Page 80 - Innovative Professional Development Methods and Strategies for STEM Education

A Paradigm Shift for Teachers’ Professional Development Structure in Turkey

Studies in the literature demonstrate the need for considering five crucial criteria in the assessment
of in-service training programmes; the participants’ views on the activities, their acquisition of new
knowledge and skills, organizational change and support, the participants’ ability to use their newly
acquired knowledge and skills, and the students’ learning outputs (Guskey, 2000; 2002). In this context,
it can be suggested that the training programmes within the scope of the project have a strong structure
in terms of meeting these criteria.

The Effects of the In-Service Training Programme on the
Knowledge, Beliefs and Practices of the Teachers

The concluding section of this chapter is two-folded. The first part of the section presents the impact of the
professional development activities and classroom implementations on the teachers’ beliefs, pedagogical
practices of the argument-based inquiry approach, and in-service trainings. The second part incorporates
the findings on students’ conceptual understandings of various science topics, critical thinking skills,
argumentation competencies, writing proficiencies, and attitudes toward science and science learning.

The Process of Change in Teachers over the Course of the Project

The structure of modern in-service teacher training in Turkey was first established in the 1960s and has
been subject to change due to political shifts over the decades. In their comprehensive and comparative
review of in-service teacher training literature, Gunel and Tanriverdi (2014) suggested that the current state
of in-service teacher training in Turkey is far from the international norms or a state-of-the-art structure.
The most significant deviations of the current setting from international tendencies are concerning the
purpose and structuring of the trainings. In other words, the in-service trainings in Turkey have shifted,
over time, from a learner (teacher) centred to a centralized and content-oriented framework. Thus, the
main purpose is now to deliver certain content and curriculum materials to more teachers regardless of
the current developments in the literature regarding teacher learning and research findings.
The MoNE, which is the main actor and stakeholder in the Turkish education system, has shifted
the majority of in-service teacher trainings to distance learning to meet the short-term legislation needs
and cover subjects that are popular among the education community (Directorate-General for Teacher
Training and Development, 2014). There are only a limited number of studies or small-scale projects
that have adapted the Turkish education setting to international in-service training norms (Gunel & Tan-
riverdi, 2014). These studies point out the need for and underline the significance of effective learning
environments, where teachers’ pedagogical and epistemological readiness, as well as their pedagogical
competencies, are taken into account and improved through longitudinal and colleague interactions
(Loucks-Horsley, 1995; Klein, 2001).
In our study, the implemented professional development programme was based on the blueprints
of international norms since it is longitudinal, teacher epistemology and competency based, learning
outcome oriented (for both teacher and student), and geared to colleague interaction.
In our study, the implemented professional development programme was based on the blueprints
of international norms since it is longitudinal, teacher epistemology and competency based, learning
outcome oriented (for both teacher and student), and geared to colleague interaction. Within the scope
of the project, Tanriverdi, Gunel, Asci & Ocak (2013) conducted semi-structured interviews with the
participating teachers to investigate the impact of professional development programmes and on-site

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