The professional development of teachers who will teach in the distance education mode in the Philippines

 Professional development in this thesis means the development of teachers in the context of learning how to teach in the distance education mode. This involves organising professional development for teachers who will teach in the proposed elementary and secondary schools of distance education in the Philippines. The intention of this study has been to provide a solid foundation for enhanced and professionalised distance education teaching in that country.

 This study drew on an analysis of exemplary models in inducting and developing distance education teachers in Australia. The qualitative research orientation and the case study method were adopted to guide the research design of the thesis. Theoretically the study applied the ideas of Fullan (1993) concerning the management of educational change. Data were collected from the documents gathered and from the semi- structured interviews with the twelve respondents from the Brisbane and Capricornia School of Distance Education, and the Department of Education, Culture and Sports in the Philippines. 

The analysis of findings in this study revealed useful information about effective professional development principles and practices for distance education teachers. This information addresses the question of how to teach appropriate instructional skills and to enable teachers to become effective change agents. The need for further research in the provision of a regular and continuous training to ensure the sequential skill development of distance education teachers was recommended.