Journal of Educational Sciences > Volume 27, No. 2, 2015

Comparing Science Teachers' Professional Development in Riyadh with United States' Science Teachers' Professional Development Standards / Iman O. AlAbdulkarim, Nidal S. Alahmad

The Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia organizes a variety of programs and workshops for the professional development of science teachers. This study aims to compare science teachers' professional development in Riyadh with United States' science teachers' professional development standards, and to determine under which of these standard(s) the programs are classified. The sample comprised of 63 female science teachers from Riyadh who answered the questionnaire that was prepared by the researcher. Validity of the tool was verified by a group of experts in the field, and reliability was measured by Alpha Cronbach coefficient = 0.907 which was relatively high. The results show that most of the programs and workshops for the professional development of science teachers were focused on educational and teaching skills. However, very few programs helped teachers acquire strong science knowledge or to promote lifelong learning.
Keywords: In-service training, science education.