Experiences and reflections of first-year teachers in a professional development program based on Community of Inquiry framework

The purpose of the instrumental case study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the professional development (PD) program through exploring the CoI experiences and reflections of first-year language teachers in the learning (PD program) and teaching contexts. The present study, employing a concurrent and sequential mixed-methods approach (collecting largely qualitative data complemented with quantitative data), was outlined in two phases. Phase I of the study holistically entailed an analysis of the professional needs of the first-year language teachers in three different forms, designing the PD program, developing instructional materials, and concluding the design step with performing a connoisseur-based and the development step with one-to-one formative evaluation to improve the designed PD program. Phase II, which is regarded as the extension of the formative evaluation through small group evaluation, used three data sources and four data collection tools. It aimed at investigating language teacher candidates' experiences regarding their CoI presences, as well as the aspects of the professional development program reflected in the performance context. Phase II, being based on the work aggregated in phase I, therefore, was performed with different samples and different data collection methods. The findings and results reveal the critical role of systematic planning, incorporation of interactivity and reflectivity as well as the formation of risk-free environments into the design of PD programs to enhance the effectiveness in terms of attaining the designated learning objectives, first-year language teachers' experiences and reflections of the CoI presences. The first-year language teachers were found to experience high levels of social, cognitive, and teaching presences stemming from such characteristics regarding the design and facilitation of the PD program in the present study. Additionally, the data revealed a strong resemblance between their experiences and reflections in their teaching contexts (i.e., interactivity, planning, and personalization) despite some limitations with regard to the direct instruction and facilitation categories of the teaching presence. Keywords: CoI, Cognitive Presence, Teaching Presence, Social Presence, Professional Development