Professional development and ICT : English language teachers’ voices

Abstract

While technology use is becoming increasingly common in education, teachers remain reluctant to use technology and hesitant on how best to incorporate it into their teaching and practice. There is a strong demand from institutions for English language teachers to cope with the changing landscape of teaching in the twenty-first century. This explorative study investigated Hong Kong tertiary teachers’ beliefs on continuing professional development activities to enhance their teaching. The study had a two-phase research design, with an initial questionnaire (N = 58) followed by semi-structured interviews (N = 12) to unpack the participants’ hidden voices. The findings illustrated that most teachers are enthusiastic about professional development activities, though there is a misalignment between what universities value and reward and what teachers see as most beneficial for enhancing their teaching practices. The results suggested that professional development activities should focus on sharing good teaching practices (e.g., informal chats, mentoring) within universities rather than rewarding attending conferences and nonintegrated workshops.