Teachers’ Reactions to Professional Development Activities: Perception from Tertiary EFL Teachers in Vietnam

Abstract

Teachers’ professional development is believed to be crucial to improving the quality of schooling in general and higher education in particular. This quantitative research aims at investigating tertiary EFL teachers’ reactions to both formal and informal professional development activities which they have most frequently participated in by means of a survey questionnaire. Particularly, the questionnaire was designed upon the first level of Guskey’s (2000) evaluation model along with the consideration into the interaction among core features of professional development by Desimone (2009) (i.e., content focus, active learning, coherence, duration, collective participation). The data collected from 202 valid responses of EFL teachers in different universities around Vietnam showed that their engagement frequency and reactions were perceived at different degrees as a result of the interaction among the core features of professional development. The research findings possibly inform tertiary EFL teachers, institution managers and professional development program organizers the current professional development practice in Vietnam and suggestions to further improve the existing activities.