Teacher Perception and School Characteristics Factors that Affect Teacher Professional Development Efforts: Focusing on the Jeonnam Education Longitudinal Study

The purpose of this study is to identify factors related to teachers and schools that influence the professional development efforts of middle and high school teachers working in the Jeonnam region. There are two research problems. First, what are the self-perception factors(teaching satisfaction, teacher efficacy) and environmental perception factors(student learning attitudes, fellow teachers, school atmosphere, principal leadership) that affect teachers’ professional development efforts? Second, what are the school characteristic factors(school level, small school, local government education support project implementation, parental involvement in school education) that affect teachers’ professional development efforts? To solve the research questions, data from 1,055 teachers who participated in the 6th Jeonnam Education Longitudinal Study(JELS) were analyzed using SPSS 25.0. The data analysis method was hierarchical regression analysis. The main research results are as follows. First, teacher efficacy and peer teacher recognition were identified as an important factors that positively affected teachers’ professional development efforts, and positive perception of the school atmosphere was found to hinder teachers’ professional development efforts. Second, the school level(middle and high school) had a significant effect on teachers' participation time in job training, but the relationship with the number of teacher collaboration activities was not significant. Third, the school characteristics factor did not have a significant effect on the number of teacher collaboration activities. Based on these results, the researchers suggested the necessity of a policy to enhance teacher professionalism in consideration of the educational specificity of Jeonnam region, and suggested a policy plan that comprehensively reflects school level, individual teacher factors, and regional characteristics. This study is expected to be used as useful basic data for establishing policies for qualitative development of Jeonnam education and improvement of teacher professionalism.