The Current Status of In-Service Trainings for Teachers and Expectations: Do They Match?

Taking into consideration the INSETs' direct influence on teachers' professional development and indirect influence on the education, the present study aims to find out teachers' views about in -service training activities and their proposed solutions to improve the effectiveness of the in-service training activities through the semi- structured and in-depth interviews. Moreover, the latest statistics of in-service trainings in Turkey was examined with holistic and critical approach. 59 teachers from three different types of school (primary, secondary, junior high school) in Turkey participated in the study. Data were collected through a semi-structured interview, and analyzed through content analysis by searching for patterns and synthesizing them. NVivo 8 was used to code the transcriptions and to derive broader themes shaped around core meanings and then to group together (Miles & Huberman, 1994). While the most useful aspects of in-service training programs are found as professional development, meeting new people and professional development, weaknesses of in-service training programs are poor planning, lack of qualified trainers and lack of practical implications according to teacher opinions. Teachers suggested that employing expert trainers, effective planning and more interactive contents are crucial for an ideal INSET activity. The study concludes with possible reasons for the problems in concern, and practical implications.