Arab Educational Information Network

Completing a teaching (TesL, TefL) program is the beginning of a lifetime of professional growth. Teaching is in itself, a continuous growth experience, since one really (learns) something only when asked to explain or teach it to others. Students are often our best teachers and you will learn from new students each term. Professional development is an ongoing process, one that evolves as you assess and reexamine your teaching beliefs and practices.it is self-empowerment and deciding to take the first step is your responsibility and that step is well worth taking. Therefore, this research has been tackled to shed the light on the main difficulties existing in the empowerment of Iraqi teachers of English through professional development activities it also aims at identifying and classifying these difficulties. To fulfill this aim, a sample of 100 teachers of English at the preparatory and intermediate schools in Diyala governorate are considered to be the subjects of this research. A scaled questionnaire as an instrument of measurement is used in this research to be an investigatory tool. The results of this research prove that the hypothesis of this study which reads that Iraqi teachers of English face difficulties in their empowerment through professional development activities is verified and accepted. (Published abstract)