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Makale Özeti:
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The literature on professional development is replete with studies that utilize survey,
interview, and classroom observation data, primarily collected post professional
development experience, to explore teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and actions;
however, we lack a clear understanding of teachers’ learning process and reflections
during the professional development. The current study aims to address the
abovementioned gaps in the literature, by utilizing participant reflections and
assignments during a summer professional development opportunity, to elucidate the
process by which teachers learn about inquiry-based teaching and begin to implement it
in their planning, in addition to factors they deem influential in this process. The
findings address three questions about professional development: 1) participants’
process of developing professionally, 2) features of effective professional development,
and 3) the relationship between participants and the program. Furthermore, a web of
interrelationships is revealed between participant-identified beneficial programmatic
features and the participants’ experiences, processes of personal, social, and
professional development, evolving conceptions and beliefs, and the translation of
these beliefs into practice, as evident in their immediate implementation of ideas in
instructional planning.
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