Abstract

• This study focuses on self-initiated professional development of teacher educators from two universities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of self-initiated professional development of teacher educators from two universities located in Sagaing Region. A survey instrument, Self-initiated Professional Development Questionnaire (SPDQ) developed by the researchers was used to measure self-initiated professional development of teacher educators. It included44 items using five point Likert scale and consisted of four dimensions: ways of learning, opportunities to learn, attitude changes, and challenges. The reliability of Self-initiated Professional Development Questionnaire, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, was 0.864. One hundred and ninety three teacher educators from two universities located in Sagaing Township were selected by using purposive sampling method. Descriptive statistics such as means and standard deviations, independent samples t-test, one-way ANOVA and Post Hoc multiple comparison tests (Tukey HSD and Games-Howell) were used to analyze data. The results of the study indicated that collaborative learning was highly practiced by teacher educators than other three dimensions, and extrinsic support of the institution was higher than intrinsic support. In addition, teaching practice and pedagogical knowledge of teacher educators were at the high level of changes after selfinitiated professional development activities. Moreover, teacher educators showed that they faced more challenges in the dimension of “autonomy” than in others. In a way, this means that teacher educators often use self-initiated professional development activities to develop their institutions which is essential for reforming the education system and encounter some shortcomings that needed to be fulfilled in their daily life.