Perceived Importance of Continuing Professional Development Activities among Libyan EFL Teachers: A Cross-Sectional Survey with Qualitative Insights

Abstract

Continuing professional development (CPD) plays an indispensable role in empowering English as a Foreign Language (EFL) educators to navigate evolving curricular frameworks, emergent pedagogical paradigms, and diverse learner needs. However, empirical investigations into how English language teachers in post-conflict and resource-constrained environments value diverse professional learning modalities remain limited. This cross-sectional empirical survey investigated the perceived importance of 14 distinct continuing professional development activities among 114 Libyan EFL teachers across secondary and tertiary educational sectors. The survey instrument incorporated 14 five-point Likert-scale items spanning job-embedded, self-directed, formal, reflective, collaborative, and outward-facing developmental modalities, supplemented by two demographic measures (gender and teaching experience) and one qualitative open-ended inquiry. Internal consistency analysis across the 14-item inventory demonstrated acceptable composite reliability (Cronbach's α = .74), yielding an overall composite mean of 4.26 (SD = 0.40, 95% CI [4.18, 4.33]), indicative of widespread valuation of professional learning. High-ranking activities centered on job-embedded classroom practice (learning through teaching, preparation, and student questions; M = 4.73, SD = 0.54), autonomous self-directed inquiry (professional reading; M = 4.69, SD = 0.55; Internet-assisted problem solving; M = 4.63, SD = 0.58), and structured formal training (language and methods courses; M = 4.68, SD = 0.60; workshops; M = 4.57, SD = 0.74). Conversely, collegial assistance (M = 3.63, SD = 0.92), postgraduate study (M = 3.75, SD = 0.96), and presenting at seminars (M = 3.81, SD = 0.99) received comparatively lower ratings, though all remained above the theoretical midpoint. Inferential comparisons utilizing Welch's t-tests revealed no statistically significant differences across gender, t(29.86) = 1.07, p = .292, Hedges' g = 0.26, or teaching experience (≤10 years vs. >10 years), t(88.34) = -1.23, p = .222, Hedges' g = -0.25. Crucially, statistical sensitivity and power analyses indicate that given the sample distribution (94 females, 20 males; 75 early/mid-career, 37 veteran teachers), the design was adequately powered (80% power at α = .05) only to detect large effect sizes (minimum detectable effect size d ≈ 0.69 for gender and d ≈ 0.56 for experience). Consequently, these null inferential results must be interpreted as statistically inconclusive rather than substantive evidence of population equivalence. Thematic analysis of open-ended responses from 18 participants (15.8% response rate) identified urgent demands for native-speaker interaction, specialized digital pedagogy training, systemic institutional funding, and peer observation schemes. The paper concludes with actionable implications for language teacher education policy in Libya, an extensive critical appraisal of methodological limitations, and directions for multi-method longitudinal research