Sharing experience of a professional development training carried out among in-service teachers.

1. Chinese school teachers’
perceptions of continuous
professional development training in
Melaka Teacher Training Institute
CHEOK MEI LICK
FACULTY OF EDUCATIONAL STUDIES
UNIVERSITI PUTRA MALAYSIA

2. Key terms of the study
 Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
Training
 Technological, pedagogical, content knowledge
(TPACK)
 Blended Learning

3. Introduction
Why Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Training?
Knowledge, skills and attitudes cannot be fully developed during initial teacher education.
Teachers need to be lifelong learners, 21st century students need different knowledge and skills . Constant
upgrading is not a choice but a must.
Stakeholders expectations of the teaching force are being redefined as the world progresses.

4. Introduction
Technological, pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK):
Technological Pedagogical Content
Knowledge (TPACK) has developed
theoretical, pedagogical, and methodological
perspectives that characterize teachers who
effectively integrate content, pedagogy, and
technology in their classroom practice.

6. Introduction
The affordance of Blended Learning:
Many studies have concluded that using
technology in educational settings benefits students
(Kim and Hannafin, 2011).
However, most teachers do no effectively
integrate technology or blend technology into their
face-to-face classroom (Gordner, 2008)

9. Aspects of Blended Learning Studied
Satisfaction
 Affective construct that is often considered to be a predictor of
learning outcomes (LaPoint & Gunawardena, 2004).
 Indicates the degree of learner reaction to their learning
experience in a particular course.
 Satisfaction an important factor in retention (Liu, Gomez, Khan
and Yen, 2007; Liu, Gomez and Yen, 2009)

10. Aspects of Blended Learning Studied
Social Presence
 Learners project themselves online and feel a sense of community.
 Participants identify with the community, communicate and develop
inter-personal relationships (Garrison, 2009).
 Social presence is an important construct in online learning
environments (Tu & McIssac, 2002; Richardson & Swan, 2003; Liu,
Gomez, Khan, & Yen, 2007).

11. Aspects of Blended Learning Studied
Collaboration
 Learners interact to construct common meaning and knowledge.
 Learning communities play a significant role in academic success
and persistence (Shea, Sau Li, & Pickett, 2006).
 Learning through social interaction and collaboration has been
confirmed (Bandura, 1986; Vygotsky, 1978; Tu and Corry, 2003).
 Tu (2004) argues it is essential when creating online learning
communities.

12. Why the study?
Though the acceptance of CPD as important to
improvement in education, studies shown
ineffectiveness of most courses (Cohen & Hill, 2000).
Reasons cited amongst others are
◦courses do not motivate them (Guskey, 1986)

13. This study explored:
 Perceptions of teachers toward the CPD training

14. Training Approach
Blended Learning approach where teachers can both learn at home and at the
institute.

15. Training Framework: Kolb (1984)

16. Narrative Design
To describe the CPD training that was carried out and tell
stories about the training and the participants experiences as
the training unfolds.
Narrative researchers explore an educational research problem
by understanding the experiences of an individual (Creswell,
2008).
This study looked at both the personal and social experiences
of the participants.

17. Guiding questions
. How do teachers perceive the training?
2. How do teachers perceive the Blended Learning
experience in terms of satisfaction, collaboration and
social presence?
3. What are the guiding principles in an effective CPD
trainings?
1

18. Methodology
Teachers in the study were all from the Chinese vernacular schools
who do not have BM and English as their major options during their
training days.
However, they have been teaching English for more than five but less
than 10 years in the primary schools.
This is the government’s initiatives to overcome teacher shortage in
the schools.
The programme is known as the “Add-Option Intervention
Programme” (PITO)

19. Methodology

20. Method
Data were collected from three sources:
Questionnaire
Reflection
Action Plan

21. Method

22. Method

23. Method
Teachers’ perceptions gathered were sorted out into four
themes that appeared during the analysis.
These themes guided our interpretations as to the practical
implications to future training sessions.

24. Analysis: Burnard (1991)

25. Perception towards the CPD training
Theme
Description
The transcripts from their action plan and reflection were examined and analyzed according to
Personal Development stages. • All four teachers expressed disappointments
Burnard’s (1991) analysis
•
•
•
•
•
with
their own command of the language.
They felt insecure in their subject knowledge.
They also felt the need to read in order to learn
more new things.
To change the way they teach. Over reliance on
textbooks to remain within safe routine
Feels more confident to teach English after the
training.
Started to do own reflection

26. Perception towards the CPD training
Theme
Description
Professional development • Characteristics of a good language teacher
• Trainer does not understand teachers’
problems and situations
• Need to keep abreast with up-to-date
knowledge and skills especially in
technology
• Coursework and expectations from the
trainer made them worked harder than
before.

27. Perception towards the CPD training
Themes
Descriptions
ICT Integration
• Some expressed frustrations resulting from not having
sufficient practical knowledge that can help them integrate
ICT effectively in the classrooms.
• Most of them know the benefits of ICT but do not know
how to go about doing it.
• Technical support in schools is lacking.
• Retrieval of resources were made so much easier through
the LMS
• Not all teachers in schools were provided with a laptop.

28. Perception towards the CPD training
Theme
Description
Cooperation
• They all enjoyed and benefitted tremendously learning and sharing from
each other most of all.
• Even after face-to-face hours, they were still able to keep in touch
through the online platform provided.
• By working with their peers, teachers identified their strengths and
weaknesses in comparison with their peers.
• Importance of peer support
• All four agreed they had learned new skills and knowledge, sharing of
experiences and developed problem-solving skills from each other.

29. Perception towards Blended Learning
Aspect
Description
Social
Presence
All four agreed that the computer-mediated communication (CMC) are
social forms of communication.
 They do not think that the CMC messages are confidential nor impersonal.
 Three agreed that it is a pleasant way to communicate and they felt it was
easy to express themselves.
 Only one agreed that the online language used was easy to understand.
 They were all comfortable participating in the CMC environment.

30. Perception towards Blended Learning
Aspect
Description
Collaboration
Out of four, only two agreed that the collaborative learning
experience in the CMCS is better.
 Howeve,r all four agreed that they felt part of a learning
community group
 Only three actively exchanged their ideas online
 They all agreed they learned new skills and knowledge, and
problem solving skills from each other.
 They were all satisfied with the collaboration aspect on the
whole.

31. Perception towards Blended Learning
Aspect
Description
Satisfaction
They agreed that the BL course had helped them and they are satisfied in
terms of:

learning from the discussions

stimulated to do additional readings

would like to take another BL course

useful learning experience

encouraged participation in the discussions

put in effort to learn the CMCS

highest level of learning so far

met their expectations

instructor met their expectations

32. Future CPD Courses
CPD courses which focuses only on new teaching ideas is not
sufficient (Wright, 1998).
Personal involvement and choice on the part of the teachers
are equally important.
 They ought to be given freedom to decide what they need in
order to grow personally and professionally.
Teachers need to be treated as people first and practitioners
second.

33. Future CPD Courses
Start from where the teachers are in order to enable
them to make sense of the initial training experience.
Do not be overly ambitious.
Give them time and space to make sense and
connections of the training processes.

34. University of Calgary in Canada (2002) says about good
professional development practices
Planning, designing, implementing and evaluating
best done in collaboration.
Learning situated in authentic, challenging and
multidisciplinary tasks.
Build and develop a culture of inquiry around
technology for learning-support, risk-taking and
knowledge creation
Teachers to reflect on professional development
and growth

35. Conclusion
CPD is a process and not an event
Change must be seen as a continuous and
ongoing effort
Support and pressure are essential
Understand teachers’ attitudes and perceptions

36. Remind us of our power to change within the
confines of our classroom (not the country’s
policies)

37. Thank you for your
attention