| Abstract [eng] |
One of the most important conditions for ensuring quality in modern education system is professional development. However, the expansion of digitalization and artificial intelligence is changing the nature of teachers' work and places new demands on their competencies. Although teachers' professional development and the application of digital tools are widely discussed at the theoretical level, very little research has been done in Lithuania on how these processes are implemented in specific schools, how teachers themselves understand professional development under the circumstances of digitalization and how they actually use digital tools and artificial intelligence for their professional growth. The object of the study is the professional development of teachers and the digital tools that support it. The aim of the study is to empirically examine how teachers implement their professional development and what influence digital tools have on this process. Research objectives: 1. To examine how teachers' professional development is organized in schools and what challenges are encountered in achieving it. 2. To examine how teachers use digital tools for professional development. 3. To identify teachers' expectations for professional development in the future. Research methods: analysis of scientific literature, semi-structured interviews, qualitative thematic analysis. The empirical study data showed that teachers describe professional development as a continuous and necessary process, but its organization is limited by a large workload, lack of time, insufficient funding, and training that does not always offer relevant topics. Digital tools and artificial intelligence help to find information faster, plan lessons, create and differentiate tasks, participate in online learning, but at the same time increase the informational and cognitive load, require additional time, and raise doubts about the reliability of the content. Teachers are motivated to develop professionally and exploit the potential of digital tools as a responsibility to themselves and their students and the desire to share experience with colleagues, but they strive for a clearly planned, real-needs-oriented organization of professional development. |
