Page 75 - Innovative Professional Development Methods and Strategies for STEM Education

A Paradigm Shift for Teachers’ Professional Development Structure in Turkey

Implementation of In-service Training Activities

To attend the in-service training activities teachers need to apply on-line through the MoNE portal then
the participants are chosen following an evaluation of the applicants. These evaluations are often con-
sidered subjective since they are based on the criteria laid down by the region/state the teacher works
in and previous trainings they attended. The central training activities are conducted by the Ministry at
the seven In-service Training Institutes. Training by Local Education Authorities is offered using the
facilities of schools and other educational institutions. Face-to-face as well as distance training activi-
ties are offered. The orientation training for newly appointed teachers and the professional development
training for pre-school, elementary, middle and high school teachers are centrally planned and carried
out as distance training through video-conferencing.
According to various studies there are a number of problems in the implementation process of these
in-service training activities such as; short periods allocated to the activities, certificates of participation
being issued without any kind of assessment, very few or no long-term activities, unsuitable settings for
the content of the activities, abundance of theory-based activities, and very little or no practical train-
ing (Onen et al. 2009; Kanli & Yagbasan, 2001; Gokdere & Cepni, 2004; Gonen & Kocakaya, 2006).

Monitoring and Assessment

The monitoring and assessment of MoNE’s in-service training programmes are carried out through
surveys. The assessment of training is based on the participants’ response to questions concerning pre-
training, planning and programming, training staff, training centre, organization and management, what
teachers acquired from the training, and an overall evaluation.
The in-service training programmes designed and implemented by the MoNE are based on short-,
mid-, and long-term planning according to teachers’ needs, but the majority is of short duration (30
hours on average, between one and 10 days). The monitoring and assessment of these programmes are
limited to the evaluation performed only at the end the programmes. There is no long-term post-training
monitoring or assessment to determine how the teachers put the results of the training into practice in
their classrooms. In other words, how much the teacher acquired from the training is not followed up. It is
of paramount importance that the outcomes of the professional development programmes are monitored
in the long term in terms of both changes in teachers and their impact on students. In this context, long-
term in-service training programmes for science teachers incorporating classroom-monitoring processes
are needed, particularly in Turkey.
In order to meet this need, within the last 5 years, in-service training programmes have been organized
for science teachers as part of a three-year longitudinal research project supported by TUBITAK in co-
operation with four universities. The training activities were designed taking into account the problems
reported in the relevant literature. This project aimed to reveal, through teacher training, both the changes
in teachers and the reflection of these changes upon their students. This aspect makes the project a first
in science education in Turkey and a contributor to the limited literature worldwide on the impact of in-
service training on learning. It is also considered that the in-service training programme designed as part
of the project is an exemplary model in terms of planning, implementation, monitoring, and assessment.

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