VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐÀO THỊ HUYỀN SECONDARY SCHOOL EFL TEACHER’S
MOTIVATION FOR PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT – AN INTERVIEW STUDY

Sử dụng phương pháp phỏng vấn nghiên cứu về động lực
phát triển chuyên môn của giáo viên tiếng Anh
tại một trường trung học phổ thông

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111 HANOI, 2014
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

I hereby declare that this thesis is a presentation of my original research
work submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Education at the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, ULIS, VNU. The
material in the research has not been submitted anywhere for any formal
course assessment or any award. Whenever contributions of others are
involved, every effort is made to indicate this clearly with appropriate
acknowledgement and reference.
I would also like to confirm my acceptance of the University‟s
requirements relating to the retention and use of my thesis deposited in the
library for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal
conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan, or reproduction of
the paper.

Ha Noi, June 2014 Dao Thi Huyen
ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to send my special thanks to all of those people who
contributed to this research, directly or indirectly.
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest and most sincere
sense of gratitude to my Supervisor, Dr. Le Van Canh, who offered me
continuous advice, unfailing support and encouragement throughout the study.
I thank him for his systematic guidance, his insightful and constructive
comments, and great effort he put in training me in the research domain.

teachers all take part in the same formal and informal PD activities, especially
the reflective practice. Also, the participants are asked to talk about their
opportunities and challenges for their professional development.
The result shows that the EFL teachers have strong motivation for PD,
although they have some certain obstacles in participation in this process.
The study also gives suggestions of measures to overcome difficulties
when taking part in professional development. iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
Chapter I : LITERATURE REVIEW 1
I. INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale 1
2. Aims of the study 2

2.3. Teachers‟ self-reports on the opportunities and challenges for their PD. 25
3. Discussion 26
3.1. Factors affecting EFL teachers in PD. 29
4. Summary of the chapter 30
PART C: CONCLUSION 32
CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION 32
1. Recapitulation 32
2. Conclusions 32
3. Implications for teacher professional development 33
4. Limitations of the study 35
5. Suggestions for future research 36
REFERENCE 37
APPENDIX 1 I 1

PART A: INTRODUCTION
Chapter I : LITERATURE REVIEW
I. INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Everyone is continually developing as a person and, every day in the
workplace, we are always learning. Tomorrow will be different from today
and we all need to be prepared for change. Whether you think your role is
changing or not, you need to be prepared for the next development
opportunity so you don‟t miss out.
Professional development has become a major focus in EFL teacher
education programs worldwide since it is undoubtedly beneficial and essential
for professional growth and more effective teaching. In the paper presented at
the first General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland Annual Lecture in

To clarify these issues, the definition of terminologies is mentioned in chapter
II. The next chapter is the presentation of the objectives, aims, methodology
used for the research and its findings. The conclusion which includes some
comments and recommendations is presented in chapter IV.
In consideration of these problems, as an English teacher, I really want
to clarify the topic here with my knowledge and my supervisor‟s guidance to
analyze, understand the situation of teaching and learning English at HaiAn
high school. Thanks to it, I will find out lessons, experience for myself and
make a small contribution to enhancing the effectiveness in teaching this
subject.
2. Aims of the study
The major aims of the study are:
- to gain understandings of secondary school teachers‟ motivation for
professional development; and define what is meant by motivation.
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- to discuss some common professional development activities.
- to identify factors that affect either positively and negatively teachers‟
motivation for professional development.
3. Scope of the study
Given the rationale and the aims of the study, it is necessary to limit the
study to the areas which are manageable. Benefits of teacher professional
development create the effectiveness of students‟ learning which focuses on
two factors: developing teachers‟ motivation in participation in PD and
factors affecting this process. The subjects under the study are at HaiAn High
School.
4. Research questions
The study attempts to find the answers to the following research
questions:
- What are EFL teachers‟ attitudes to professional development?

II . DEFINITION OF TERMINOLOGIES
2. 1. What is motivation?
Each individual theory tends to be rather limited in scope. However, by
looking at the key ideas below, you can gain a better understanding of
motivation as a whole.
According to http//. Psychology.about.com, Motivation is the force that
initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. It is what causes us to
take action, whether to grab a snack to reduce hunger or enroll in college to
earn a degree. The forces that lie beneath motivation can be biological, social,
emotional or cognitive in nature.
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In everyday usage, the term motivation is frequently used to describe why a
person does something. For example, you might say that a student is so
motivated to get into a clinical psychology program that she spends every
night studying. (http//. Psychology.about.com)
Components of Motivation
There are three major components to motivation: activation, persistence and
intensity. Activation involves the decision to initiate a behavior, such as
enrolling in a psychology class. Persistence is the continued effort toward a
goal even though obstacles may exist, such as taking more psychology
courses in order to earn a degree although it requires a significant investment
of time, energy and resources. Finally, intensity can be seen in the
concentration and vigor that goes into pursuing a goal. For example, one
student might coast by without much effort, while another student will study
regularly, participate in discussions and take advantage of research
opportunities outside of class.

2. 2. Professional development
In workplaces, professional development refers to the acquisition of

access to ongoing teacher professional development. This professional
development enables teachers to improve their own education through
seminars, workshops, and classes.
Through teacher professional development, teachers learn new teaching
strategies to improve the quality of instruction. This allows them to make
changes in the way they teach their students, incorporating innovative
teaching methods in the classroom. It teaches them how to work with a
variety of learning styles, since not all students learn the same way. It also
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helps teachers change their day-to-day teaching methods, encouraging them to
accept new methods based on accurate education research.
Professional development usually takes place when school is not in
session. Most teacher professional development occurs in the evening, on
weekends, or during the summer. School districts also
schedule professional development days throughout the school year. During
these days, students are dismissed early from school or have a day off from
school. This provides teachers, teaching assistants, and administrative staff
the opportunity to participant in training and workshops.
Teacher professional development is sometimes criticized because it
sometimes does not provide teachers with the time, information, and activities
they need to make changes within the classroom. For this reason,
some professional development involves training throughout the school year.
Mentors and coaches who are considered experts in new teaching methods
and strategies meet with teachers during classroom instruction
or teacher planning time. This can help teachers use what they have learned in
a real-world setting, building a bridge between new concepts and classroom
instruction.
Effective teacher professional development is designed to strengthen
teachers‟ knowledge of content. It is based on research and provides data that

leadership are the most important factors in raising student achievement. For
teachers and school and district leaders to be as effective as possible, they
continually expand their knowledge and skills to implement the best
educational practices. Educators learn to help students learn at the highest
levels.As Thomas Guskey (2000, p4) states, “One constant finding in the
research literature is that notable improvements in education almost never
take place in the absence of professional development.” PD is key to meeting
today‟s educational demands.
Many people may not be aware of their local school system‟s methods for
improving teaching and student learning. Professional development is the
only strategy school systems have to strengthen educators‟ performance
levels. Professional development is also the only way educators can learn so
that they are able to better their performance and raise student achievement.

3. 1. Why do educators need professional development? Did they
learn what they need to know in college?
College and university programs cannot provide the extensive range of
learning experiences necessary for graduates to become effective public
school educators. Once students graduate, meet their state‟s certification
requirements, and are employed, they learn through experience. As in all
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professions, new teachers and principals take years to gain the skills they need
to be effective in their roles. The complexity of teaching is so great that one-
third of teachers leave the profession within three years (Ingersoll, 2003).
Even experienced teachers confront great challenges each year, including
changes in subject content, new instructional methods, and student learning
needs. Educators who do not experience effective professional development
do not improve their skills, and student learning suffers.
In short, professional development provides ongoing opportunities for

gives a similar but useful definition about professional development, stating
that: professional development consists of all natural learning experiences and
those conscious and planned activities which are intended to be of direct or
indirect benefit to the individual, group or school and which contribute to the
quality of education in the classroom (Day, 1999:4)
Thus professional development encompasses all activities that cater
both for the individual needs of teachers and for the institutional needs of the
whole school (Bell, 1991). The teacher, the school and the students thus
benefit from such a process of professional development (Bell, 1991)

Due to changing demands on the new roles of teachers in the 21
st

century, traditional approaches to PD such as formal courses or one-off
seminar are criticized for their shortcomings of being unable to get teachers
prepared for the new role of knowledge facilitator rather than knowledge
transmitter (e.g. Darling-Hammond, 1998: Lieberman, 1996). Instead, two
theoretical perspectives lead the alternative approaches to PD which support
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teachers learn more effectively (Kwakman, 2003). These two perspectives
include cognitive psychological and professional development perspective.

Cognitive psychological Perspective
Student learning and teaching are the same from cognitive psychological
perspective (Borko and Putnam, 1996; Putnam and Borko, 2000). Teachers
are assumed to learn like what students do in which teachers are considered as
constructors of knowledge who learn actively in a self-directed way. Such
kind of learning occurs when interacting with the learning context and it is
strongly affected by prior knowledge individual earner (Borko and Putnam,

- Observation: teachers observing other teachers.
- Coaching: an expert teacher coaching one or two colleagues.
- Mentoring of new educators by experienced colleagues.
- Team meeting to plan lessons, problem solve, improve performances,
and/ or learn new strategy.
- Faculty / grade- level or departmental meetings.
- Online courses.
- College, university courses.
- Workshop to dig deeper into a subject.
- Conference to learn from a variety of experts through the country/ area/
world.
- Whole – school improvement programme.
- Proprietary programme by private venders.

V. FACTORS AFFECTING TEACHERS’ PARTICIPATION IN
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT.
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Few studies were conducted to examine factors affecting teachers‟
participation in PD activities over the decade in different countries. Kwakman
(2003) conducted an empirical study about a number of factors affecting
teachers‟ participation in PD in the Netherlands. In her study, three factors,
personal factors (i.e. professional attitudes, appraisals of feasibility,
appraisals of meaningfulness, emotion exhaustion, loss of personal
accomplishment), and task factors (i.e. pressure of work, emotional demands,
job variety, autonomy, participation) and work environment factors (i.e.
management support, collegial support, intentional learning support) were
used to examine the effects on teachers‟ participation in PD. As a result, of
these three factors, personal factor seem to be more significant in predicting
teachers‟ participation in PD activities than task and work environment
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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER II: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2. 1 The setting of the study
Hai An high school is one of the newly-established schools in
HaiPhong city. It has a history of only 7 years of foundation. In spite of the
young age, it is famous for its efforts of good teaching and learning with the
students getting many prizes in the exams of HaiPhong city every year. The
material conditions of the school are well-equipped, which also helps to create
its success. However, most of students are good at and like learning natural
science subjects. The school is trying to look for methods so that students are
good at both natural subjects and social ones, especially English.
2.2 Participants
There are 8 teachers of English, including the researcher, aged from 29
to 34. All of them graduated from universities. The number of female teachers
formed the majority (7 female teachers and 1 male teacher). All of them are
enthusiastic with their careers and have at least 5 years of experience in
teaching English.

Hammond and Fife-Schaw 1995:231). Open-ended questions allow the
interviewer, if they wish, to probe deeper into the initial responses of the
respondent to gain a more detailed answer to the question (Wimmer and
Dominick 1997:156). The richness of the data is therefore entirely dependent
on the interviewer. They themselves, must judge how much or how little they
should probe or say themselves.
There are of course both advantages and disadvantages to this type of
structure. It is particularly useful as a pilot study, to test out what peoples
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responses would be to a particular issue. It may throw a completely different
light on an issue that the interviewer had previously never considered
(Wimmer and Dominick 1997:139). Freedom for the respondent to answer
how they wish to is important in giving them a feeling of control in the
interview situation. This version also has its disadvantages, namely in terms
of the amount of time needed to collect and analyse the responses (Wimmer
and Dominick 1997:139). Due to the varied nature of the responses, it is
necessary to use the content analysis technique to analyse it. This is what
takes the time. Open questions used in this unstructured interview approach
can cause confusion either because of the lack of understanding of the
question by the informant or by the lack of understanding of the respondent's
answer by the interviewer (Wimmer and Dominick 1997:140). Despite some
of these disadvantages, open-ended questions are very important. Gray (1987)
showed this when she studied women‟s relations to video technology. It was
found that women wanted to tell their stories therefore needing open-ended
questions to enable them to talk freely (Jensen and Jankowski 1991:155).
2.2. Procedure
After explaining the purpose of the study to the teachers of English at
Hai An high school, they all agreed to participate. Then, the interviews were
conducted with individual teachers. All the interview questions were open-