An Analysis of a Teachers’ Problem-solving Enhancement Programme Comparing Novice and Expert Teachers’ Experiences

This paper examines the results of a comparative study of teachers’ experiences and opinions of problem solving thinking techniques examined in a newly developed training programme: Training Programme for Teachers’ Professional Development on Problem Solving. The main aim of this Programme is to help teachers become adaptive problem solvers in classroom situations. The development process took place at the Eszterházy Károly University (Hungary) between 201 4– 2017 during design-based research. The final evaluation of the Programme involved ten one-day seminars with a total of 159 teachers. The measuring method evaluation was a questionnaire containing scaled, select one from a choice of answers and open-ended questions. The evaluation phase was suitable for mapping the participants’ satisfactions and attitudes towards the structure, content and usefulness of the Training Programme. The sample was divided into five additional sub-samples based on participants’ teaching experience for the purpose of a comparative study. The analysis of the variables in the sub-sample has demonstrated that the education programme has been found to be effective for all stages of teachers’ career. In addition, the summative investigation as well as the extended earlier research supported the differences of novice and expert teachers’ problem solving thinking.