Sign language interpreters are no longer solely "an interpreter" but have evolved into educators, trainers, and mentors. In order to plan professional development activities for them, it is critical to gain new knowledge and understanding as it relates to their beliefs about the teaching-learning process and their attitudes toward continuing professional education. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to describe the educational philosophies, teaching styles, learning strategies preferences, and attitudes toward continuing education of certified sign language interpreters and transliterators. This was a descriptive study in which data were collected electronically via the Internet from 292 nationally certified sign language interpreters from the National Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf membership list. The interpreters educational philosophies were identified by using the Philosophies Held by Instructors of Lifelong-learners (PHIL), their teaching styles were identified by the Principles of Adult Learning Scale (PALS), their learning strategy preferences were measured by the Assessing The Learning Strategies of AdultS (ATLAS), and their attitudes toward continuing education were measured by the Adults Attitudes Toward Continuing Education Scale (AACES). In addition, data were collected on the following demographic variables: age, gender, education, certification level, hearing status, and ethnic background.

Profiles were created for the participants on each of the instruments. The interpreters tended to support learner-centered educational philosophies, tended to reflect the norms on their teaching style distribution, contained more than normal of those with a learning strategy that preferred generating alternatives, and strongly supported continuing education. No meaningful relationships were found between any of the instruments and demographic variables. No interactions were found among the concepts measured by the instruments. Conclusions and recommendations related to the interpreters as educators and the interpreters as learners.