An Analysis of Adult Educators’ Experiences with Professional Development Activities

This study was designed to explore Adult Basic Education (ABE), Adult Secondary Education (ASE), and English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers’ experiences with professional development. The study sought to determine whether adult learning principles were evident in the facilitation of professional development activities. The study instrument was administered online to members of the Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE), with a total of n=348 respondents to the survey. The survey consisted of demographic questions, questions related to professional development experiences, and an open response question. The majority of respondents were teachers/instructors (n=232, 66.7%), held a master’s degree (n=187, 54.4%), and did not have adult education certification/licensure (n=205, 59.1%). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was utilized to identify adult learning principles that were perceived by ABE, ASE, and ESL teachers who attended professional development. Seven factors emerged to explain 67.11% of the total variance among 32 items on the instrument. The first factor in the exploratory factor analysis indicated that during professional development, ABE, ASE, and ESL teachers learned new skills and strategies for working with adult learners that were applicable to their classroom instruction. The other factors had fewer items and were less defined. To describe how the learning environment impacted ABE, ASE, and ESL teachers’ professional development experiences, a one-way between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted. Results indicated no statistically significant difference among the groups. To compare perceptions of facilitator skills and abilities that impacted ABE, ASE, and ESL teachers’ professional development experiences, a one-way between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used. Data analysis indicated differences existed between ASE and ESL groups on two items