Luận văn sử dụng phương pháp phỏng vấn nghiên cứu về động lực phát triển chuyên môn của giáo viên tiếng anh tại một trường trung học phổ thông

The study deals with the theories of the motivation for EFL teachers in participation in PD. It is important that it is carried out to investigate the case of EFL teachers at HaiAn high school. The researcher uses the methods such as interviewing closely EFL teachers to understand their attitude to professional development, and the participants all have positive attitude toward PD. At the same time, the researcher studies the professional development activities that EFL teachers participate. In accordance with the theory mentioned in chapter one, the EFL teachers all take part in the same formal and informal PD activities, especially the reflective practice. Also, the participants are asked to talk about their opportunities and challenges for their professional development. The result shows that the EFL teachers have strong motivation for PD, although they have some certain obstacles in participation in this process. The study also gives suggestions of measures to overcome difficulties when taking part in professional development.

The study deals with the theories of the motivation for EFL teachers inparticipation in PD It is important that it is carried out to investigate the case

of EFL teachers at HaiAn high school

The researcher uses the methods such as interviewing closely EFLteachers to understand their attitude to professional development, and theparticipants all have positive attitude toward PD At the same time, theresearcher studies the professional development activities that EFL teachersparticipate In accordance with the theory mentioned in chapter one, the EFLteachers all take part in the same formal and informal PD activities, especiallythe reflective practice Also, the participants are asked to talk about theiropportunities and challenges for their professional development

The result shows that the EFL teachers have strong motivation for PD,although they have some certain obstacles in participation in this process The study also gives suggestions of measures to overcome difficulties when taking part in professional development

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

Chapter I : LITERATURE REVIEW 1

I INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 3

4 Research questions 3

5 Methods of the study 3

6 Overview of the study 3

II DEFINITION OF TERMINOLOGIES 4

Components of Motivation 5

2 2 Professional development 5

III WHY IS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IMPORTANT? 8

3 1 Why do educators need professional development? Did they learn what they need to know in college? 9

3 2 Why do new educators need extra support? 10

IV PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES 11

V FACTORS AFFECTING TEACHERS’ PARTICIPATION IN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 13

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 16

CHAPTER II: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 16

2 1 The setting of the study 16

2.2 Participants 16

2 Data collection instruments 16

2.1 Interviews 17

2.2 Procedure 18

CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 19

1 Data analysis approach 19

2.1 Teachers’ perceptions of the importance of PD 19

2.2 Teachers’ self-reported PD activities they often participated in 20

2.2.1 Formal PD activities 20

2.2.2 Informal PD activities 22

2.2.3 Reflection on their teaching 24

2.3 Teachers’ self-reports on the opportunities and challenges for their PD 25

3 Discussion 26

3.1 Factors affecting EFL teachers in PD 29

4 Summary of the chapter 30

PART C: CONCLUSION 32

CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION 32

1 Recapitulation 32

2 Conclusions 32

3 Implications for teacher professional development 33

4 Limitations of the study 35

5 Suggestions for future research 36

REFERENCE 37 APPENDIX 1 I

PART A: INTRODUCTION Chapter I : LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Rationale

Everyone is continually developing as a person and, every day in the workplace, we are always learning Tomorrow will be different from today and we all need to be prepared for change Whether you think your role is changing or not, you need to be prepared for the next development

opportunity so you don’t miss out

Professional development has become a major focus in EFL teachereducation programs worldwide since it is undoubtedly beneficial and essentialfor professional growth and more effective teaching In the paper presented atthe first General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland Annual Lecture inBelfast in March 2006, Geoff Whitty for Institute of Education, University ofLondon states that: Contemporary education reform – including marketisationand centralization, but also a new emphasis on the involvement of a widerrange of stakeholders – has resulted in a period of significant change forteachers It has also raised for new questions: for example, what is teacherprofessional development? How should we understand the roles of teachers?What professional development activities are available and accessible toteachers, and what are the factors affecting teacher’s participation in thoseprofessional development activities? The purpose of this thesis isthus torefocus on our attention on teachers’ views, especially on urgency ofproviding teacher professional development that change teachers behaviours

in ways that lead to improvement in students’ performance In addition tocalling attention to the ongoing need for effective teacher professionaldevelopment, I will describe characteristics of high quality professionaldevelopment and make a case for an unconventional approach to professional

development that, unlike “one-shot” workshop and inservice days, allowteacher to acquire and practice new skills over time

While the end result of all education reform should be studentimprovement, every reform initiative, if it is to succeed, must begin withrecognition of the importance of teachers in raising student performance(Ferguson, 1991; Armour-Thomas, Clay, Domanico, Bruno, & Allen, 1989)

In other words, “student achievement is the product of formal study byeducators” (Joyce and Showers, 2002, p.3) We cannot expect students tochange what they do if we are content for teachers to continue doing whatthey have always done As an old adage puts it, “If you do what you’vealways done, you will get the results you’ve always gotten.”

This thesis firstly presents the theoretical issues about the roles andnature of EFL teachers in professional development Chapter I – Introduction

To clarify these issues, the definition of terminologies is mentioned in chapter

II The next chapter is the presentation of the objectives, aims, methodologyused for the research and its findings The conclusion which includes somecomments and recommendations is presented in chapter IV

In consideration of these problems, as an English teacher, I really want

to clarify the topic here with my knowledge and my supervisor’s guidance toanalyze, understand the situation of teaching and learning English at HaiAnhigh school Thanks to it, I will find out lessons, experience for myself andmake a small contribution to enhancing the effectiveness in teaching thissubject

2 Aims of the study

The major aims of the study are:

- to gain understandings of secondary school teachers’ motivation forprofessional development; and define what is meant by motivation

- to discuss some common professional development activities.

- to identify factors that affect either positively and negatively teachers’motivation for professional development

3 Scope of the study

Given the rationale and the aims of the study, it is necessary to limit thestudy to the areas which are manageable Benefits of teacher professionaldevelopment create the effectiveness of students’ learning which focuses ontwo factors: developing teachers’ motivation in participation in PD andfactors affecting this process The subjects under the study are at HaiAn HighSchool

4 Research questions

The study attempts to find the answers to the following researchquestions:

- What are EFL teachers’ attitudes to professional development?

- How motivated are they for professional development?

-What are the common professional development activities secondaryschool teachers participate in?

- What factors that affect teachers’ motivation for professionaldevelopment in the secondary school context ?

5 Methods of the study

Because the primary purpose of this study is to gain understanding of thephenomenon under investigation, the main methodology used is qualitative.Specifically, data for this study were merely obtained by means of face-to-face interviews

6 Overview of the study

The study is organized around three parts:

Part I – Introduction – provides the rationale for the study and sets up

the aims, scope, research questions and methods of the study

Part II – Development – consists of three chapters:

- Chapter 1: Literature review_ is concerned with the literature review

of the study

- Chapter 2: Methodology _ describes the study population, theresearch design as well as data gathering instruments

- Chapter 3: Results and discussion _ analyses and discusses data

- Chapter 4: Findings and implications_ presents findings andimplications Limitations and suggestions for further research are alsoprovided

Part III – Conclusion – summarizes and makes a conclusion to the mainpoints which have been explored in the study, gives out recommendations todevelop the effectiveness of teacher professional development, somesuggestions for future research and the limitation of the study

II DEFINITION OF TERMINOLOGIES

2 1 What is motivation?

Each individual theory tends to be rather limited in scope However, bylooking at the key ideas below, you can gain a better understanding ofmotivation as a whole

According to http// Psychology.about.com, Motivation is the force thatinitiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors It is what causes us totake action, whether to grab a snack to reduce hunger or enroll in college toearn a degree The forces that lie beneath motivation can be biological, social,emotional or cognitive in nature

In everyday usage, the term motivation is frequently used to describe why a

person does something For example, you might say that a student is somotivated to get into a clinical psychology program that she spends everynight studying (http// Psychology.about.com)

Components of Motivation

There are three major components to motivation: activation, persistence andintensity Activation involves the decision to initiate a behavior, such asenrolling in a psychology class Persistence is the continued effort toward agoal even though obstacles may exist, such as taking more psychologycourses in order to earn a degree although it requires a significant investment

of time, energy and resources Finally, intensity can be seen in theconcentration and vigor that goes into pursuing a goal For example, onestudent might coast by without much effort, while another student will studyregularly, participate in discussions and take advantage of researchopportunities outside of class

2 2 Professional development

In workplaces, professional development refers to the acquisition of

skills and knowledge both for personal development and for careeradvancement Professional development encompasses all types of facilitatedlearning opportunities, ranging from college degrees to formal coursework,conferences and informal learning opportunities situated in practice It hasbeen described as intensive and collaborative, ideally incorporating anevaluative stage.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_development - cite_note-

1 There are a variety of approaches to professional development, includingconsultation, coaching, communities of practice, lesson study, mentoring,

Professional development is a broad term, encompassing a range of people,interests and approaches Those who engage in professional developmentshare a common purpose of enhancing their ability to do their work At theheart of professional development is the individual's interest in lifelonglearning and increasing their own skills and knowledge.

Teacher professional development

Professional development is defined as “the process of improving staffskills and competencies needed to produce outstanding educational results forstudents” (Hassel, 1999)

The “professional” in professional development implies expertise, pursuit

of advanced training, and maintenance of currency in an evoking knowledgebase (Four &Eaker, 1998)

Teacher professional development is the process of teaching teachers newstrategies to improve the quality of instruction

Student achievement is linked to numerous factors, but quality teachers areone of the most important components of students’ success If a schooldistrict’s teachers do not have the tools they need to teach studentseffectively, their students will suffer To teacher effectively, teachers needaccess to ongoing teacher professional development This professionaldevelopment enables teachers to improve their own education throughseminars, workshops, and classes

Through teacher professional development, teachers learn new teachingstrategies to improve the quality of instruction This allows them to makechanges in the way they teach their students, incorporating innovativeteaching methods in the classroom It teaches them how to work with avariety of learning styles, since not all students learn the same way It also

helps teachers change their day-to-day teaching methods, encouraging them toaccept new methods based on accurate education research.

Professional development usually takes place when school is not insession Most teacher professional development occurs in the evening, onweekends, or during the summer School districts alsoschedule professional development days throughout the school year Duringthese days, students are dismissed early from school or have a day off fromschool This provides teachers, teaching assistants, and administrative staffthe opportunity to participant in training and workshops

Teacher professional development is sometimes criticized because itsometimes does not provide teachers with the time, information, and activitiesthey need to make changes within the classroom For this reason,some professional development involves training throughout the school year.Mentors and coaches who are considered experts in new teaching methodsand strategies meet with teachers during classroom instruction

or teacher planning time This can help teachers use what they have learned in

a real-world setting, building a bridge between new concepts and classroominstruction

Effective teacher professional development is designed to strengthenteachers’ knowledge of content It is based on research and provides data thatsuch new teaching methods culminate in improved student achievement.Teacher professional development should also closely align with a particularstate’s standards and the curriculum used by the school district

Professional development should ideally be created by teachers with thesupport of those who work in the field of education research.All professional development should provide teachers with the necessaryresources and support to implement changes in teaching strategies

Finally, professional development should provide teachers with the time theyneed to understand the new teaching methods and incorporate them in theirteaching.

In short, the professional development process can be illustrated by thethree track circle below

On the website www.learningforward.org, Stephanie Hirsh indicates thatprofessional development refers to many types of educational experiences

related to an individual’s work Doctors, lawyers, educators, accountants,engineers, and people in a wide variety of professions and businessesparticipate in professional development to learn and apply new knowledgeand skills that will improve their performance on the job.

Many fields require members to participate in ongoing learning approvedby

the profession, sometimes as a requirement for keeping their jobs.Professionals often also voluntarily seek new learning

In education, research has shown that teaching quality and schoolleadership are the most important factors in raising student achievement Forteachers and school and district leaders to be as effective as possible, theycontinually expand their knowledge and skills to implement the besteducational practices Educators learn to help students learn at the highestlevels.As Thomas Guskey (2000, p4) states, “One constant finding in theresearch literature is that notable improvements in education almost nevertake place in the absence of professional development.” PD is key to meetingtoday’s educational demands

Many people may not be aware of their local school system’s methods forimproving teaching and student learning Professional development is theonly strategy school systems have to strengthen educators’ performancelevels Professional development is also the only way educators can learn sothat they are able to better their performance and raise student achievement

3 1 Why do educators need professional development? Did they learn what they need to know in college?

College and university programs cannot provide the extensive range oflearning experiences necessary for graduates to become effective public

school educators Once students graduate, meet their state’s certificationrequirements, and are employed, they learn through experience As in allprofessions, new teachers and principals take years to gain the skills they need

to be effective in their roles The complexity of teaching is so great that third of teachers leave the profession within three years (Ingersoll, 2003).Even experienced teachers confront great challenges each year, includingchanges in subject content, new instructional methods, and student learningneeds Educators who do not experience effective professional development

one-do not improve their skills, and student learning suffers

In short, professional development provides ongoing opportunities foreducators to continue to improve their knowledge and skills so they can helpstudents achieve When educators learn, students learn more Anyoneconcerned about students’ futures will want to support a cycle of continuousprofessional development.(Professional development.A Proccess Not anevent.)

3 2 Why do new educators need extra support?

New teachers juggle an overwhelming number of unfamiliar issues, such

as classroom management, instruction, curriculum, school culture andoperations, test preparation and administration, state standards, parentrelations, and interaction with other teachers Left to themselves, they maydevelop counterproductive behaviors With extra support, however, newteachers learn more effective practices to apply to daily challenges.Additional support also helps district retain new teachers and set them on thepath to becoming effective educators Many school systems provide mentorsand induction programs for novice teachers These programs are required inmany states for teachers to earn a professional license Most importantly,

research shows that new teachers who received intensive mentoring had asignificant effect on student achievement after as little as two years (Strong,Fletcher, &Villar, 2004; Serpell& Bozeman, 1999)

As PD varies from different educational traditions and contexts.Teachers’ PD, in a general term, means teacher learning in an ongoing way

PD implies the improvement of the school as well as the professionaladvancement of individuals; in other words, PD can embrace personaldevelopment (individualized learning) and staff development (the collegiality

of group learning/ co-learning) ‘ (Bell, 1991a)’ On this point, Day (1999)gives a similar but useful definition about professional development, statingthat: professional development consists of all natural learning experiences andthose conscious and planned activities which are intended to be of direct orindirect benefit to the individual, group or school and which contribute to thequality of education in the classroom (Day, 1999:4)

Thus professional development encompasses all activities that caterboth for the individual needs of teachers and for the institutional needs of thewhole school (Bell, 1991) The teacher, the school and the students thusbenefit from such a process of professional development (Bell, 1991)

Due to changing demands on the new roles of teachers in the 21st

century, traditional approaches to PD such as formal courses or one-offseminar are criticized for their shortcomings of being unable to get teachersprepared for the new role of knowledge facilitator rather than knowledgetransmitter (e.g Darling-Hammond, 1998: Lieberman, 1996) Instead, twotheoretical perspectives lead the alternative approaches to PD which support

teachers learn more effectively (Kwakman, 2003) These two perspectivesinclude cognitive psychological and professional development perspective.

Cognitive psychological Perspective

Student learning and teaching are the same from cognitive psychologicalperspective (Borko and Putnam, 1996; Putnam and Borko, 2000) Teachersare assumed to learn like what students do in which teachers are considered asconstructors of knowledge who learn actively in a self-directed way Suchkind of learning occurs when interacting with the learning context and it isstrongly affected by prior knowledge individual earner (Borko and Putnam,1996) In other words, this kind of learning is situated and influenced by theinterplay of the individual’s existing knowledge and the learningenvironments Thus, teacher learning takes place when favorable learningenvironments are provided in which teachers are responsible for their ownlearning (Bransford, Brown and Cocking, 1999) whereas staff developers play

an important role in creating favorable learning environments for teacherlearning

Professional development perspective

Instead of emphasizing the provision of favorable environments for enhancingteacher learning, from professional development perspective, it stresses thatteachers have to learn how to teach for understanding where they ought tolearn new conceptions of content and pedagogy and take on new roles(McLaughlin, 1997) Hence, the working context is understood to be the bestplace for teachers to acquire competencies that they need to fulfill their newroles through practice (Hargreaves, 1997; Kwakman, 2003; Retalick, 1999).The working context for teachers can be the daily teaching context, includingclassrooms, school clusters, and other forms of communities such as

partnership with universities, networks, etc In other words, teacher learningoccurs at the workplace in which their learning is situated and closely alignedwith teachers’ work in classrooms and schools (Garet, Porter, Desimone,Birman, and Yoon, 2001; Huffman, Thomas, and Lawrenz, 2003; Sparks andLoucks-Horsley, 1989), and it can be at individual level and collaborationlevel (Kwakman, 2003).

In conclusion, according to the “Why does professional developmentmatter, issued 2005” teacher PD activities are grouped into these typicalmodels below

- Individual reading / study / research

- Study groups among peers focused on a shared need or topic

- Observation: teachers observing other teachers

- Coaching: an expert teacher coaching one or two colleagues

- Mentoring of new educators by experienced colleagues

- Team meeting to plan lessons, problem solve, improve performances,and/ or learn new strategy

- Faculty / grade- level or departmental meetings

- Online courses

- College, university courses

- Workshop to dig deeper into a subject

- Conference to learn from a variety of experts through the country/ area/world

- Whole – school improvement programme

- Proprietary programme by private venders

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT.

Few studies were conducted to examine factors affecting teachers’participation in PD activities over the decade in different countries Kwakman(2003) conducted an empirical study about a number of factors affectingteachers’ participation in PD in the Netherlands In her study, three factors,personal factors (i.e professional attitudes, appraisals of feasibility,appraisals of meaningfulness, emotion exhaustion, loss of personalaccomplishment), and task factors (i.e pressure of work, emotional demands,job variety, autonomy, participation) and work environment factors (i.e.management support, collegial support, intentional learning support) wereused to examine the effects on teachers’ participation in PD As a result, ofthese three factors, personal factor seem to be more significant in predictingteachers’ participation in PD activities than task and work environmentfactors However, this study may over-generalize the factors may beunderstated (e.g family factor) and not context-specific to other situations orcultures.

Another study conducted by Lee (2002) identified a number of factorsfacilitating and inhibiting effective professional development, ‘ relevant/realistic content’ was the most important factors were ‘ presenter with recentexperience’ (9%) and ‘ based on practice’ (9%) The details of the results arelisted in Table 1 He also examined factors inhibiting effective professionaldevelopment The most commonly cited factor that inhibits effectiveprofessional development was ‘insufficient resources to implement learning’(21%), whilst the least frequently cited factor was ‘ school not supportive ofPD’ (13%) (see Table 2) Some other factors related to PD providers,including contents, formats, and presentation of PD activities, should beconsidered in affecting teachers’ participation in PD activities, and theyshould be supplementary to the factors in Kwakman’s(2003) study as

mentioned above.To sum up, the above studies examined a number of factorsthat affect teachers’ participation in PD activities This study takes anexploratory approach to further explore the factors affecting teachers’participating in PD in Hai An high school context.

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER II: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2 1 The setting of the study

Hai An high school is one of the newly-established schools inHaiPhong city It has a history of only 7 years of foundation In spite of theyoung age, it is famous for its efforts of good teaching and learning with thestudents getting many prizes in the exams of HaiPhong city every year Thematerial conditions of the school are well-equipped, which also helps tocreate its success However, most of students are good at and like learningnatural science subjects The school is trying to look for methods so thatstudents are good at both natural subjects and social ones, especially English

2.2 Participants

There are 8 teachers of English, including the researcher, aged from 29

to 34 All of them graduated from universities The number of female teachersformed the majority (7 female teachers and 1 male teacher) All of them areenthusiastic with their careers and have at least 5 years of experience inteaching English

This case research involves only 6 teachers from the group of English, HaiAnhigh school These participants are chosen on a voluntary basis of theprofessional development When the researcher presented her researchproposal and called for participation, six teachers volunteered to take part inthe study and one afternoon per week we have an informal meeting toexchange ideas about the research area

2 Data collection instruments

Study on teacher learning to improve their professional development is to do

a research of a complex phenominence in teacher activities: what knowledge

about the areas the teachers have, and how they gain the knowledge Thisinvolves both individualand social issues, which are both short- term andlong- term Thus, while doing the research, the researcher is aware that nomethodology is perfect.In this study interviewing was used as the soleinstrument of data collection

2.1 Interviews

Frey and Oishi (1995:01) define a research interviewas "a purposefulconversation in which one person asks prepared questions (interviewer) andanother answers them (respondent)" This is done to gain information on aparticular topic or a particular area to be researched Interviews are a usefultool which can lead to further research using other methodologies such asobservation and experiments (Jensen and Jankowski 1991:101) Interviewscan have one of two basic structures They can be either structured (closedinterview style) or unstructured (open interview style) Open-ended orunstructured interviews are defined by Nichols (1991:131) as "an informalinterview, not structured by a standard list of questions Fieldworkers are free

to deal with the topics of interest in any order and to phrase their questions asthey think best." This type of structure uses a broad range of questions askingthem in any order according to how the interview develops (Breakwell,Hammond and Fife-Schaw 1995:231) Open-ended questions allow theinterviewer, if they wish, to probe deeper into the initial responses of therespondent to gain a more detailed answer to the question (Wimmer andDominick 1997:156) The richness of the data is therefore entirely dependent

on the interviewer They themselves, must judge how much or how little theyshould probe or say themselves

There are of course both advantages and disadvantages to this type of structure It is particularly useful as a pilot study, to test out what peoples

responses would be to a particular issue It may throw a completely different light on an issue that the interviewer had previously never considered

(Wimmer and Dominick 1997:139) Freedom for the respondent to answer how they wish to is important in giving them a feeling of control in the

interview situation This version also has its disadvantages, namely in terms

of the amount of time needed to collect and analyse the responses (Wimmer and Dominick 1997:139) Due to the varied nature of the responses, it is necessary to use the content analysis technique to analyse it This is what takes the time Open questions used in this unstructured interview approach can cause confusion either because of the lack of understanding of the

question by the informant or by the lack of understanding of the respondent's answer by the interviewer (Wimmer and Dominick 1997:140) Despite some

of these disadvantages, open-ended questions are very important Gray (1987)showed this when she studied women’s relations to video technology It was found that women wanted to tell their stories therefore needing open-ended questions to enable them to talk freely (Jensen and Jankowski 1991:155)

2.2 Procedure

After explaining the purpose of the study to the teachers of English atHai An high school, they all agreed to participate Then, the interviews wereconducted with individual teachers All the interview questions were open-ended questions so that the participants were able to express their viewsfreely All the questions focused on teachers’ attitudes to PD, their motivationfor participating in PD as well as the challenges they had in participating in

PD activities.The researcher took notes of the participant responses Eachinterview lasted approximately half an hour

2.3 Summary

This chapter has described in detail the background to the study, the research methodology the participants and procedures of data collection The

findings are presented in the following chapter

CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

1 Data analysis approach

In this study, an inductive approach to data analysis was adopted After the data had been collected, they were analyzed and categorized into patterns The researcher then read the data again to choose segments for illustrating thepatterns

2 Findings

2.1 Teachers’ perceptions of the importance of PD.

When asked, all the participants agreed that professional development is very important for them For example, one teacher said,

Education is the first national priority investment, and

teachers play a key role in its success A teacher has great

influences on many student generations Only when

teachers are efficiently qualified, does their work become

effective When they are good at their professionals, they

will have the ability to adjust and apply the teaching

methods in an effective way to suit each particular student

Therefore, PD should be compulsory for EFL teachers

Sharing this idea, another teacher stated that PD is very integral in her career She said, “the more I learn, the more I get With good qualifications,

my knowledge is improved, which can help me learn effectively through the internet, films, or books.”

Another teacher stated that by participating in PD activities , she was able

to learn from her colleagues and from her own teaching She said,

Having good qualifications means we are capable of

assessing our own lessons and our colleagues’ lessons in

order to draw experiences for ourselves and our colleagues

for mutual development

The participants believed that as teaching is an art which demands

teachers to be creative, deeply and widely qualified For the demanding work but rewarding, teachers have to continually learn new things in their fields of career as well as the outside fields to fulfill the requirement Without PD, the teaching becomes boring, dull and of course the students will suffer By participating in PD activities they could become “more professionally mature and confident” in their teaching, said one teacher

2.2 Teachers’ self-reported PD activities they often participated in.

The PD activities that teachers reported to have participated in are

classified into three categories, which are presented below

2.2.1 Formal PD activities

All the teachers actively attended professional training courses when these courses were offered to them They stated that these professional

training courses helped them to

- Communicate with each other, exchange their knowledge and

experience,or learn from each other in training courses

- Listen to experts on professional areas to share Listening to them in standard English makes them aware of their pronunciation when speaking English, which they often simplify or even "Vietnamize" in low level classes

- Participate in the practice of their professional fields

One teacher talked specifically about the workshop in 2007 by the British Council in collaboration with Haiphong Education and Training