Novice teachers' perceptions of an in-service teacher training course at Anadolu University

This study explored novice teachers’ perceptions of a 10-week INSET program implemented at Anadolu University School of Foreign Languages in the 2002-2003 academic year. Seventeen novice teachers in the Anadolu University School of Foreign Languages participated in this study. The research questions posed for this study investigated to what extent novice teachers perceived the INSET courses as valuable and in what areas of teaching novice teachers perceived INSET courses as valuable for their teaching practices. Two data collection instruments were employed in this study. First, a survey was completed at the end of each workshop. Second, semi-structured interviews with five randomly chosen participants were conducted three months after the courses. Results indicated that participants’ perceptions of INSET workshops were generally positive. Participants regarded the workshops on classroom management, testing speaking, and teaching and testing grammar as the most valuable for their actual teaching. Participants regarded the workshops on teaching reading and vocabulary and materials development as the least valuable. Participants reported that the areas they reflected the knowledge they gained from the workshops were classroom management, teaching grammar, and testing speaking. The results suggest that participants would like more participation in the workshops. They also need to gain local knowledge because of their lack of contextual knowledge in such areas as classroom management, textbook use, and testing. The INSET program should be continued, but redesigned to provide more contextualization of knowledge and with increasing participation by trainees in later sessions as they gain more experience.