Peer Coaching in the Kingdom of Bahrain: Exploring the Implementation of a Professional Development Programme for Primary Teachers

Abstract Education plays a crucial role in the Kingdom of Bahrain’s “Economic Vision 2030”, and the country is now working to reform its education system to meet the economic and social challenges of the 21st century. Currently the country is focusing on improving schools’ performance and enhancing their quality to keep pace with the educational reform plan. International research has demonstrated that teachers’ continuous professional development (PD) is one of the fundamental strategies that improves educational quality. Although the Bahraini Ministry of Education has encouraged teachers to adopt peer observation as a tool for PD, a number of obstacles have emerged over time. Following a mixed methods approach, this thesis describes the design and implementation and piloting of a tailor made peer coaching programme which involved 24 teachers in seven state primary schools. Questionnaires were administered to 14 senior teachers and 50 Grade Two teachers of the First Cycle of Basic Education, along with observation sheets and reflective journals. In-depth interviews were also conducted with 11 of the participating teachers. This study reveals that such a peer coaching programme is an effective form of PD because the teachers took ownership of the approach in meeting their professional needs. This enabled them to apply strategies imposed by the Ministry of Education, thereby aiding the implementation of educational changes as required. More broadly, this research demonstrates that if teachers are involved in their professional development provision their motivation is enhanced. A refined version of Wagner and French’s model (Motivation, work satisfaction, and change in practice, 2010) is presented to illustrate this effect.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of East Anglia

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Rajab, Suhaila

Language dc:language

en