VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TÔ
́
NG THI
̣
THU
A CASE STUDY:
THE IMPACT OF SUMMER IN-SERVICE
TEACHER TRAINING ON TEACHER CHANGE NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ THAY ĐỔI CỦA GIÁO VIÊN
DƯỚI TÁC ĐỘNG CỦA CHƯƠNG TRÌNH BỒI DƯỠNG
CHUYÊN MÔN NGHIỆP VỤ HÈ

M.A MINOR THESIS


A CASE STUDY:
THE IMPACT OF SUMMER IN-SERVICE
TEACHER TRAINING ON TEACHER CHANGE NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ THAY ĐỔI CỦA GIÁO VIÊN
DƯỚI TÁC ĐỘNG CỦA CHƯƠNG TRÌNH BỒI DƯỠNG
CHUYÊN MÔN NGHIỆP VỤ HÈ

M.A MINOR THESIS
Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60-14-10
Supervisor:Lê Văn Canh, Ph.D HANOI – 2011 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
MOET: Ministry of Education and Training
YLSS: Yen Lac Secondary School


LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Chapter 1
Table 1.1. Differences between training and development

Chapter 2
Table 2.1: Summary of participant selection as it occurred in my study.
Table 2.2: Summary of interview participant details.

5.2. School/local education authorities‟ expectations……………………………
5.3. Contextual and cultural factors……………………………………………
6. Studies on the impact of short training workshops on teacher change ………….
7. Summary ……………………………………………………………………… i
ii
iv
v
vi
1
1
1
2
3
3
3
4
4
4

5
5
5

7
8
9
9

4. Suggestions for further research…………………………………………………

REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………….
APPENDICES ………………………………………………………………………….

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13
13
14
15
17
17
17
17
18

18

21

24
27
29
30
30
30
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31

32

last few years. In 2008, the Vietnamese Prime Minister issued Decree N° 1400/QD-TTg on
approving the National Plan for “Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in the
National Formal Education System in the period of 2008 - 2020”, according to which one
of the major tasks is to enhance teacher professionalism and develop a professional force
which is able to implement the new curriculum. In order to achieve the goal of the new
curriculum, teachers really need great support in different aspects to help them grow
professionally. Hence, The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) focused on
developing teachers by encouraging INSET activities among teachers as a mandatory
requirement. As a result, INSET activities, which usually appeared in the form of short workshops, have been organized annually during the summer time by the Department of
Education and Training of Vinh Phuc to EFL teachers in order to encourage them in their
classroom teaching improvement. The purpose of my thesis is then to investigate the
impact of summer in-service workshops on teacher change in their classrooms in Yen Lac
Secondary school (YLSS), in Vinh Phuc, with the focus on their opinions of the
effectiveness, the limitations and the practice of these short courses in their classrooms.

My interest is to explore the change of teachers of English as a Foreign Language
(EFL) which plays a significant role in the lives of teachers. I am also familiar with the
context and some of the factors that affect the INSET activities of these teachers. Such
factors include opportunities to engage in development events. I have worked for the
Education and Training Department of Vinh Phuc for seven years now and my role
involves organizing summer in-service workshops for English language teachers in Vinh
Phuc. Through the feedback gained on these workshops organized and through
personal interactions with teachers from local schools who were either participants or
presenters, I obtained useful feedback about these summer in-service workshops. To the
best of my knowledge there has been little research carried out or literature
produced on the summer in-service workshops of EFL teachers in secondary schools in
Vinh Phuc. As a result, there is minimal or no insight into the teaching practice in local

It would be too ambitious for this small-scale thesis to specify all aspects of in-
service teacher training activities. Therefore, the researcher would like to focus only on the
impact of summer in-service workshops on teachers‟ classroom teaching. The subjects of
the thesis are three EFL teachers of YLSS.

6. Methods of the study
With reference to the aims of the study, a semi-structured interview in the first
stage of the study was conducted. This was followed by classroom observations, which
were for the purpose to probe deeply into the impact of short in-service workshops on
teacher‟s classroom teaching. In the last place of the study, a post-observation interview
was made to find out the major barriers of the implementation of the training content.
These procedures were aimed at collecting rich data about views on the impact of the
summer in-service workshops on teachers‟ classroom practice through the teachers‟
opinions and their classroom teaching.

7. Significance of the study
Findings from this case study can provide teacher educators and administrators
useful information about the needed improvement on teacher in-service workshops. Such
improvement is to support teacher change better so that the quality of English language
teaching at the high school can be raised.

8. Design of the study
The research study is organized into three parts:

Part A - Introduction - provides basic information including the rationale, aims,
research questions, scope, methods, significance and the design of the study.


on teacher development. Towards the end of the chapter, it discusses the factors affecting
the actualization of INSET activities of EFL teachers. The chapter concludes with insight
into some recent researches on the impact of short training workshops on teacher change.

2. Teacher Training and Teacher Development
In the literature, terms such as teacher training, teacher development, teacher
education, and teacher preparation have been and often continue to be used
interchangeably. According to Freeman (1989), the term teacher education is preserved as
the superordinate or an umbrella term, whereas teacher training and teacher development
are used to describe the strategies by which teachers are educated. Thus, Freeman (1989)
defines training as

…a strategy for direct intervention by the collaborator, to work on specific aspects
of the teacher‟s teaching. The intervention is focused on specific outcomes that can
be achieved through a clear sequence of steps, commonly within a specified period
of time. The aspects of teaching that are seen as “trainable” are discrete chunks,
usually based on knowledge or skills, which can be isolated, practiced, and
ultimately mastered.” (p. 39)

Development, in contrast, is a strategy of influence and indirect intervention that
works on complex, integrated aspects of teaching. The purpose of development is “for the
teacher to generate change through increasing or shifting awareness” (Freeman, 1989, p.
40). As such, development is a far less predictable or directed strategy than training. It is highly
dependent on the individual teacher, the collaborator, and their interaction (p. 41).

According to these definitions, teacher training and teacher development are two
basic educating strategies that share the same purpose: achieving change in what the

work initiated by teacher

Criteria for assessing
change
External; accessible to the
collaborator
Internal; personal to teacher

Closure
Can be within a fixed time
period, once criteria are
satisfied
Is open-ended; work continues
until teacher decides to stop

For the purpose of this study, which looks at the impact of short summer
workshops on teachers‟ classroom teaching, the term „training‟ is used. This is because the
aims and objectives of these workshops are to provide teachers with new discrete teaching
skills and classroom techniques.

3. Continuing Professional Development and In-service Teacher Training
The term continuing professional development refers to all the activities in
which teachers engage during the course of a career which are designed to enhance their
work‟ (Day & Sachs, 2004, p.3). CPD is often described in the literature using terms such
as staff development, career development, human resource development, continuing
education and lifelong learning. The term is also widely used interchangeably with the
term in-service teacher training.

teachers‟ abilities and skills. But the existing problems, such as teachers‟ personal need,
inefficient training, and financial problems, prevent in-service teacher training from
functioning in improving the teachers‟ quality in the locality.

4. INSET activities and their impact on teacher development
The terms CPD and in-service teacher training (INSET) are sometimes
interchangeably used. INSET can be defined as all in-service teacher training activities that
professionally qualified teachers engage in to improve their professional knowledge,
skills and attitudes and to educate learners more effectively (Roberts, 1998). It
assumes that teachers engaging in INSET have acquired basic knowledge of teaching
and learned basic teaching skills in their initial teacher education (Eraut, 1994), and
that INSET activities can make teachers aware of the various options available that can
help improve their current practice (Richards & Nunan, 1990). INSET tends to be
interpreted as a range of time-bound (Day, 1999), structured, formal and top-down in-
service learning activities designed to bridge the gap between teachers‟ current level of
skills and knowledge and the level required by their role in the system (Roberts, 1998).
Often perceived as the quickest and most economic way of developing teachers on the job
(Gaunt, 1995), it thus incorporates elements of both training as well as development.
INSET activities may be accredited or non-accredited and can be distinguished from less
formal in-service training and development work that teachers also engage in (Day, 1999).
INSET, however, is perceived to include both formal structured opportunities, such
as INSET activities that may be required by external agencies (such as schools where
teachers are employed) and are facilitated by others (such as INSET providers)
(Evans, 2002), and less formal opportunities which may be initiated by individuals or groups of teachers employed within the same schools or groups of schools. Such less
formal activities can be ongoing and self-initiated and effected. Irrespective of whether the
process is training dominated or not, INSET is likely to improve teachers‟ knowledge,
skills and practice and as a result enhance their professional status by moving teachers

with its support and recognition (Mann, 2005).

5.2 School/local education authorities’ expectations
Teachers today, as Craft (2000) highlights, are under immense pressure to
undertake specific development courses for improved quality teaching. INSET thus
bears significance not only for the teachers involved but also for the learners, the schools
and subsequently for the society at large. The greatest impact on choice of INSET is
perhaps the school where teachers are employed. They must necessarily adhere to the
school‟s requirements and policies in terms of teacher development. This is most evident in
schools where teachers are expected to engage in specific types of INSET in order to fulfill
school goals which ultimately result in realization of educational goals that are part
of the government‟s policies towards national development. This appears essential in
view of the fact that recently Vietnam has been engaged in a whole-scale review of the
educational system in the country. To meet the challenges of rapid change, education
authorities in Vietnam has gradually recognized of the importance of INSET through
teacher education, teacher support and development structures in universities, schools and
vocational training institutions.

5.3 Contextual and cultural factors
As teaching is a situated and social activity, the impact of INSET activities on
teachers‟ actual practices is understandably affected by socio-cultural factors. These
factors include collegial support and cooperation, teachers‟ motivation and knowledge, the
curriculum requirements, the students‟ expectations, the school leadership, and the wider
social context. Therefore, an investigation of the impact of the summer in-service
workshops on teachers‟ classroom teaching can not be separated from the social context in
which teaching occurs.
To summarize, the way INSET is actualised or pursued and the choices made
available or opted for are affected by expectations and requirements of public, schools and
the local education authorities‟ requirements. It is also affected by the aspirations of
individual teachers, their contextual requirements, the opportunities made available in that

comparing INSET course content with later classroom practice. In Vietnam, Lewis and
McCook (2002) examined the views of 14 Vietnamese high school teachers of English, as
expressed in their journal entries during on-going INSET workshops conducted by the
researchers themselves. The results showed that teachers were applying what they had been introduced to during the course. However, these were reported by the teachers
themselves and no observational data were provided to justify what the stated.

For many years in Vietnam and in many other developing countries, in-service
training workshops or short-term courses that would offer teachers new information on a
particular aspect of their work. Particularly in the context of Vietnamese secondary
schools, this has been the only type of training teachers would receive.

7. Summary
This chapter reviews the literature on teacher development with an emphasis on
summer in-service workshops. Factors affecting the effectiveness of those workshops have
also been reviewed. The next chapter presents the study.

have participated in these in-service teacher training workshops run by university lecturers
or key teachers.

Participants in my study consist of three English-language teachers at YLSS. They
are thus full time teachers, a male and two female teachers with a minimum of three
years‟ experience of teaching English. Two of them graduated from University of
Languages and International Studies - VNU Hanoi, while the other teacher graduated from
the local Teacher Training College, Phu Tho. One of the reasons for including such a
selection of teachers is to be able to generate a broad range of opinions, insights and
experiences of EFL teachers about summer in-service workshops. The choice will thus
ensure that participants in my study are teachers with sufficient experience in both
TEFL and in INSET.
Summary of participant selection as it occurred in my study

Research
tools
Context
Selection criteria
Participants
Semi-
structured
interview
Three
EFL
teachers
of YLSS
(a) EFL teachers with more than three years

One male and
two female
EFL teachers
Table 2.1: Summary of participant selection as it occurred in my study.

Interview participant details
Interviewee code
Gender
School
Years of teaching
Teacher A
Female
YLSS
3
Teacher B
Female
YLSS
14
Teacher C
Male
YLSS
14
Table 2.2: Summary of interview participant details.

3. Research methods
As I have argued earlier, teaching is social, and the study of the impact of the
summer in-service workshops on teachers‟ teaching should be conducted in one particular
context. This is the rationale for my choice of a qualitative case study design for this study.
In order to achieve the aims and objectives of the study, three instruments were
used to collect the data: semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and post-


A week ahead of their scheduled interviews, I e-mailed interviewees asking
them to reflect on the above mentioned aspects so that they would be mentally prepared to
focus on the subject of enquiry. It also put them at ease, saved time that would otherwise be spent in explaining the questions asked and proved useful in retaining focus during the
interview. The interview schedule was designed to last about an hour bearing in mind
that anything less than half an hour was unlikely to be valuable and more than an hour
would be making unreasonable demands and could result in fewer persons willing to
participate (Robson, 2002).

 Time and venue of the interview
A quiet and large classroom was chosen and considered to be a convenient place
for conducting the interview, where privacy and confidentiality were assured. The duration
of the interviews lasted for about 60 minutes. It seemed suitable for the interviewer to raise
the major issues and the interviewee could feel free to elaborate and explain wherever they
considered necessary.

 Procedures of the interview
In order to enhance the internal validity of the study, the process of the interview
was followed by the sequence of interview questions. Firstly, the purpose of the interview
was clearly stated and some warm up questions were asked to let the interviewer and
interviewee to be ready. It was followed by some thematic questions as the major part of
the interview. Lastly, certain cool-off questions were asked to lower the tension established
in the major part of the interview and the whole process was ended by expressing the
gratitude to the interviewee. In certain case that the interviewer was not clear about the
interviewees‟ interpretation during the process of data analysis, clarification was done after
a reasonable period of time.


analysis may be quite different according to the nature of these data. For the data collected
in the semi-structured interview, which is relatively qualitative in nature, was then coded
so that readers could easily observe the general picture of EFL teachers‟ opinions of the
impact of summer in-service workshops on their teaching in the case school. Analysis and
interpretation were totally based on what the data told so that it revealed the native
perspective of the informants. All data collected in the study were examined and coded so
that I could identify themes and patterns that helped to answer my research questions.
Based on the findings of this study, I discussed and tried to suggest some measures to be
adopted by the Department of Education and Training of Vinh Phuc, schools and
individual teachers in the planning of the future teacher in-service workshops.
4.2 Findings:
As mentioned above, methods of data collection of this research include the semi-
structured interview, the classroom observation and post-observation interview. For the
qualitative data collected from the semi-structured interview, explanations and discussions
generated from the views and opinions of the informants will be illustrated and supported
with appropriate quotations. With deeper understandings about the teachers‟ application of
summer in-service training workshops in their classrooms, it helps to draw conclusions and
make further suggestions for the educators in planning and policy-making processes of
INSET activities.

4.2.1 Teachers’ opinions of the impact of the summer in-service workshops on
their teaching
The aims of organizing summer in-service workshops to encouraged teachers of
English to overcome what has traditionally been the method of teaching and learning
English. In this tradition teachers were the bearers and deliverers of knowledge and
students were the passive learners. It was a teacher-dominated approach to teaching and
learning. Given this, the new teaching methods demanded a more student-centred teaching

We have become equipped with more interactive ways on how to teach English
We have to make lessons more interesting so students become more active and
motivated to participate in the class activities.

Teachers in the study also noted that the training workshops offered numerous
strategies and techniques to help students who had very limited use and understanding of
English
I select those appropriate to our learning context, for example,
to encourage students to speak, I use the throw and catch method
using a ball or piece of paper…It is not so expensive and difficult
to practice in my classroom (Teacher A, the youngest teacher says)

Overall, teachers thought that summer in-service workshops encouraged them to
look at interactive approaches for engaging student learning.

Effectiveness of Trainer Teaching Strategies and Classroom Techniques
Teachers in the study felt that the trainers and their teaching methods in the
training workshops were the also contributing factors in ensuring the success of the
programme. They found the trainers to be very helpful and forthcoming in their way of