Teachers' perceptions of professional development: a case study of two schools in Macau

The purpose of the dissertation aims at revealing teachers’ perception of professional development.
As the society changes, lifelong education have been highly emphasized around the world. There are changing times in education system globally. To meet those demands, teachers need to adopt a new culture of learning in order to satisfy the needs of professional developments and the social demands.
A qualitative approach was adopted to describe and explain teachers’ perceptions. The data collected were based on semi-structured interviews with teachers from two schools in Macau.
Findings indicated that teachers participated in wide ranges of professional development activities, which are organized in the top-down approach. Teacher perceived positively that continuing professional development was an ongoing process, aiming at student improvement. Moreover, Teachers should be granted with autonomy and empowerment in continuing professional development for their involvement contributes to school development and their self-actualization professionally.