Why centralize teacher professional development? Limitations of centralized teacher professional development based on a review of TALIS 2013 results of South Korea

Abstract

It is well known that teachers are the core for improving quality of education, and many countries and international organizations are emphasizing teacher profession development. Teacher professional development has positive influence on students academic achievement, school effectiveness, and hence many countries are implementing policies to promote teacher quality. On the one hand, centralized teacher professional development, because it is direct, relative to educational policy at central level, and sometimes obligated, could contribute to effective teacher development. On the other hand3B however, because centralized system neglects what teachers want and need at the school level, centralized teachers professional development has limitations. The purpose of this study is to identify the limitations of centralized teacher professional development through an analysis of OECD TALIS 2013 results of South Korea. While South Korea is known for strong teaching force, it is also identified to have a centralized teacher professional development system, and this may be deduced to centralized teacher professional development could result in strong teaching force. However, the analytical review of TALIS 2013 results show that while Korean teachers participation in various professional development activities is high, their perceptions on the activities are negative (i.e., perceive as administrative tasks and very little impact on improving teaching and learning). In addition, Korean teachers self-efficacy was found the lowest among the TALIS participating countries, which could be an indication that professional development is not functioning. Based on the findings, this study suggests first, governments need to re-think their top-down teacher professional development policies3B second, teachers need to be more active in their professional development, meaning that teachers need to perceive professional development as their right not as obligation3B and finally, a balanced approach is needed, that is a centralized and ...