On the Relationship between Iranian EFL Teachers’ Professional Development (PD) and Their Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT): A Case of Fars Province

This study investigated the relationship between EFL, teachers professional development (PD) and their teaching knowledge (TKT). Hence, the professional development test and teaching knowledge test questionnaires were distributed to 100 EFL teachers selected based on a convenience sampling from different English language institutes in Fars province (Shiraz), a city in south-west Iran. Both males and females (58males and 42 females) participated in the study. Their age ranged from 24 to 44. In this study both tests enjoy a relatively high reliability index (α=.83 for TKT; α=.70 for PD). Following the test of reliability and the null-hypothesis of this test indicates that there is normality of the data distribution. The p-value for TKT (p=.16> .05) and PD (p=.48> .05) is more than .05, and then the data follow a normal distribution. the findings of the study shows that the TKT is significantly (r=.275, sig=.006<.05) correlated with pd. as a result, the research null-hypothesis is rejected asserting that Iranian EFL teachers teaching knowledge test is significantly correlated with their professional development at the .01 level of significance. the results of the regression shows r2 is .84 meaning that independent variables account for a significant amount of variation in the dependent variable, teaching knowledge, among EFL teachers (r2= .84, p < 0.01).