The impact of summer in-service teacher training on teacher change = Nghiên cứu về thay đổi của giáo viên dưới tác động của chương trình bồi dưỡng chuyên môn nghiệp vụ hè

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS MOET: Ministry of Education and Training YLSS: Yen Lac Secondary School CPD: Continuing Professional Development INSET: In-service Teacher Training EFL: English as

TỐNG THI ̣ THU

CHUYÊN MÔN NGHIỆP VỤ HÈ

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60-14-10

HANOI – 2011

TỐNG THI ̣ THU

CHUYÊN MÔN NGHIỆP VỤ HÈ

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60-14-10

Supervisor:Lê Văn Canh, Ph.D

HANOI – 2011

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

MOET: Ministry of Education and Training

YLSS: Yen Lac Secondary School

CPD: Continuing Professional Development

INSET: In-service Teacher Training

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

TEFL: Teaching English as a Foreign Language

LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements………

Abstract………

Lists of Abbreviations………

Lists of Tables and figures………

Table of contents………

PART A: INTRODUCTION………

1 Introduction ………

2 Rationale ………

3 Aims and objectives of the study………

4 Research questions………

5 Scope of the study………

6 Methods of the study………

7 Significance of the study ………

8 Design of the study………

9 Summary ………

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THE LITERATURE REVIEW………

1 Introduction………

2 Teacher training and teacher development 3 Continuing professional development (CPD) and In-Service Teacher Training (INSET)………

4 INSET activities and their impact on teacher development………

5 Factors affecting the actualization of INSET activities………

5.1 Societal factors………

5.2 School/local education authorities‟ expectations………

5.3 Contextual and cultural factors………

6 Studies on the impact of short training workshops on teacher change …………

7 Summary ………

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CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY………

1 Introduction ………

2 The case and participants………

3 Research methods………

3.1 Development of the interview schedule………

3.2 Classroom observation ………

3.3 Post-observation interview ………

4 Data analysis and findings………

4.1 Data analysis………

4.2 Findings………

4.2.1 Teachers‟ opinions of the impact of the summer in-service workshops on their teaching ………

4.2.2 Teachers‟ opinions of the limitations of the summer in-service workshops ………

4.2.3 The impact of the summer in-service workshops on teachers‟ classroom teaching ………

4.2.4 Discussions of the findings………

5 Summary ………

PART C: CONCLUSIONS………

1 Conclusions of the study………

2 Limitations of the study………

3 Suggestions to enhance INSET activities ………

4 Suggestions for further research………

REFERENCES………

APPENDICES ………

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PART A INTRODUCTION

1 Introduction

In this part I present the rationale for carrying out this study This is followed by a brief presentation of the aims and objectives, the research questions, the methods, the scope and the significance of the study Finally, the design of the thesis is presented

2 Rationale

Teacher development is a never ending cycle of teacher learning that begins with initial teacher training and continues for as long as a teacher remains in the profession The fact that teaching is a public profession places teachers in the spotlight of societal expectations of continually finding ways to improve student learning The way to make this possible is by enabling teachers to “continue to evolve in the use, adaptation and application of their art and craft” (Lange, 1994, p 250) Hence, the terms teacher development, in-service teacher training (INSET), and continuing professional development (CPD), are often used in a broad sense to refer to all forms of formal and less formal learning undertaken by teachers during the course of their career (Craft, 2000) Teachers undertake learning during their careers not only because they lack knowledge but also because there is an obvious need for teaching professionals to cater to the needs of a continually and rapidly changing world

The government has been showing its commitment to educational reform for the last few years In 2008, the Vietnamese Prime Minister issued Decree N° 1400/QD-TTg on approving the National Plan for “Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in the National Formal Education System in the period of 2008 - 2020”, according to which one

of the major tasks is to enhance teacher professionalism and develop a professional force which is able to implement the new curriculum In order to achieve the goal of the new curriculum, teachers really need great support in different aspects to help them grow professionally Hence, The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) focused on developing teachers by encouraging INSET activities among teachers as a mandatory requirement As a result, INSET activities, which usually appeared in the form of short

workshops, have been organized annually during the summer time by the Department of Education and Training of Vinh Phuc to EFL teachers in order to encourage them in their classroom teaching improvement The purpose of my thesis is then to investigate the impact of summer in-service workshops on teacher change in their classrooms in Yen Lac Secondary school (YLSS), in Vinh Phuc, with the focus on their opinions of the effectiveness, the limitations and the practice of these short courses in their classrooms

My interest is to explore the change of teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) which plays a significant role in the lives of teachers I am also familiar with the context and some of the factors that affect the INSET activities of these teachers Such factors include opportunities to engage in development events I have worked for the Education and Training Department of Vinh Phuc for seven years now and my role involves organizing summer in-service workshops for English language teachers in Vinh Phuc Through the feedback gained on these workshops organized and through personal interactions with teachers from local schools who were either participants or presenters, I obtained useful feedback about these summer in-service workshops To the best of my knowledge there has been little research carried out or literature produced on the summer in-service workshops of EFL teachers in secondary schools in Vinh Phuc As a result, there is minimal or no insight into the teaching practice in local schools Hence, the aim of my study is to investigate the impact of summer in-service training workshops on class teaching of the teachers at Yen Lac Secondary School, in Vinh Phuc Province Through an exploration of their experiences, I expect to develop a better understanding of how EFL teachers can be supported in their INSET efforts both within their schools and outside

3 Aims and objectives of the study

The study aims to find out the impact of summer in-service workshops on teachers‟ teaching practices as reported by the teachers participating in these workshops

In order to achieve the above aim, the study seeks to achieve the following objectives:

1 To understand teachers‟ opinions of the impact of summer in-service workshops

5 Scope of the study

It would be too ambitious for this small-scale thesis to specify all aspects of service teacher training activities Therefore, the researcher would like to focus only on the impact of summer in-service workshops on teachers‟ classroom teaching The subjects of the thesis are three EFL teachers of YLSS

in-6 Methods of the study

With reference to the aims of the study, a semi-structured interview in the first stage of the study was conducted This was followed by classroom observations, which were for the purpose to probe deeply into the impact of short in-service workshops on teacher‟s classroom teaching In the last place of the study, a post-observation interview was made to find out the major barriers of the implementation of the training content These procedures were aimed at collecting rich data about views on the impact of the summer in-service workshops on teachers‟ classroom practice through the teachers‟ opinions and their classroom teaching

7 Significance of the study

Findings from this case study can provide teacher educators and administrators useful information about the needed improvement on teacher in-service workshops Such improvement is to support teacher change better so that the quality of English language teaching at the high school can be raised

8 Design of the study

The research study is organized into three parts:

Part A - Introduction - provides basic information including the rationale, aims, research questions, scope, methods, significance and the design of the study

Part B – Development - is composed of two chapters Chapter 1 reviews the related literature on teacher training and development, continuing professional development and in-service teacher training activities

Chapter 2 presents the information about the case school, detailed methodology, data collection and analyses followed by the findings

In part C – Conclusion - I present a summary of major findings of the research and suggestions to enhance INSET activities of EFL teachers in the context, as well as suggestions for further research into the topic of in-service workshops as a teacher development activity

9 Summary

In this part I present the reasons why I conducted this study as well as how the study was conducted In the next par – Part B – I will present the literature review of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 THE LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Introduction

In this chapter, it seeks to understand the notion of teacher training and teacher development; continuing professional development (CPD) and in-service teacher training (INSET) in the literature The chapter also discusses the INSET activities and their impact

on teacher development Towards the end of the chapter, it discusses the factors affecting the actualization of INSET activities of EFL teachers The chapter concludes with insight

into some recent researches on the impact of short training workshops on teacher change

2 Teacher Training and Teacher Development

In the literature, terms such as teacher training, teacher development, teacher education, and teacher preparation have been and often continue to be used interchangeably According to Freeman (1989), the term teacher education is preserved as the superordinate or an umbrella term, whereas teacher training and teacher development

are used to describe the strategies by which teachers are educated Thus, Freeman (1989) defines training as

…a strategy for direct intervention by the collaborator, to work on specific aspects

of the teacher‟s teaching The intervention is focused on specific outcomes that can

be achieved through a clear sequence of steps, commonly within a specified period

of time The aspects of teaching that are seen as “trainable” are discrete chunks, usually based on knowledge or skills, which can be isolated, practiced, and ultimately mastered.” (p 39)

Development, in contrast, is a strategy of influence and indirect intervention that works on complex, integrated aspects of teaching The purpose of development is “for the teacher to generate change through increasing or shifting awareness” (Freeman, 1989, p 40) As such,

development is a far less predictable or directed strategy than training It is highly dependent on the individual teacher, the collaborator, and their interaction (p 41)

According to these definitions, teacher training and teacher development are two basic educating strategies that share the same purpose: achieving change in what the teacher does and why They differ in the means they adopt to achieve that purpose Freeman (1989) highlights the differences between these strategies in Table 2.1 below

Table 1.1 Differences between training and development (Freeman, 1989, p 42)

Teacher training

intervention

Teacher development Process of influence

Idiosyncratic and individual;

involvement of the teacher in his or her teaching

Constituent base

Focus

Knowledge and skills Initiated by collaborator, work carried out by teacher

Attitude and awareness Raised by collaborator, but work initiated by teacher

Criteria for assessing

change

External; accessible to the collaborator

Internal; personal to teacher

period, once criteria are satisfied

Is open-ended; work continues until teacher decides to stop

For the purpose of this study, which looks at the impact of short summer workshops on teachers‟ classroom teaching, the term „training‟ is used This is because the aims and objectives of these workshops are to provide teachers with new discrete teaching skills and classroom techniques

3 Continuing Professional Development and In-service Teacher Training

The term continuing professional development refers to all the activities in which teachers engage during the course of a career which are designed to enhance their work‟ (Day & Sachs, 2004, p.3) CPD is often described in the literature using terms such

as staff development, career development, human resource development, continuing education and lifelong learning The term is also widely used interchangeably with the term in-service teacher training

According to Canh, continuing professional development is a way of learning from what you do so that you can do it better (Canh, 2004, p.127) For a language teacher, it seems to be always right For the good teacher, every facet of his knowledge, skills, personality, and interests are of potential professional value (Euan, 1978, p.11) Hence every experience he undergoes in his career may be described as in-service teacher training, also known as teacher development or continuing professional development (CPD) Therefore, in-service teacher training may, in the most general sense, be taken to include everything that happens to a teacher from the first day of his teaching career to the day he retires which contributes, directly or indirectly, to the way in which he executes his professional duties Thus, in the United Kingdom, the Department of Education and Science (1970) has defined in-service teacher training as: “Any activity which a teacher undertakes, after he has begun to teach, which is concerned with his professional work.”

In-service teacher training(INSET) is one form of teacher education which refers to the policies and procedures designed to equip teachers with the knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and skills they require to perform their tasks effectively in the school and classroom and which includes initial teacher training(a pre-service course before entering the classroom as a fully responsible teacher) and induction (the process of providing training and support during the first few years of teaching or the first year in a particular

school) as well Teachers who are essential to the high-quality education, are subjective and the most active factor in educational activities, to whom CPD is fundamentally important

Teachers, in general, in Vinh Phuc province are relatively of lower level in knowledge and teaching skills, which has well affected and is still affecting the achievement of the goal of the provincial education, especially the one of elementary and secondary schooling In-service teacher training is regarded as best way to improve the teachers‟ abilities and skills But the existing problems, such as teachers‟ personal need, inefficient training, and financial problems, prevent in-service teacher training from functioning in improving the teachers‟ quality in the locality

4 INSET activities and their impact on teacher development

The terms CPD and in-service teacher training (INSET) are sometimes interchangeably used INSET can be defined as all in-service teacher training activities that professionally qualified teachers engage in to improve their professional knowledge, skills and attitudes and to educate learners more effectively (Roberts, 1998) It assumes that teachers engaging in INSET have acquired basic knowledge of teaching and learned basic teaching skills in their initial teacher education (Eraut, 1994), and that INSET activities can make teachers aware of the various options available that can help improve their current practice (Richards & Nunan, 1990) INSET tends to be interpreted as a range of time-bound (Day, 1999), structured, formal and top-down in-service learning activities designed to bridge the gap between teachers‟ current level of skills and knowledge and the level required by their role in the system (Roberts, 1998) Often perceived as the quickest and most economic way of developing teachers on the job (Gaunt, 1995), it thus incorporates elements of both training as well as development INSET activities may be accredited or non-accredited and can be distinguished from less formal in-service training and development work that teachers also engage in (Day, 1999) INSET, however, is perceived to include both formal structured opportunities, such

as INSET activities that may be required by external agencies (such as schools where teachers are employed) and are facilitated by others (such as INSET providers) (Evans, 2002), and less formal opportunities which may be initiated by individuals or

groups of teachers employed within the same schools or groups of schools Such less formal activities can be ongoing and self-initiated and effected Irrespective of whether the process is training dominated or not, INSET is likely to improve teachers‟ knowledge, skills and practice and as a result enhance their professional status by moving teachers towards expertise (Kelly, 2006) The idea of short or long term INSET for serving teachers implies the presence of training inside the development process, which is intended to prepare them for present responsibilities (O‟Neill, 1994), or to develop externally specified skills, behaviours and strategies (James, 2001) that may equip teachers

to immediately implement the learnt strategies in the classroom (Guskey, 2000) Nevertheless, teacher development is a continuum of learning in the context of the teacher‟s whole career, with teachers within a school located at various places along the continuum Learning during the early years is generally aimed at developing understanding of practice, followed by later periods of reflection on work and discussion due to which teachers may continue to gain new insights and improve their skills This is where a programme of INSET is so important and may take the various approaches or forms described in this section according to the teacher‟s individual or contextual needs

5 Factors affecting the actualization of INSET activities

In any context, the INSET choices made or available depend on societal expectations of teachers, school/local education authorities‟ requirements, the contextual culture in which teachers work and subsequently their own values and beliefs as well

5.1 Societal factors

Teaching as a public job is powerfully affected by societal norms and expectations (Roberts, 1998), which makes it pertinent that teachers continually try to find ways to improve student learning; this constitutes development for teachers and will in the process convince society that they are a proper profession Hence, by learning new strategies to cope with constant and complex change (Hopkins, 2002), teachers are expected to continually meet high standards of teaching and raise the levels of learner achievement in their schools It can be understood then that while

INSET can be independent of the organisation, it often functions more successfully with its support and recognition (Mann, 2005)

5.2 School/local education authorities’ expectations

Teachers today, as Craft (2000) highlights, are under immense pressure to undertake specific development courses for improved quality teaching INSET thus bears significance not only for the teachers involved but also for the learners, the schools and subsequently for the society at large The greatest impact on choice of INSET is perhaps the school where teachers are employed They must necessarily adhere to the school‟s requirements and policies in terms of teacher development This is most evident in schools where teachers are expected to engage in specific types of INSET in order to fulfill school goals which ultimately result in realization of educational goals that are part

of the government‟s policies towards national development This appears essential in view of the fact that recently Vietnam has been engaged in a whole-scale review of the educational system in the country To meet the challenges of rapid change, education authorities in Vietnam has gradually recognized of the importance of INSET through teacher education, teacher support and development structures in universities, schools and vocational training institutions

5.3 Contextual and cultural factors

As teaching is a situated and social activity, the impact of INSET activities on teachers‟ actual practices is understandably affected by socio-cultural factors These factors include collegial support and cooperation, teachers‟ motivation and knowledge, the curriculum requirements, the students‟ expectations, the school leadership, and the wider social context Therefore, an investigation of the impact of the summer in-service workshops on teachers‟ classroom teaching can not be separated from the social context in which teaching occurs

To summarize, the way INSET is actualised or pursued and the choices made available or opted for are affected by expectations and requirements of public, schools and the local education authorities‟ requirements It is also affected by the aspirations of individual teachers, their contextual requirements, the opportunities made available in that context, and the economic factors that enable such opportunities Part of the complex

picture of actualising INSET are also the values and beliefs of teachers within those socio-cultural and community cultures which together interact to influence what decisions are taken and what opportunities are made available

6 Studies on the impact of short training workshops on teacher change

One of the greatest concerns in teacher development is how to bridge the gap between theory and practice In general, there is a shared opinion that both theory and practice are of crucial importance for language teacher education (Stern & Strevens, 1983) Training, as observed by Duff (1988), should be practical and directly applicable to the teaching context At the same time, there is a broad agreement that practice needs to be based on theory (Duff, 1988)

In spite of the fact that language teacher education clearly needs theory and practice, most existing in-service teacher training programs are criticised for having their major focus on either one or the other (Jarvis & Smith, 1980; Stern & Strevens, 1983) This means that the effectiveness of training depends to a large extent on how far that training is transferred to the real classroom situation Although no teacher training program can guarantee such a transfer, Altman recalls an old aphorism: “Teachers teach the way they are taught, not as they were told to teach” (Altman, 1983, p 233) In other words, this would imply that language teachers should be trained the way they are expected to teach For „learner-centred‟ teaching to be carried out by classroom teachers they should have been exposed to a teacher-centred INSET Most scholars agree that effective INSET courses should be teacher-centred, interactive and integrative (i.e it should allow for different kinds of teaching modes and procedures (Candlin, 1983)

Recently, there has been interest in the effect of INSET courses on teachers‟ latter practice There has been a clash between the new and the traditional, illustrated by comparing INSET course content with later classroom practice In Vietnam, Lewis and McCook (2002) examined the views of 14 Vietnamese high school teachers of English, as expressed in their journal entries during on-going INSET workshops conducted by the researchers themselves The results showed that teachers were applying what they had

been introduced to during the course However, these were reported by the teachers themselves and no observational data were provided to justify what the stated

For many years in Vietnam and in many other developing countries, in-service training workshops or short-term courses that would offer teachers new information on a particular aspect of their work Particularly in the context of Vietnamese secondary schools, this has been the only type of training teachers would receive

7 Summary

This chapter reviews the literature on teacher development with an emphasis on summer in-service workshops Factors affecting the effectiveness of those workshops have also been reviewed The next chapter presents the study

CHAPTER 2 THE STUDY

1 Introduction

This chapter provides information about the study Firstly, information about the case and the participants, then the research methods and research procedures is provided This is followed by the presentation of the findings and the discussion of those findings

2 The case and participants

The study involved three EFL teachers working in Yen Lac Secondary School (YLSS), which is located in a countryside district of Vinh Phuc It is a relatively large school with about 1600 students in the three final grades (Grades 10 to 12); most of the students come from farmer families The average class size in this school is around 40 and the classrooms are cramped with very basic school facilities There are over seventy teachers working at school, most of whom are full time teachers There are eight EFL teachers among them, with teaching experience ranging from three to sixteen years Six of them are female and they graduated from different colleges of foreign languages, then their English proficiency and teaching methods are various in terms of the quality Thus short in-service workshops organized by educational authorities every summer help them to meet the requirement of the classroom teaching All of EFL teachers at the case school have participated in these in-service teacher training workshops run by university lecturers

or key teachers

Participants in my study consist of three English-language teachers at YLSS They are thus full time teachers, a male and two female teachers with a minimum of three years‟ experience of teaching English Two of them graduated from University of Languages and International Studies - VNU Hanoi, while the other teacher graduated from the local Teacher Training College, Phu Tho One of the reasons for including such a selection of teachers is to be able to generate a broad range of opinions, insights and experiences of EFL teachers about summer in-service workshops The choice will thus ensure that participants in my study are teachers with sufficient experience in both TEFL and in INSET

Summary of participant selection as it occurred in my study

of YLSS

(a) EFL teachers with more than three years

of teaching experience (b) Teachers who could participate in the interview on the same day as others

One male and

of YLSS

(a) teachers whose classes are observed (b) Teachers who can participate in the post-observation interview on the same day

of the class observation

One male and

EFL teachers

Table 2.1: Summary of participant selection as it occurred in my study

Interview participant details

Interviewee code Gender School Years of teaching

Table 2.2: Summary of interview participant details

3 Research methods

As I have argued earlier, teaching is social, and the study of the impact of the summer in-service workshops on teachers‟ teaching should be conducted in one particular context This is the rationale for my choice of a qualitative case study design for this study

In order to achieve the aims and objectives of the study, three instruments were used to collect the data: semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and post-

observation interviews By using these different instruments, I was able to achieve the triangulation of the data, thereby increasing the reliability and credibility of the findings (Denzin, 1978)

The semi-structured interview was used to aim at gaining a general picture of the teachers‟ opinions and their justifications on issues concerning in-service teacher training workshops On the whole, the data from the semi-structured interview presented the opinions and the limitations of the impact of summer in-service workshops on their teaching as perceived by EFL teachers at Yen Lac Secondary School; the interview provided qualitative data that enhance the depth and consistency of the study Then the classroom observation and post-observation interview provided data about the actual teaching of the subjects and help the researcher examine whether their teaching reflects what they responded to the semi-structured interviews

3.1 Development of the interview schedule

The interview schedule was informed by my original research questions (See appendix A for interview schedule) based on my interest in the subject and my awareness of the phenomenon of short summer in-service workshops in the researched context The interview schedule was also informed by the literature In order to understand and interpret the meaning of the phenomenon of summer in-service workshops to participants, I explored in depth seventeen open ended questions in face to face interviews Questions in the semi- structured interview schedule thus broadly focused on the following categories of enquiry:

- Participants‟ opinions of the impact of summer in-service workshops

- Possible limitations of summer in-service workshops that participants have recently involved in

- The impact of summer training workshop on teachers‟ classroom practice

A week ahead of their scheduled interviews, I e-mailed interviewees asking them to reflect on the above mentioned aspects so that they would be mentally prepared to focus on the subject of enquiry It also put them at ease, saved time that would otherwise

be spent in explaining the questions asked and proved useful in retaining focus during the interview The interview schedule was designed to last about an hour bearing in mind that anything less than half an hour was unlikely to be valuable and more than an hour would be making unreasonable demands and could result in fewer persons willing to participate (Robson, 2002)

 Time and venue of the interview

A quiet and large classroom was chosen and considered to be a convenient place for conducting the interview, where privacy and confidentiality were assured The duration

of the interviews lasted for about 60 minutes It seemed suitable for the interviewer to raise the major issues and the interviewee could feel free to elaborate and explain wherever they considered necessary

 Procedures of the interview

In order to enhance the internal validity of the study, the process of the interview was followed by the sequence of interview questions Firstly, the purpose of the interview was clearly stated and some warm up questions were asked to let the interviewer and interviewee to be ready It was followed by some thematic questions as the major part of the interview Lastly, certain cool-off questions were asked to lower the tension established

in the major part of the interview and the whole process was ended by expressing the gratitude to the interviewee In certain case that the interviewer was not clear about the interviewees‟ interpretation during the process of data analysis, clarification was done after

a reasonable period of time

3.2 Classroom observation

McMillan and Schumacher (1997, p.268) contend that observation is very different from interviews and questionnaires They argue that the observation method relies on a researcher seeing, hearing and recording things which are happening in the classroom situation It notes that observation involves gathering live data from live situations and this

is what I have done

In this study, I observed a total number of six lessons from three selected teachers (two lessons per teacher) in the case school I used classroom observation because I wanted

to see what teachers actually performed in their English classes The other reason why I conducted classroom observation was to provide me with some knowledge of what and how teachers put the contents of the short summer in-service training workshops into practice While observing the teachers, I took detailed notes of activities they used in the classroom (See Appendix C for the observational notes)

3.3 Post-Observation Interviews

Each teacher was interviewed after the last classroom observation in about 20 minutes (See the Post-observation Interview Guideline in Appendix B) The interview focused on critical issues arising from the observed lessons, which related to the application of what they learned from short summer training courses All the interviews were conducted in Vietnamese so that the participants could fully express their views without being constrained by the use of a second language The interviews were then analysed by the researcher to identify main themes

4 Data analysis and findings

4.1 Data analysis

This study was based on different data sources which consisted of semi-structured interview, classroom observation and post-observation interview The process of data analysis may be quite different according to the nature of these data For the data collected

in the semi-structured interview, which is relatively qualitative in nature, was then coded

so that readers could easily observe the general picture of EFL teachers‟ opinions of the impact of summer in-service workshops on their teaching in the case school Analysis and interpretation were totally based on what the data told so that it revealed the native perspective of the informants All data collected in the study were examined and coded so that I could identify themes and patterns that helped to answer my research questions Based on the findings of this study, I discussed and tried to suggest some measures to be adopted by the Department of Education and Training of Vinh Phuc, schools and individual teachers in the planning of the future teacher in-service workshops