The Islamic University- Gaza Deanery of Higher Education Faculty of ...

2.4 Goals of INSETFor many years, teachers and educators have counted on using training courses to improvetheir skills, meet certification requirements, attain salary increase and other several purposes.Recently, more focus and appreciation are given to INSET activities since their impact is notlimited to individual levels, but also extends to involve overall school development andstudents achievement (Abdal-Haqq, 1996).Several goal statements are proposed by many specialists. Below some of them are listedbriefly:Marsh (1987, p.56) outlines two main reasons for taking INSET courses as:1. Personal reasons, guided by a need to recharge batteries, to have a break, or a neededchange after so many years of teaching;2. Professional reasons, aiming for keeping up-to-date, with new developments and newroles.More recently, Ozer (2004, p.96) declares that teachers need INSET activities to fulfill thefollowing purposes:1. Enriching their views and understanding on general education;2. Renewing and refreshing their knowledge in their specific teaching fields;3. Increasing their professional respect and satisfaction;4. Improving their knowledge and skills in methodology.Besides, Yigit (2008, p.70) shows that INSET can help teachers to:1. Reflect on their own performance;2. Anticipate and prepare for change;3. Improve their job-performance skills.In the same way, Ulker & Tas (2009, p.275) summarize the main objectives of INSET asfollows:22