Page 174 - Innovative Professional Development Methods and Strategies for STEM Education

Identifying the Target Needs of Non-Native Subject Teachers

We observed about 45 different teachers from different subjects for a year. We worked as a team with
the heads of the departments. At the end of the year, we wrote a report concerning the pedagogical and
linguistic lacks of in-service teachers. Then, we also had discussions with the administrator about the
findings.

It is obvious that the educational uniqueness of this ESP course requires a thorough investigation to
identify the needs of all stakeholders in a scientific way. Although the program has been running for
three years, the actual needs of the participants, their lacks and wants have not been openly questioned
before. Therefore, this study is the first attempt taken to understand subject teachers’ needs, lacks, and
wants, which will inform the stakeholders about the effectiveness of the program in meeting the needs
of the participants and, thus, could certainly give way to a sound program revision and development.

METHODOLOGY

Descriptive research design was chosen to investigate the research questions of this study. While doing
so, a mixed methodology approach was taken up in order to create a more complete view on the needs
of the participants. Huhta, Vogt, and Tulkki (2013) explain that “[t]his is an approach to needs analysis,
which may also be referred to as a triangulation of data, in which the researcher has used a combination
of qualitative and quantitative methods to identify the learning needs of stakeholders” (p. 16). Therefore,
all parties of stakeholders, the vice general director of the institution, program staff, in-service subject
teachers, some of whom already participated in the course and teach at different schools of the educa-
tional institution, and the course attendees, i.e. the subject teachers participating in the program, were
included in different phases of the study using qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques.
The steps of data collection, techniques utilized, and stakeholders involved in each step for each research
question (RQ) of this study are shown in Table 2.
As can be seen in the table, unstructured and semi-structured interviews were used to find out about
different stakeholders’ experiences of the training program and the needs felt by these parties. These
interviews also helped to develop the main source of data collection instrument, which was a question-
naire. As known well, self-report questionnaires are the most frequently used data collection technique

Table 2. Details for data collection

Steps Data Collection Stakeholders Aims
Techniques
RQ 1 1 Unstructured Vice general director of educational To identify the needs of the institution
interview institution
2 Unstructured • Subject teachers (in-service teachers) To identify the necessities and lacks of
interviews • Program staff the subject teachers
3 Questionnaire Subject teachers attending the program To identify their perceived necessities,
lacks and wants
RQ2 1 Questionnaire Subject teachers attending the program To identify their opinions and
(open-ended questions) evaluations of the language course
2 Semi-structured Course manager To identify his opinions and
interview evaluations of the language course

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