Abstract:

This study investigates perceptions of state and private school EFL teachers towards professional development. It focuses on interpreting the concept of professional development, putting emphasis on different perceptions of teachers working in different types of schools as well as gender and age factors in order to shed light on the current issues of teacher development. 45 state and 45 private school EFL teachers were involved in data collection procedure. A 16-item Likert questionnaire was administered and outcomes were interpreted statistically.  Results of the study indicate that all teachers involved in the study perceived professional development topics very positively especially towards life-long and ongoing professional development and belief in themselves and their profession. When private and state school teachers are compared, private school EFL teachers are more concerned about some principles of professional development in teaching than state school EFL teachers. Gender has an effect to some extend on teachers’ perceptions of professional development in favour of female EFL teachers whereas age is not a decisive factor on their perceptions.  

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