A case study of professional development programs: Perspective and practices of Bhutanese ESL teachers and preservice teachers

Quite recently, the Ministry of Education, in Bhutan has introduced several steps to enhance teachers’ knowledge and competency through intensive and extensive professional development programs. Such programs are aimed at curbing the deteriorating quality of education in the nation. Although teachers are trained through various programmes, no empirical study has been done so far to provide information on how teachers perceive these programs. Therefore, this paper highlights Bhutanese teachers’ practices of professional development programs and how they perceive these practices. The findings of the study were collected through a semi-structured interview with three inservice ESL teachers and two pre-service ESL teachers. The study revealed that the teachers in Bhutan experience professional development programs at various levels- national, district and school. All these programs benefitted teachers since the content of the programs aligned with teachers’ classroom practices. These programs benefitted teachers in teaching effectively to better their students’ learning outcomes. However, effective implementation of the Professional Development (PD) programs is determined by teachers’ willingness to implement and process the change. Also, to have an effective implementation of programs there is a need of a policy that mandates teachers’ active participation and implementation of the program, and leaders’ support and guidance.