Speeches/Conference Papers (150)

This paper reports on a study of teacher development practices in Turkey, exploring teachers ' perceptions of professional development opportunities in the Turkish elementary school, and the extent to which elementary school teachers believe that these opportunities have helped them improve their instructional practices. Of the 500 teachers from 52 schools in the sample, 313 (64 percent) returned usable questionnaires. Data analysis revealed that most teachers had participated in inservice training only once or twice during their careers, and that rural teachers had less access to inservice training activities than urban school teachers. Survey respondents overwhelmingly agreed that more inservice training activities should be organized and made available, and that the evaluation reports prepared by administrators and supervisors were not very encouraging in helping teachers to grow professionally