Hungarian vocational education teachers’ views on their pedagogical knowledge and the information sources suitable for their professional development

Background: Vocational education teachers are key participants in the renewal of the Hungarian vocational educational system. Their professional development (as indicated by their learning activities, learning targets and information sources) contains both the input for improving their teaching and the findings essential for affecting future improvements. The aim of this questionnaire survey was to explore Hungarian vocational education teachers’ views and judgements on three interrelated phenomena: their learning activities, their opinion regarding the importance of pedagogical knowledge and the efficiency and usage of information sources relevant to their professional development. Methods: A total of 1131 teachers from 37, randomly selected vocational education schools completed a questionnaire based on five subscales, each containing five-point Likert-scales: (1) teachers’ learning activities, (2) judgment of their preparedness in pedagogical knowledge, (3) judgment on the importance of their pedagogical knowledge components, and (4) the efficiency and (5) usage of information sources in furthering their professional development. Results: All subscales display appropriate reliability (Cronbach’s alpha ranged from.65 to.94). The study provides the descriptive statistical values for each questionnaire item, the relationships between subscales and the connections between the subscales and background variables, such as gender, career level and school type. Conclusion: This explorative study possesses theoretical relevance in developing a questionnaire that consists of five reliable subscales, all of which can later be used for either detecting changes in teachers’ views or measuring the effectiveness of intervention programs and professional development training sessions designed for vocational education teachers. The study’s practical relevance lies in its explorative nature: decision makers are provided with ample evidence indicating the potential advantages and obstacles vocational education teachers face in their attempt to work more efficiently. © 2018, The Author(s).