Did They Transform Their Teaching Practices? A Case Study on Evaluating Professional Development Webinars Offered to Language Teachers during COVID-19

Abstract

Professional development webinars became very common in higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following a case-study research methodology, this study explored the potential of professional development webinars offered to university language teachers in transforming their online pedagogies. A focus group discussion with four university language teachers was conducted. They attended several professional development webinars during the pandemic on online pedagogy, teaching platforms and course management systems, online assessment and research skills. Using transformative learning theory as a theoretical lens for data analysis, the results revealed that webinars enabled teachers to resolve some misconceptions about online teaching and learning, enhanced their critical reflection on their online teaching practices and formed some new practices of online pedagogy. The study provided some implications for higher education to enhance professional development webinars.