Professional Development - Essay Example

Systems’ thinking is a management paradigm, an organizational analysis tool, and holistic institutional management paradigm. From this perspective, its use contributes to the informed shortcomings in the education system and designs strategies in overcoming these shortcomings. The component also investigates the relationship of systems thinking with education, and professional and institutional development. In conclusion, this approach has the potential to overcome the gap between teachers - student development.

To understand K - 12 educators’ professional development literature, terms relevant to the topic must be understood. Speck and Knipe (2001) suggest that the 1980’s saw the emergence of professional development as a term preferred for its emphasis on teaching as a profession. However, Fenstermacher and Berliner (1985) assert that staff development was the buzzword for that decade, and appears more burdened with traditional notions of teacher growth plus one-time workshop, whereas professional development resonate more with the contemporary notions connecting teaching to the professionalism.

Others continue to use the terms staff development and professional development interchangeably (Richardson, 2003). Professional development is defined in many ways. Guskey (2000) defines it as processes and activities to enhance educators’ professional knowledge, skills, and attitudes, thus improving students’ learning (p. 16). In his earlier work, Guskey (1986) defined staff development as student learning improvement, a systematic attempt to bring about changes among teachers’ practice, beliefs, attitude, and learning outcome among students (p. 5), and lately, he proposed that professional development involves intentionally designed and systematic efforts to effect change.

Evans (2002) contends that lack of concept clarity and literatures impoverished