Barriers to Participation in Professional Development

Abstract

The chapter is dedicated to the first research question of the systematic literature review: What are teachers’ self-reported reasons for choosing and participating in a (certain) PD program? Based on the quantitative data in the included studies, teachers’ reasons to participate in PD workshops are systemized and their relevance evaluated by summarizing the reported means and (relative) frequencies. The overview is supplemented with results from qualitative studies. The reasons teachers rate as most relevant for their PD attendance are: receiving easy implementable materials and teaching strategies, inspirations for teaching, refreshing or extending (pedagogical) content knowledge and knowledge about new standards or changes, exchanging and networking with colleagues, and reflection of one’s own teaching. The results also reflect the importance of organizational characteristics of PD workshops, such as time and location, as well as opportunities for active learning during the course. The results are systemized along the categories characteristics of PD program and characteristics of teacher. There were no studies identifying reasons for teachers’ PD participation that can be categorized as context conditions.