Effectiveness of Formal Professional Development Activities in Vietnam: What Affects EFL Lecturers’ Perceptions

Abstract

In the era of constant innovation in English language education, teacher professional development (PD) is of critical importance as it possibly contributes to changes in teachers’ attitudes and practices as well as changes in teaching and learning outcomes. Given this perspective, a vast number of teacher PD activities have been provided by administrative levels in Vietnam with a hope that teachers’ capacities will be enhanced for better teaching and learning. However, how effective these formal teacher PD activities are might be perceived differently by the stakeholders. The present study aims to investigate how EFL lecturers perceive the effectiveness of the formal PD activities provided for them and the reasons for their perceptions. The study employed the qualitative approach in which the data were collected via interviews with fourteen teachers from different universities. The findings showed that the provided PD activities were effective to a certain extent as perceived by the participant EFL lecturers. Their perceptions were affected by the elements of PD activities, the coherence between specific elements of PD activities and lecturers’ personal context or social context. The research findings possibly inform EFL lecturers, institution managers and PD organizers in Vietnam and comparable contexts about how to maximize the effectiveness of formal teacher PD activities.