A latent variable analysis of continuing professional development constructs using PLS-SEM modeling

Abstract

Continuing Professional Development (CPD), in the area of teacher education, refers to the procedures, programs or strategies that help teachers encounter the challenges of their work and accomplish their own and their learning center’s goals. To this aim, the purpose of this study is to propose and validate an appropriate model of EFL teachers’ CPD programs, and more specifically to examine the latent variables of the model to illustrate how and to what extent constructs of CPD explain and interact with each other. A total of 151 Iranian EFL teachers were asked to participate in this survey. The statistical analyses validated a 20-item CPD questionnaire used for measuring teachers’ practices of CPD programs and explicitly specified that the three latent variables “Updating, Collaborating, and Reflecting” moderately explain 67.7% of the variance in “Decision-making” construct of CPD. Moreover, the study’s inner model explained that “Updating” construct has a big significant effect on “Reflecting” construct. Accordingly, “Reflecting” and “Updating” variables were shown to have a strong impact on “Collaborating” variable. Our study’s outcome highlights the need to take into account different constructs in planning and implementing CPD programs, including not only programs relating to reflecting teaching but also those strategies that assist teachers to cooperate with each other, keep themselves up to date and more importantly, help them to be better decision-makers.

Keywords

• continuing professional development
• efl teachers
• cpd model
• structural equation modeling (sem)
• pls-sem