Continuing Education for Teachers: Characteristics of the Ideal Course

Abstract

This study arises from a reflection on the need for teachers at all educational levels to continue their ongoing training throughout their teaching careers. Initial training is a starting point that must be complemented and updated through experience and training, whether informal, formal, or non-formal. The aim is to analyze what an ideal continuing education course would look like, from the perspective of teaching assistants. To this end, the opinions of 454 teachers from different educational levels were collected through a custom-designed questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, using absolute frequencies, relative frequencies, and cumulative relative frequencies, and nonparametric statistics, specifically the Kruskal-Wallis and Dwass-Steel-Critchlow-Fligner tests, were used for pairwise comparisons, accompanied by effect sizes. The results indicate that the ideal continuing education course for teachers would be a distance learning course, approximately one month in length, with the possibility of some voluntary, complementary synchronous sessions and direct email contact with the teaching staff. Additionally, it would include practical activities distributed throughout the course, offering feedback on the activities, as well as various customization options, such as completing assignments individually or in groups. It would also include a forum for teachers to resolve any questions. Apart from that, younger teachers emphasize the importance of courses serving as opportunities to earn points for competitive examinations, and all teachers generally value the fact that courses can be subsidized. The subject matter is the main reason for choosing a course, although the institution organizing it or the individuals who teach it are also important. In short, although training courses have been gradually updated, they still have areas for improvement that could make them more attractive and accessible to all teachers. In this regard, incorporating their perspective is essential. Expanding the sample size of this study would allow for the establishment of specific action plans to implement significant changes in the much-needed ongoing professional development of teachers.