Professional Development in the Teaching Profession - Term Paper Example

Topic: Teacher Professional Development Course name Student’s name Lecturer’s name 25th March 2012 PROFFESIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE TEACHING PROFFESION Professional development can be defined as the knowledge and skills attained for both career and personal development (Golding and Gray, 2006). Professional development involves learning opportunities that are facilitated and they range from formal coursework, college degrees, informal learning to conferences (Golding and Gray, 2006). Professional development is collaborative and intensive and it incorporates ideally stages of evaluation as a way of gauging the extent to which people have mastered the skills taught during professional development sessions. Professional development is undertaken through a number of approaches that include coaching, consultation, lesson study, communities of practice, reflective supervision, reflective supervision, mentoring and technical assistance (Golding and Gray, 2006). Professional development is a critical area of some fields such as teaching. As a matter of fact, states such as Arkansas have made it mandatory for teachers to undertake more than 50 hours of professional development annually as a way of career development. Professional development courses can be taken on an individual basis or individuals can take advantage of the professional development opportunities provided by human resource departments in the organizational context. Professional development provides teachers and other professionals with opportunities to develop and learn specific task skill and leadership capabilities which can then be applied in the teaching context to enhance teacher-student interaction. Positive teacher-student interactions widen the consultation space between the teachers and students which in turn enhances the performance of students. Professional development enhances process skills such as team functioning skills, effectiveness skills and system thinking skills. Approaches to professional development As stated above, professional development can be undertaken through a number of approaches. One of the significant approaches is the use of case study method. In this approach, students participating in professional development courses are provided with a case. The course facilitator allows the students to take key of decision making in order to evaluate and solve the problems presented in the case. In educational profession, teachers are faced with a myriad of problems ranging from poor performance to increased risks of social behaviors among the students. The case study approach helps teachers to enhance their problem solving skills as a way of solving numerous problems that face them in the teaching profession. The second approach to professional development is consultation. This approach assists groups and individual participants with ample skills required to address and clarify issues as they arise in their work settings. The consultation approach is important to teachers because it equips them with systematic skills for problem solving. In the educational profession, the most important effect of teacher’s input is positive and better performance on the part of the students. Through consultation approach, teachers are taught how to consult with their colleagues and other stakeholders such as parents to ensure better performance is realized on the part of the students. Hence, consultation approach equips the participants with consultative skills required in the teaching profession to enhance better performance. The third professional development approach is coaching. Coaching refers to the aspect of enhancing the competency of a person’s skills through the process of refection, observation and action. Through coaching participants are equipped with skills on how to observe, reflect and take appropriate action in order to solve a particular problem. Teachers are required to continuously observe the behaviors of the students in order to establish and determine whether students have problems that may affect their learning. For example, a teacher may observe withdrawal sings on the part of the student. The observation made helps the teacher to make proper judgments by reflecting on the most appropriate action that might be taken to help such a student. Hence, coaching is a practical approach to professional development and it is appropriate for enhancing problem solving skills on the part of the teacher. The fourth approach to professional development is mentoring. Mentoring refers to the aspect of promoting refinement and awareness of individuals by recommending and providing observation and reflection structured opportunities. Through this approach, participants in professional development courses are enabled to sink deeper into their careers in order to determine what they would really like to achieve both in the short term and long term. In other words, participants are enabled to reflect on what they have achieved, the shortfall and needs and future achievements desired by the participants (Jasper, 2006). Mentoring is an important approach of teacher’s professional development because it helps in career development. This entails movement from one rank to the other in the teaching profession as well as movement from one grade to the other. Reflective supervision is another important approach used in professional development. Reflective supervision entails the development, support and ultimate evaluation of people’s performances through the inquiry process that encourages people’s articulation and understanding skills (Jasper, 2006). Teachers undertaking professional development courses are trained to be more articulate on every issue they undertake in the teaching profession. This approach is therefore important because it helps teachers to be more understanding and tolerant towards the students they teach and interact with on a daily basis. Importance of professional development More than ever, teachers are now required to demonstrate their classroom effectiveness as a way of increasing the competitiveness of students in different fields. Pressure for teachers to show higher scores in different subject areas has continued to mount (Richard, 2002). Different reforms have also been undertaken to ensure high student performances and standards in different subjects. In addition, teachers are now, more than ever, faced with numerous classroom challenges such as increasing special education needs and unstable families that disrupt the concentration of students in classroom. In the midst of all these challenges, teachers and schools are still required to enhance the progress of students in tier academic performance. In order to beat the challenges above and stay abreast to the dynamic environment in the teaching profession, professional development is a pre-requisite and an issue of great importance (Richard, 2002). One of the advantages of teacher’s professional development is to promote the power of thinking positively. Thinking positively is an important ingredient that can help teachers overcome the myriad of challenges they are faced with on a daily basis (Richard, 2002). Positive thinking entails setting realistic and obtainable goals that helps teachers achieve the desired objectives. Positive thinking helps in setting up measurable goals and proper schedules within which the goals must be completed and achieved. The power of positive thinking positively helps teachers to deal with past negative achievements and failures (Richard, 2002). It also helps teachers to deal positively with challenges that arise in the process of teaching. Hence, professional development equips teachers with the ability to handle and solve problems positively in order to realize the intended goals. The second importance of teacher’s professional development is to promote emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence can be defined as the ability to assess, identify and control ones emotions as well as emotions of other people (Kluemper, 2008). Teachers interact with different groups of people on a daily basis. This puts them on a hot spot particularly when they are faced by angry parents and other stakeholders in the educational sector. Similarly, bad behaviors among the students may arouse bitter exchanges between the students and teachers in the classroom setting. These challenges and problems may affect the performance of emotionally unstable teachers in a significant way. However, teacher’s professional development equips teachers with emotional intelligence skills to handle different challenging situations as they arise (Kluemper, 2008). Emotionally intelligent teachers are able to handle student’s bad behaviors without causing sceneries and without allowing emotions control their approach to problems caused by students. Hence, professional development is important as it equips and provides teachers with important skills that enable them to handle students with little effort. Professional development is also important in teacher’s career development. As stated there above, professional development ranges from attending workshops and conferences to undertaking full semester courses to attain different levels of qualifications such as diploma, higher diploma and degree. Undertaking such courses gives teacher’s an opportunity to advance in their careers by moving from one grade of teaching to the other. Similarly, career development enables teachers to find new opportunities of promotion not only in the educational sector but also in other fields (Richard, 2002). This is because professional development enhances teacher’s leadership and problem solving capabilities that can be used not only in the school setting but also in other organizational contexts. Research studies have revealed that professional development impacts teacher’s behaviors and beliefs in a significant way. The reason for this is that professional development and preparation affects the way teachers define student goals (Richard, 2002). The way student goals are defined affects the way teachers behave both in the school and classroom setting. For example, when the teacher’s preparedness is high, the teacher sets better student goals than when the teacher is not adequately prepared. Hence, professional development increases the preparedness of the teacher which in turn, helps the teacher to set higher students goals. Further, studies have revealed that the more professional knowledge a teacher possesses the more likely students are to attain better performances. This is because professional development helps teachers to put more emphasis in providing realistic, changing and concrete goals that prepares students for the real world (Jasper, 2006). Additionally, professional development equips teachers with knowledge to enable them undertake conceptual and technical instructional methods to enhance their student skills. Hence, professional development is an important process that can helps teachers achieve their students’ goals. Furthermore, experience and research have shown that professional development is a process that deepens pedagogical skills and content knowledge among the teachers. This opens numerous opportunities for teachers to engage in research, practice and reflection. Hence, teachers engage in activities that job embedded in order to remain relevant in fast changing and dynamic educational environment. Effective professional development From the preceding section, it is evident that professional development is an important phenomenon and concept without which teachers would remain irrelevant and less focused in achieving their student’s goals (Fisher, 2000). However, the advantages of professional development outlined above can only be realized only when professional development is effective. Effective professional development encompasses the following; Plans for teacher professional development should focus on scientifically based components which include; phonics, fluency, phonemic awareness, comprehension and vocabulary. The focus on systematic and explicit instruction of these components provides the foundation upon which teachers can help students develop reading and learning skills (Fisher, 2000). Effective professional development must also align with performance and academic state standards. The reason for this is that students are assessed according to the ability to meet the state standards. Thus, professional development must be aligned with state standard requirements. Professional development should be structured in a way that teachers are prepared to deliver intervention, core and supplemental programs in reading areas (Jasper, 2006). Hence, training of teachers should be carried out during the beginning of the learning year. Additional and supportive training should be organized and carried out throughout the year. Adequate teacher practice and learning time should be taken into consideration. System that addresses time needs should be developed in order to allow teachers to plan, collaborate and have enough time to reflect on what they learn. Adequate time helps teachers to plan comfortably how to implement the skills and knowledge obtained during the training sessions. Effective professional development should be undertaken through differentiated instructional approaches. This may include demonstrations, student work analysis, job-embedded coaching, academies and mentoring (Jasper, 2006). The reason for this is that different delivery model helps teachers respond positively to the course content just like students respond positively to different content delivery models. Effective teacher professional development should not leave behind issues of classroom management. This would enable teachers to deliver instructional strategies to students in an effective way. Hence, teachers should be trained how to utilize the limited time they have in the classroom effectively (Fisher, 2000). The training should focus on strategies such as the use of assistants and volunteers, grouping strategies, and differentiated instructional methods to enhance students understanding of the content. In order to avert any form of informational gap that may arise in the process of professional development, teacher training sessions should be coordinated in district, state and school levels. Co-ordination at these levels would ensure that teachers from different schools are afforded the opportunity to experience different levels of training in their attempt to undertake career development (Fisher, 2000). Drawback to professional development While it is clear that effective professional development can be achieved when the strategies above are observed, it is imperative to note that several drawbacks can prevent teacher professional development from being effective. One of the common drawbacks of teachers’ professional development is quick and fads-fix approach (Richard, 2002). This refers to one-time training provided to teachers without subsequent follow-ups to ensure that teachers exercise the skills obtained during professional development courses. Hence, poor or incorrect implementation of innovation is likely to occur and this may lead to poor implementation of instructional strategies. It means, therefore, that training programs should be well planned to increase effectiveness through follow up sessions in order to enhance student earning. The other drawback to teacher’s professional development is failure to use available data during training sessions. Careful analysis of available data helps in setting attainable student goals. Teachers are able to recognize the needs of the students so as to set priorities on student improving the performance of students (Richard, 2002). Analysis of available data also aids in determining whether current strategies and programs have important impact to the achievement of students. Hence, utilization of available data is mostly underestimated during teacher’s professional development sessions which mean that the training does not address factual problems and challenges which affect delivery of content to the students. Furthermore, professional development facilitators tend to evaluate the effectiveness of professional development courses on entertainment value or happiness quotient obtained rather than the worth or the quality of training (Richard, 2002). Professional development should be evaluated and judged on the extent to which teachers are involved and engaged in research and theory of learning strategies as well as the extent to which professional development courses help in delivering desirable changes in instructional habits. In addition, the form of information dissemination during training could also be a drawback in teachers’ professional development (Richard, 2002). For example, instructing and lecturing is a less desirable method of teachers training. Information dissemination through interaction, facilitation, coaching, collaboration, supporting and guiding should be used as the most effective methods of information dissemination. This in turn, increases the level of teacher participation in the training sessions. Hence, passive methods of training should be avoided during teachers’ professional development sessions. Conclusion Professional development is an important concept in enhancing the performance of teachers. In order to increase the satisfaction levels of teachers undertaking professional development courses, different approaches should be used. Such approaches include coaching, consultation, case study method, reflective supervision and mentoring. The wide range of approaches provides teachers with opportunities to explore a wide number of leaning and teaching strategies which can be implemented in the classroom to improve student learning. Professional development is of paramount importance in the 21st century. The increased challenges facing teachers and the dynamic learning and teaching environment require teachers to be open minded and knowledgeable in order to remain relevant. Hence, states and districts should consider teacher professional development as an important ingredient in improving the performance of students. References Fisher, G. (2000). 'Lifelong learning - more than training,' Journal of Interactive Learning Research, p265. Golding, L. & Gray, I. (2006).Continuing professional development for teachers: A practical handbook. The British Psychological Society. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Jasper, M. (2006).Professional development, reflection, and decision-making. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Kluemper, D. (2008) Trait emotional intelligence: The impact of core-self evaluations and social desirability. Personality and Individual Differences, 44(6), 1402-1412. Richard, E. (2002). Bridging the gap between standards and achievement: The Imperative for Professional Development in Education. Washington, DC: Albert Shanker Institute. Read More