Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Education (MEd)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Dr. Ali S Ibrahim

Second Advisor

Dr. Ali S Al Kabi

Third Advisor

Dr. Muhammed Al Husni

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the attitudes of the Abu Dhabi Tawteen Council (ADTC) employees towards the professional development programs provided to them by ADTC. The study was guided by three research questions and used the quantitative method. Data for this study were collected through a questionnaire. The questionnaire were divided into cover four topics which are: attitudes toward the importance of professional development, attitudes towards the planning of professional development, and attitudes toward the types and ways of professional development. In addition, there were two open ended questions. The one hundred and forty employees of ADTC was the population and the sample at the same time at this study, and the response rate was 96.4%. This means, cumulative means, standard deviations, T-Test and ANOVA were used to analyze the data and answer research questions. The results of the study showed that ADTC employees have high agreement on the importance of professional development and they have positive attitudes toward professional development provided by ADTC with less agreement on the ways of assessing training needs and designing professional development plans. The study found significant differences between different groups according to the variable of gender, years of experience, academic qualifications, sectors and position which should be taken in consideration when designing professional development plans. Most of the employees who responded to the open-ended questions clarified that professional development provided by ADTC was beneficial to them and they gave many suggestions to improve to improve the professional development such as involving them in when designing the plan. The study recommended taking employees suggestions when designing professional development plans into consideration and conducting other studies to deeply understand this topic.

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