| The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of professional development programs for English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers on their classroom practice, and how teacher efficacy and organizational support at the school level relate to this process by interacting with years of teaching experience. The Modified Teacher Efficacy Scale, the Organizational Support Scale, and the Impact Scale were used to collect self-reported data on teacher efficacy, organizational support, and the impact of professional development, respectively. The Teacher Background Questionnaire was used to collect demographic data as well as information on years of teaching experience.; The population of this study comprised of 232 participants from the Carolina Academic Consortium (CAC) and 68 participants from Consortium for South and North Carolina (CSNC). These two identical professional development programs provided funding for currently licensed teachers from both North and South Carolina that led to add-on ESL licensure. Among the 232 CAC participants, 145 met the criterion to participate in this study. Among the 68 CSNC participants, 29 were qualified for the present study. Of those who were invited to participate in the study, 90 CAC and 24 CSNC participants responded.; Multiple regression analyses were used to explore the effects of teacher efficacy and organizational support on predicting the impact of professional development. With the use of a p < 0.05 criterion, the two independent variables (i.e., teacher efficacy and organizational support) both reached statistical significance in predicting the impact of professional development. The results from these analyses attest to the tenets of the social cognitive theory. Teachers with strong efficacy beliefs reported to having implemented more of what they had acquired from professional development. Furthermore, organizational support predicted the level of impact above and beyond teacher efficacy. These two major variables evidenced their effects even after controlling for years of teaching experience and did not interact with the latter teacher characteristic. |
