Teachers’ Beliefs of the Present and Ideal Status of the In-Service EFL Teacher Training Programs

Practicing teachers usually find that their knowledge and skills are out of date and contrast with the present best practice, even just a few years out of their pre-service programs. Research has suggested that in-service training programs are considered to keep practicing teachers up-to-date and/or to address the problems which happen in their practical teaching (Eghtesadi & Hassanabadi, 2016; Gabrscek & Roeders, 2013; Razi & Kargar, 2014). It is a set of organized efforts for performance development of the teachers or for building of their capacity to implement any new program in already set environment (Saiti & Saiti, 2006). Given the significance of this mandate, the time, and the budget put into these programs, it is essential to analyze these programs to specify whether they fulfill the purposes formulated for them in the first place. Accordingly, the present study investigated the teachers’ beliefs of the present and ideal status of the in-service EFL teacher training programs in Gorgan, Golestan Province, Iran. To achieve this goal, a 26-item questionnaire, which was developed and piloted by Birjandi and Derakhshan (2010) was completed by 70 teachers, included 37 high school and 33 junior high school teachers whose age ranged from 24 to over the age of 42 and their years of experience ranged from 2 to 22. The findings of the present study indicated that teachers are interested in taking part in present and ideal in-service programs which provide opportunities for them to share their ideas and also, it improves teachers’ proficiency in English. Moreover, the findings of this study suggest many fundamental pedagogical implications for teachers

Keywords:

Teachers’ Beliefs , Ideal In-Service Classes