PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR TEACHERS
Professional development for teachers is a key mechanism for improving classroom instruction and student achievement (Ball & Cohen, 1999)
If we try to look back on our previous topic, there were different priorities for educators and schools: curriculum, assessment, instruction, students learning, classroom management and professional development. If we are given a chance to choose what would be our priority as an educator? Perhaps, we have different priorities to look into it. If I will choose, I will prioritize the Professional Development, why?
Professional Development involves its relationship to student’s achievement. It has been concluded in the research that professional development activities experienced by teachers have a similar impact to school, teacher, student level related to the level of learning within the classroom, parent and community involvement, instructional strategies, classroom management, curriculum design, student background knowledge, and student motivation (Marzano, 2003). Opportunities for active learning, content knowledge, and the overall consistency of staff development are the characteristics of professional development. Opportunities for active learning and content specific strategies for staff development refer to a focus on teacher application of learned material. Overall coherence refers to the staff development program perceived as an integrated whole and development activities building upon each other in a successive manner. However, that standardized staff development activities which do not allow for effective application would be ineffective in changing teacher behavior.
As educators, we cannot control student learning; only the student can. Student learning should be the ultimate goal and outcome of all of our efforts, but it is not what we do to get there. If we want students learn, we are the critical element of their learning, so, our professional development is the most important to help the students learn. Perhaps, students learning are bases for student’s success while school and teachers have an inspiration over students learning, there is nothing the teacher can do to make it happen. It is out of the control of teachers to make students learn; the students have to do it by themselves.
What matter most is what teachers learn, professional development should improve teachers’ knowledge of the subject matter that they are teaching, and it should enhance their understanding of student thinking in that subject matter. Aligning essential training with the curriculum and teachers’ actual work experiences also is crucial. Teachers changing goals for learning, connected with changes in curriculum emphasis and a deeper understanding of teacher learning and student thinking, have led to new findings about the impact of teacher professional development and how best to improve teachers’ skills and knowledge. The time teachers spend in professional development makes a difference as well, but only when the activities focus on high-quality subject-matter content. Extended opportunities to better understand student learning, curriculum materials and instruction, and subject-matter content can increase the performance of both teachers and students.
I believe that professional development and creating learning communities for teachers and staff will help students receive the best education possible. However, when people have developed these types of learning communities, there is no sense of strong leadership to set the example of what professional learning should look like. What leadership qualities would be most effective in inspiring a school to focus more on professional development? Perhaps, a strong leader should visibly model continual improvement him or her. A type of leader should be willing to admit mistakes and missteps when they occur. Strong leadership requires someone who is willing to show their human side, like the administrators must foster a continual improvement mind set for school which has resulted in excellent professional development. Most beneficial, if professional learning opportunities should originate from the administrator leading the educators through the school change process; however, there should always be professional development which originates from the educator’s individual needs and desire for improvement.
References:
Simon Quattlebaum: Why professional development for teachers is critical (2012)
https://evolllution.com/opinions/why-professional-development-for-teachers-is-critical/
http://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/5-strategies-better-teacher-professional-development/
https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/regions/southwest/pdf/REL_2007033.pdf
EULOGIO L. PRAJES JR "GIO" ID no. 2016-30386 