| Summary: | 碩士 === 淡江大學 === 教育科技學系碩士班 === 95 === The purpose of this study is to investigate the needs of professional development for the Compulsory Education Advisory Group via self-assessed survey. The content and methods for professional growth program design were explored. Besides, the different needs between the demographic backgrounds of group members were analyzed.
448 questionnaires were sent to the Compulsory Education Advisory Group members who were selected by stratified random sampling from all counties /cities in Taiwan. There were 342 returned and the valid rate of return is 76.34%. The reliability of the questionnaire is 0.96 of Cronbach α.
The conclusions of the research were summarized as follows:
1. All dimensions and items were regarded necessary for developmental enhancement. Among 6 dimensions, the priorities of developmental need are listed as follows: (1) change content, (2) interpersonal collaboration, (3) research and development, (4) resource linkage, (5) consultation and diagnosis, and (6) project management. Among 33 items, the top 5 rankings were: (1) learning areas (subject-matter), (2) pedagogical content knowledge, (3) innovation policies interpretation, (4) new trends and issues about learning areas, and (5) team collaboration.
2. The degree of needs for professional development varied with different demographic backgrounds, such as “years of teaching”, “previous teacher education background”, “school level”, “special assignments”, “teaching load reduced” , “seniority in consultation” ,and “previous training experience”.
3. Compulsory Education Advisory Group members tended to in favor of professional development programs delivered by “face to face” approach, including (1) lecture training╱workshop, (2) visiting demonstration, (3) tutoring by senior staff, and (4) face-to-face conferences and discussion.
The following suggestions were made for the future practice and research regarding to the professional development of Compulsory Education Advisory Group:
A. For the professional development program
1. Suggestions for the design of professional development program
(1) The content of profession development programs should be designed according to the priority of needs disclosed in this research.
(2) The arrangements of developmental programs should be individualized according to the teaching years, seniority in consultation, and the range of task duties.
(3) “Off-site” or “on-the-job” training methods were the most welcomed professional development approaches. Besides, selecting appropriate methods for different mastery of competencies should be taken into account.
2. Suggestions for administrative institutions
(1) Qualifications and legal positions of the Compulsory Education Advisory Group should be identified.
(2) Career path of the Compulsory Education Advisory Group members should be set up, in order to illustrate the vision of career development and facilitate the recruitment of the expert teachers.
(3) Contents of training programs should be arranged differently and systematically based on the objectives of different levels of administration agencies, in terms of depth and width of the professional knowledge.
3. Suggestions for Compulsory Education Advisory Group members
(1) Members should understand the importance of role of being change facilitators in the educational reform context.
(2) Professional reflections and dialogues between members should be emphasized; coaching to the novices by the experts should be also adopted.
B. For future study
1. Focus group and interviews are suggested to explore the motivations of developmental needs; and longitudinal study can be employed to investigate the changing needs during the service period.
2. Suggestions of different kind of stakeholders can be further analyze to understand the different needs from other perspectives.
3. The characteristics and attitudes of being a change facilitator can be further identified.
4. The system of professional development for the Compulsory Education Advisory Group should be further established.
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