Challenges of Professional Development (Remotely) for School Leaders in Al-Ahsa Governorate, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The current study aimed to identify the level of administrative, human and technological challenges for online professional development for school leaders in Al-Ahsa region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,AH on the study sample of (248) male and female trainers in training centers and education offices in the Department of Education in Al-Ahsa. Where the number of participants from the “male” category is 122 educational supervisors, 49% of the total sample size, while the number of participants from the “female” category is 126 supervisors, representing 51% of the total sample.

The researcher used the questionnaire tool to collect information related to the study. The descriptive survey method was relied upon. The results of the study indicated, of a high level of administrative, human and technological challenges for online professional development for school leaders in the Al-Ahsa region in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia The level of significance indicates that there are statistically significant differences between the average opinions ofsupervisors about the challenges of online technological professional development, which is attributed to the difference in the years of experience variable between supervisors and (trainers) in Al-Ahsa Governorate, where we note that the level of challenges found by those with years of experience less than 10 years is greater than the level of challenges found by supervisors with years of experience greater than 10 years, by 3.90 to 3.35, This can be explained by the fact that the more years of experience there is, the greater the opportunity for school leaders to deal with obstacles and technological challenges that hinder the process of professional development ( virtual), It can be added that the lack of years of experience of school leaders increases the level of severity of technological challenges and how to deal with them during the process of virtual professional development.