Exploring Beginning Teachers’ Engagement in Webinars for Professional Development

Beginning teachers face substantial hurdles while transitioning from pre-service to professional teaching. They need support to grow and stay in the profession. The focus of this study was the usefulness of webinars as a tool for beginning teachers’ continuing professional development. This study used a mixed-method research design, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, to thoroughly understand beginning teachers’ participation in webinars for professional development. An online survey was conducted to determine teachers’ thoughts on webinar quality, engagement, and challenges. There were 1380 beginning teachers who completed the survey. Additionally, a semi-structured interview technique was used to gain further information from 30 selected teachers about their webinar engagement. The survey results were analyzed quantitatively using simple percentages and the qualitative data were subjected to thematic analysis. It was found that the webinar is a valuable tool in providing targeted professional development opportunities for beginning teachers, offering expert knowledge, practical strategies, and a platform for networking. Through their participation in webinars, beginning teachers have improved their teaching and classroom management skills, making them confident to teach their students. Nevertheless, obstacles such as technical problems, the need to multitask, and the lack of interaction during online sessions were identified as challenges in their complete participation. Institutions can consider adding interactive aspects to webinars and offer dependable technology assistance to maximize participation. Furthermore, providing asynchronous options can aid in meeting the varied schedules of beginning teachers, allowing them to pursue continuing professional development.