The paper explores the associations between professional development, job satisfaction and self-efficacy in Nordic countries. Professional development is seen as a wide spectrum of activities aimed at developing teachers’ skills, knowledge, working methods and competencies. Job satisfaction refers to satisfaction with the teaching profession, and self-efficacy refers to teachers’ beliefs in their ability to attain their work goals. The paper investigates these constructs from a Nordic perspective and on the basis of data obtained from TALIS (Teaching and Learning International Survey) 2013.

Different definitions can be found for professional development of teachers in the literature (e.g. De Vries, Van de Grift, & Jansen, 2014; Harland & Kinder, 2014; Hökkä & Vähäsantanen, 2014). At the core of these definitions is the view that professional development is about teachers’ learning processes: learning how to learn and transforming their knowledge into practices that benefit their students’ growth. Here, professional development has been defined as all the activities that aim at the development of teachers’ skills, knowledge, expertise, working methods, networks and other elements of teacher competence. These development activities can be offered in many modes, ranging from formal courses, workshops, seminars, etc. to more informal approaches such as collaboration with other teachers and participation in extracurricular activities. (Avalos, 2011; TALIS Framework, 2013; OECD, 2014a.)

Working in an information-driven society and a fast changing world presents many learning challenges for teachers. For example, they have to learn how to use the latest technology, how to develop their own teaching skills, how to account for student-specific differences and how to cater to the needs of the weakest students (European Commission, 2012). Despite these challenges, teachers’ engagement in CPD differs greatly. Reasons for this range from personal beliefs about teaching and learning to the resources available for organising CPD (De Vries et al., 2014).

Professional development is examined from the perspectives of induction and mentoring programmes, as well as from the perspective of career-long professional development. Teachers’ job satisfaction consists of satisfaction with the profession and satisfaction with the current work environment (Crossman & Harris, 2006). A major drawback of the earlier research on teacher job satisfaction is the lack of consensus on measuring the concept – is it to be facet-specific or does it refer to an overall sense of satisfaction with the job (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2011)? Self-efficacy in this context refers to teachers’ beliefs in their own ability to attain their work goals.  Previous studies have suggested that teachers’ sense of self-efficacy is an important factor influencing students’ academic outcomes as well as teachers’ job satisfaction (Klassen & Chiu, 2010). Unfortunately, the concept of teacher efficacy has also suffered from poor construct validity (Henson, 2001).

Relatively little is known about the linkages between teachers’ professional development, job satisfaction and self-efficacy (Caprara, Barbaranelli, Steca, & Malone, 2006). Here, teachers’ professional development, job satisfaction and self-efficacy are defined from the Nordic perspective and explored on the basis of data from TALIS 2013. More specifically, answers are sought to the following question: How does professional development impact job satisfaction and self-efficacy?

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