International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
memory such as mathematics and science may be better to run in the morning (Brewer, and Campbell, 1991)
while learning activities involving long-term memory such as art, problem solving techniques and hands-on
activities may be better to run in the afternoon (Brewer, and Campbell, 1991) and (Stanciu, 2007).
Finally, the scheduling of professional learning should be considered. For example, in a study conducted by
Karagiorgi and Symeou (2007), the results showed that the majority of Cypriot teachers prefer to involve in their
in-service training activity during working days followed by holidays and weekends respectively.
Methods
The research reviews data from a relevant sample (N=62) of physics teachers at secondary and intermediate
boy schools in the city of Onaizah, Saudi Arabia.
Written survey research was used in the study to determine Teachers’ experiences of the effectiveness of their
in-service professional learning activities.
As well as open-ended questions, closed questions have been used so that teachers respond through the
indication of the extent to which they agreed with specific statements on a Likert-type scale (from 1 to 5, with 1
indicating strong agreement and 5 strong disagreements).
Findings
Teachers who responded to this survey were asked to identify their personal opinions on the most helpful
duration, period and scheduling of their in-service professional learning. The results derived from the statistical
analysis of teachers’ responses to the questionnaires as following:
For the duration of physics teachers’ professional learning activities, descriptive analysis indicated that the
more than half (51.6%) of participants preferred 1-4 days duration, followed by 1-4 hours (24.2%), 1-4 weeks
(16.1%), while five teachers preferred other duration (8.1%).
Furthermore, frequency analysis for the period of professional learning activities for physics teachers
indicated that the majority (88.7%) of participants preferred morning courses, followed by afternoon courses
(6.5%), evening courses (3.2%), while only one teacher preferred other period courses (1.6%).
Regarding to the scheduling of physics teachers’ professional learning activities, descriptive analysis
indicated that approximately half of teachers (46.77%) preferred their activities to be run at the beginning of
semester, followed by the end of semester (22.58%), summer holiday (20.97%), while few teachers preferred to
be trained at the middle of semester (9.68%).
Discussion
The teachers preference (51.6%) recorded regarding to the 1-4 days duration, is not surprising due to the
advantages of such intensive courses compared with traditional courses. This has been supported by some
researchers such as Logan and Geltner (2000), Austin, and Gustafson (2006) and Shaw, Porter and ten Brinke,
(2011).
As a result, physics teachers are more likely to learn professionally when they involve in short duration such
as 1-4 days.
Furthermore, the preference found the majority (88.7%) regarding to the morning courses is an expected
result due to the advantages of this period. Such finding supports the notion that short-term memory is better in
the morning, while long-term memory is better in the afternoon (Jensen, 2000).
Consequently, by the run of training activities in the morning period, physics teachers are more likely to
improve their teaching skills effectively.
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