Teacher Professional Development Program: a case study on Appreciative Teacher Professional Development (ATPD) at Adventist Ekamai School (AES), Bangkok

Abstract

This research aims to examine the applicability of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and Whole Brain Literacy (WBL) concepts into designing an effective Teacher Professional Development/Transformation program. The study was conducted on Adventist Ekamai School (AES), a small private Christian school with the main objective to help AES develop/transform its teachers and increase their levels of Teacher Efficacy and Pedagogical Content Knowledge. An Action Research was employed in this study covering a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was used for data collection, analysis, and interpretation. The subject of the study involved 36 teachers and 219 students at AES. The research findings indicated that, after ODI Implementation, AES teachers became more aware of the significance of Teacher Efficacy, Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Student Engagement towards their teaching role and various stakeholders of the school. They also voluntarily performed behavioral changes necessary for achieving the new set of shared goals that they collectively formulated during the ODI Implementation stage. In conclusion, the action research served as a tool that drives AES towards the first step towards transformational change. However, a long term commitment from the school management team would be vital in determining the success of this transformational process and goals achievement. Future studies may employ different activities such as ODI that are suitable in different contexts to test the applicability and extend the validity of the models developed from this study.