Identifying needs for pedagogical change online survey analysis

Abstract

The aim of designing and creating a multilingual (EN, HU, DE and NL) teacher/trainer questionnaire for an online survey of the teachers/trainers working in the four participating VET schools is to identify their professional training needs for pedagogical change. The objective of this online survey is, hence, to identify needs for pedagogical, methodological improvement, teachers/trainers’ familiarity with learner-centred, active, digital and other 21st century teaching methods, and their current engagement in teacher collaboration activities. The intention is to then use this information to develop the topics of the e-learning modules of the project. The online survey, which was developed using Google Forms, consisted of four main sections. Section A targeted teachers’ background information and teaching practices, and the questions were of a multiple-choice type. Questions focused on age, role, qualifications, subjects that teachers currently teach, teaching and industry experience, and teaching practices. Section B, which dealt with teachers’ professional development (PD) and training needs, consisted of an open-ended question followed by a multiple-choice grid to identify reasons for engaging in professional development. Section C centred on teachers’ PD opportunities and included a mixture of open-ended and closed questions. In this section, teachers were asked about their positive PD experiences, the importance of PD in a teacher’s career, the ways in which teachers engage in PD, the barriers to PD and about how PD is and/or should be initiated. In the final part, Section D, teachers were asked about digital tools and applications in their everyday practices. Questions, which were all of the multiple-choice type, focused on the frequency of using digital contents and open educational resources for teaching, the frequency of creating and/or editing digital content, the use of online and offline applications for creating or sharing digital contents for communication and collaboration, their perceived level of digital competence, and whether they would be interested to participate in an online course for VET teachers on lesson study, active learning methods and digital education. Questionnaire data was collected over a period of three weeks - from the last week of March to the end of the second week in April 2021.