Do Professional Development Activities Work Effectively? Insights from English Instructors

Abstract

This paper presents a case study examining the perceptions of English instructors (N=91) towards the effectiveness of clinical supervision and reflective teaching (peer observation, team teaching and video coaching) at the school of foreign languages of a foundation university in Türkiye. Specifically, the study aims to compare the perceived effectiveness of these professional development activities and to gather suggestions for potential improvements. Utilizing an explanatory sequential mixed‑methods design, a survey and two sets of semi‑structured interviews were employed to collect the data. The results reveal that clinical supervision is generally perceived as more effective than reflective teaching, while video coaching emerges as the most highly valued reflective teaching modality. These findings suggest that language‑teaching institutions can increase the return on professional development activities by prioritizing video coaching and by streamlining clinical supervision schedules to reduce redundancy. Furthermore, the research uncovers several common themes related to the perceived effectiveness of the activities, as well as actionable suggestions for enhancing their impact.