Teachers' Professional Development Tools: Importance and Usage

Current technological developments have led to an easier access to information leading to sociological changes worldwide. This brought about changes in all professions, especially in teaching as one of the roles of the teachers is to prepare their students to the world of future. This fact highlights the importance of foreign language teaching and personal and professional development of teachers. In order to enable professional development, professional development tools are crucial. Richards and Farrell (2009) suggest 11 professional development activities & tools for language teachers. These are: workshops, self- monitoring, teacher support groups, teacher journal, peer observation, teaching portfolios, analyzing critical incidents, case analysis, peer coaching, team teaching, and action research. In the present study, the level of importance attached to the above mentioned tools and the frequency of their usage by the lecturers teaching at the Foreign Languages High-school at Selçuk University is determined