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An evidence-informed study to determine why Singapore teachers engage in professional development
Citation
Chang, C.-H., Teng, P., Tan, A. L., Chan, Y. W., & Tham-Poh, M. S. (2020). An evidence-informed study to determine why Singapore teachers engage in professional development (Report No. OER 24/12 CCH). National Institute of Education (Singapore), Office of Education Research. NIE Digital Repository. https://doi.org/10.32658/10497/29001
Abstract
Set against the motivation for NIE/GPL to enhance Teacher Professional Development (TPD) in meeting the needs of our stakeholders, the question of what makes a teacher want to engage in TPD was raised. While a wide literature scan has shown numerous studies on TPD that illuminates different types of PD that teachers do consider effective, there exists little consensus on which type of PD works best. It is no surprise that there is inconclusive evidence on what makes a teacher want to do TPD. Today, the Singapore literature suffers from a dearth of empirical study to show what motivates a teacher to do TPD. Adopting a social psychology framework of Planned Behaviour Theory (TPB), this study sought to address the research problem above through a baseline study and an extended exploration on the factors affecting a teacher's motivation to do TPD. A variety of data collection methods were utilised in this study. In-depth interviews, questionnaire surveys and Focus Group Discussions (FGD) were used to construct baseline statistics while observations and fieldwork deepened the exploration and provided the triangulation to data collection, essentially improving the reliability of the study. The findings from this study present various important implications for NIE and her partners through detailed analysis which might reshape the trajectory and if need be, modify the nature of Singapore’s TPD service delivery.
Date Issued
2020
Publisher
Office of Education Research, National Institute of Education, Singapore
Series
OER Final Report
Project
OER 24/12 CCH
Grant ID
Education Research Funding Programme (ERFP)
Funding Agency
Ministry of Education, Singapore