The Influences of Administration System and Policies to Development of School-Based Teacher Development Programs in Sri Lanka

Dr. Senevirathna Bandara

Abstract: There is a strong relationship between teachers teaching quality and students learning outcomes. In this context, School-Based Teacher Professional Development is a very important concept, because it allows teachers to plan, organise and implement their own professional development programs. However, this concept has not been extensively developed in the Sri Lankan education context. In Sri Lankan secondary school context, several factors are affected to development of School-Based Teacher Professional Development programs. This study examines the influences of Administration system to development of School-Based Teacher Development programs in Sri Lanka. Simultaneously, the situation of the Non-School-Based Teacher Development programs are also examined because these are currently prominent and this study assumed that both programs need to be integrated in order to provide balanced teacher professional development. The qualitative research approach and the case-study method has been employed. The data were collected by conducting interviews, non-participative observation and sample-based documentary searching. According to the findings, strong recommendations were proposed and relevant guidelines were suggested for future researches.

Keywords: Teacher Professional Development, school context