Organizational and Contextual Factors of Professional Development of Elementary Teachers in Special Schools

Over time, teachers improve their ability to raise student achievement more when they work in school environments characterized by meaningful opportunities for feedback, productive peer collaboration, responsive administrators, and an orderly and disciplined environment. The aim of this study was identifying the Context and Organizational factors of professional development for elementary teachers of special schools of students with mental retardation in Tehran. The Mixed method was used. In the qualitative study, the population was consisted of all the education experts. A purposive sampling of 15 experts were selected. The statistical population in the quantitative study was all elementary school teachers who were in Tehran (N=347). Cochran formula was used, and 200 teachers (n=200) were selected by simple random sampling. To collect data, semi-structured interviews and questionnaires were used. To analysis of qualitative data, thematic analysis, and for quantitative data partial least square method were used. The results showed that the content of teachers professional development consists of 8 factors: Students and their learning needs, teachers and their learning needs, norms of educational system - organizational culture, curriculum and instruction system, national and local policies, financial and time resources, families and communities, school management and environments Learning. Totally, the Context and Organizational factors explained 94% of the changes in the teachers professional development.