Investigation of Turkey and Singapore Schools in Terms of Teacher Professional Development and Teacher Behaviors Hindering Learning Variables

Abstract

This study compares Turkey and Singapore in terms of teachers’ professional development and teacher behaviors that inhibit student learning by using PISA 2015 data. Relational survey method was used during the research design. In the PISA study, school sampling is determined by stratified random sampling method. The study was implemented on data collected from a total of 364 schools, 187 from Turkey and 177 from Singapore that participated in PISA 2015. In order to compare the two countries, t-test for independent groups was used when independent variable was continuous and chi-square test was used when the independent variable was categorical. The chi-square test was used to determine the differences between categorical data and survey results. Logistic regression analysis was used to find the significance level of the variables in the study according to the classification of the schools. The study results display noteworthy differences between the two countries in terms of variables that have been addressed. The proportion of the teachers participating in professional development program shows a significant difference according to the countries. The proportion of teachers participating in the program of professional development in Singapore is higher than in Turkey. The effect size obtained from the test result shows that this difference is very large. There was a significant difference between countries in all the responses given to the four items related to teachers’ professional development. The examination of Phi coefficients shows that the effect size is the highest in the " “organization of in-service workshops which deal with specific issues that school faces". The variable contributing most to the model is "Our school organizes in-service workshops which deal with specific issues that our school faces". This variable is followed by "Our school organizes in-service workshops for specific groups of teachers (e.g. newly appointed teachers)", "Teacher absenteeism", "The percentage of teaching staff who has attended a program of professional development during the last three months" and "Teachers being too strict with students", respectively. The correct classification ratios of the observations are 91.4% in total. As a result, an important determinant of success between the two countries is related to meeting the needs for school-based professional development. Another important variable, according to the function that classifies between the two countries in a similar way, is organizing workshops for teachers who have special needs. Both variants emphasize the importance of school-based professional development. Teacher absenteeism and the strictness of teachers to students were found to be the determining variables in discriminating between the two countries' schools. However, the contribution of these variables to the function comes after the variables of professional development. Nevertheless, as teacher behaviors that prevent student learning can be reduced by providing teacher professional development, the most important result of the research is the necessity of ensuring school-based professional development.