A Phenomenological Study of Integrating Research in Teacher Training Curriculum for Professional Development

The purpose of this research was a phenomenological study of integrating research in teacher education curriculum. In this study, first, the student teachers became familiarized with action research method during a semester, and they applied this method to their own classes. After the end of the semester, they were interviewed, and were asked to express their experiences. The teachers were asked to explain weather action research would lead to teacher's professional development. The sample for this study included 106 student-teachers of various fields who were studied throughout a semester, and finally, in order to gather data to reach saturation point, thirty of them were interviewed both verbally and by questionnaires. The findings related to teachers’ experiences indicated that action research could increase their research knowledge and skills, their teaching knowledge and skills, their knowledge of identifying problems, and their problem-solving skill; moreover, it could change their attitudes towards issues and the role of research in solving problems, and it would result in higher inner satisfaction after solving a problem. According to these findings, it could be concluded that by integrating research in teacher education curriculum we can contribute to the teachers’ professional development.