PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS: ASSOCIATING THINKING STYLE PROFILES AND INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES

Abstract

Purpose of the study: The study aimed to find the association between teachers' thinking style profile types (TSPT-I, II, and III) instructional practices (IPs) at the secondary school level in Pakistan. Methodology: The sample of the study was 550 teachers in public sector schools of district Sialkot. Thinking style inventory (TSI-RII) based on a 7-point Likert type scale was used to collect data for the identification of (TS). Frequency distribution and Pearson chi-square were used to analyze the data. Main Findings: The results revealed that the teachers in (TSPT-I) preferred using Concept Accomplishment, Simulations, cooperative Learning, Homework, and Reinforcement, whereas teachers in (TSPT-II)Rich Vocabulary, Lecturing, Daily Assessment, Concept Accomplishment, and teachers in(TSPT-III)Cooperative Learning, Rich Vocabulary, Reinforcement, Simulations, and Daily Assessment as a set of (IPs). Application of the study: This study may help the teacher trainers and school principals to understand the thinking styles of the teachers and their preferences for the certain set of instructional practices to focus the preferences of the teachers according to their thinking style profiles to save time and money. Novelty/Originality of this study: Teacher training programs are conducted on the assumption that all the teachers can be trained uniformly regardless of their preferences for instructional practices. But this study has shown the association between thinking style profiles and set of instructional practices and secondary school level.