Relationship between teachers' participation to professional development activities and their job satisfaction

In terms of continuous improvement and innovation of the teaching process, teachers benefit from the experiences of their colleagues, to get support from the experts, to benefit from the professional development courses and seminars, to cooperate with the stakeholders, to determine the direction of the educational studies and to increase the quality of the students' learning is a factor. Studies on the importance of professional development activities at home and abroad have been conducted and some differences between countries are observed.Within the scope of the aim of this research carried out with a quantitative approach, the effect of the participation of teachers working in kindergarten, primary school, secondary and high schools on their job satisfaction and their contribution to professional development activities in the process of education will be examined with their sub-dimensions. The data in the study will be collected using the questionnaire method, which is one of the quantitative research methods. The most important contribution of the research is to examine the positive and negative aspects of the teachers' job satisfaction levels, which is one of the most important elements of education, and whether they are in interaction with professional development. Another contribution is whether the promotion of professional development activities will be correct in order to increase the quality of education, whether leadership behaviors or the help of colleagues to each other positively or negatively affect teacher performance. In addition, it can be concluded that in an environment where job satisfaction increases, the quality of education will increase or not. The research is a descriptive study in the screening model. The sample of the study is composed of 357 teachers working in kindergarten, primary school, secondary school and high schools in Düzce. Both measurement tools (participation status scale and job satisfaction scale) were used by the researchers. To measure the participation of teachers in their professional development activities, a job satisfaction scale and a job satisfaction scale were used to determine the teachers' job satisfaction levels. Scales are 5-point Likert-type scale and job satisfaction scale consists of three dimensions. Within the scope of the research, it was observed that the participation rate of peer coaching from the professional development activities was low, but the rate of lecturing or monitoring the educational activities in the virtual environment for high level of professional development was higher (more than one third). The most frequent activity of the teachers was the interviews and meetings between the teachers and the teachers working in primary schools were less frequently involved in individualized activities than the teachers working in vocational high schools and general high schools. It is concluded that the group that has less participation than the teachers who work for five years but has the most participation in the individualized professional development activities is the teachers who work for twenty years and over and it has been concluded that the teachers who work in vocational high schools have the highest participation in the activities related to peer coaching and professional development activities. The teachers' job satisfaction scores were found to be relatively high, slightly above the average. On the job satisfaction scale, it was found that the job satisfaction of teachers working in preschool education institutions and teachers who worked more than 21 years was found to be high, and mathematics and science group teachers had the highest job satisfaction in terms of the opportunities offered by the workplace. It was revealed that teachers' professional development activities were a significant predictor of their job satisfaction. In this context, it has been proposed to organize professional development activities in line with the needs of teachers and to provide opportunities for participation to teachers in order to ensure greater participation of teachers in professional development activities and higher levels of job satisfaction.