7th Teaching & Education Conference, London

THE NEED FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS IN KUWAIT

MAISOUN ALZANKAWI

Abstract:

Teacher professional development is a life-long and continuous process in which teachers are expected to upgrade their knowledge, master new skills and change their practices since advancement in their teaching career is finally for their students and education reform. Besides, teachers and their professional development must be seen as an investment so it is necessary that schools not only apply appropriate teacher professional development and human resource development policies but also ensure the means of their executions through efficient management and leadership. Obviously, only skillful and knowledgeable teachers can form a foundation of good schools with high quality students. Therefore, enhancing teachers’ teaching career is considered the most important and strategic investments of time, money and efforts that human resource managers make in education (Holland, 2005) These investments must be well prepared and conducted since teacher professional development acts as a key indicator in education human resource management and development. Most of all, investments on teacher advancement ultimately result in improving achievement of all students. This study is designed to investigate the English teachers' attitude towards professional development in Kuwait, as well as the problems encountered by those teachers and their need for programs of professional development. It intends to device innovative approaches for English teacher’s development in Kuwait that are based on teachers' requirements, in order to provide those teachers with all what they need to overcome the obstacles they face in their professional life. It will also assess teachers' preferences of the pedagogical tools that enable them to convey the instructional material. The participants in this study were 20 English teachers in Kuwait, 15 experienced in-service teachers who were chosen randomly in Al Rawda region in Kuwait, and 5 pre-service teacher students, from the fourth year in the faculty of education. All the participants were Kuwaiti. The participants included both male and female teachers and student teachers of different ages. Data were gathered from two main sources: Interviews with in-service and pre-service teachers of English in Kuwait, and questionnaires, Specifically, the study aimed to address some critical questions related to the teachers’ future development and the possible problems that are facing them or expects that might face them in the future, and their feedback about the challenges and difficulties of teaching English in Kuwait. The findings revealed that there was a lack of teachers’ development in some particular areas that need more skill development of teachers of English. As a conclusion, intensive training courses should be applied for the in-service teachers, and teachers' professional development programs should promote and enhance teaching effectiveness and support professional growth. In other words, teachers' professional development should permit the transition to roles of higher status and responsibility within the teaching profession. Therefore, teachers need access to new research and acknowledge in the teaching literacy, language development and an integrated curriculum. Moreover, they need an appropriate, up-to-date qualifications in both the content area of the subject and in teaching methodology. They need also opportunities to share expertise with other experienced teachers and educators leading to reflection on practice. In addition, high quality teaching should be focused on the development of a strong, well informed and well supported professional body to respond to community and educational concerns. Also, access to professional development is of paramount importance as it enables teachers to improve learning outcomes for students. Furthermore, they can take a more active approach in curriculum planning, including building on and refining existing practices, which will also enable them to constantly develop excellent teaching practices. Finally, English teachers can actively participate in the evaluation of teaching practices and programs; and actively participate in the implementation of local, state and national curriculum initiatives.

Keywords: Professional development, pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, training courses, curriculum, evaluation.

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