust Studies into Their Curricula: A Case Study

Changing demography and ensuing incidents of backlash, growing intolerance, and prejudice led a group of educators from seven different schools in two rural counties of northwestern Washington State to organize a National Endowment for the Humanities sponsored series of Holocaust education in-service workshops. The obstacles they overcame in designing, implementing, and evaluating their learning are presented herein. Provided also is an extensive quantitative and qualitative analysis of the key issues/concepts and corresponding methods/sources the educators identified for successful integration of this content into their 6–12th grade social studies, literature, and world language classroom curricula.

Guidelines for effective elementary science teacher inservice education

Historically, elementary science teacher inservice has not been an effective means of improving science teaching for most elementary teachers. This paper presents 18 guidelines for development of more effective elementary science teacher inservice programs. The guidelines have been developed and synthesized through review of numerous studies on science teacher inservice programs and the National Science Education Professional Development Standards (NRC, 1996).

Classroom Applications of Cognitive Theories of Motivation

This article examines cognitive theories of motivation and their application to classroom experiences of students and teachers. Students' explanations of their school experiences are considered within the frameworks of expectancy × value theory, self-efficacy theory, goal orientation theory, and attribution theory. These same theories are used as lens through which teachers' classroom behaviors are viewed. Suggestions are offer for incorporating cognitive theories of motivation into pre-service and in-service programs for teachers.