How Malaysian School Teachers View Professional Development?

Abstract

The present study was conducted on a group of Malaysian Math and Science teachers to investigate their needs in the professional development activities. The findings indicated a majority of these teachers’ needs for such activities. Analysis of the data also revealed that most of the teachers regarded these activities as moderately or highly effective. Furthermore, as the results indicated, ‘release time’ was most teachers’ favorite incentive for their participation in professional development. However, a majority of the teachers regarded ‘advancement on the pay-scale’ as a not helpful way to encourage them to take part in the professional development program. It was found that the teachers with lower teaching experience expressed a higher need for professional development activities than those who were more experienced. Finally, the statistical test results indicated that teachers in the less experienced group had a significantly higher need for such activities, X² (1, N = 300) = 144.213, p < .05. The results can be beneficial for the administrators of the professional development programs of this sort.