The Staff Development Analysis - Essay Example

Professional staff development in schools is necessary for creating more opportunities for teachers to improve not only their skills but also their expertise in teaching. In line with this matter, several academic journals will be gathered to examine the impact of the following towards the development of effective professional staff development programs: (1) the importance of developing a partnership with the local business, industry, and educational institutions; (2) mandated training programs and workshops for school teachers; and (3) the importance of improving the schools’ social climate upon implementing the program.

Partnerships with Local Business, Industry, and Educational Institutions

Developing a strong partnership with the local businesses, industry, and other educational institutions can contribute not only to the expansion of career and technical knowledge of the school teachers but also to their overall professional development. In the absence of developing the teachers’ existing knowledge with regards to the technicality of effective classroom teaching, it would be very difficult to improve the quality of teachings that are available in local schools.

In general, local businesses under different industries could help with the implementation of professional staff development programs by financially supporting the local schools through donations. On the other hand, developing a strong connection and regular interaction with the teachers coming from other educational institutions can indirectly contribute to their professional development since each one of them could learn from the experiences of other school teachers.

There are a lot of cases wherein special education in-service programs that are offered in public schools lack a particular diagnostic and therapy skill that is necessary for the speech and language improvement of handicapped students. For this reason, allowing an external speech-language pathologist to collaborate with the school administrators to develop a special speech and language program for the handicapped students will effectively address these problems (Esterreicher & Haws, 1982). Likewise, the partnership between the Departments of Special Education and the schools can also improve teachers’ education and classroom practices (Epanchin & Colucci, 2002).

The active participation of the district leaders can also contribute to providing more coherent and content-focused professional development programs for school teachers. Not only will the district leaders be able to guide them in creating a clear vision on professional staff development programs but also discuss some important ways on how each school can maximize the use of its available human resources. (Firestone et al., 2005) Aside from actively participating in the development of these programs, district and state policies can also be used in influencing the need to implement strong professional staff development programs in schools (Youngs, 2001).

Participation of School Psychologists in the Development of Mandated Training Programs and Workshops for School Teachers

Requiring the school teachers to actively participate in training programs and workshops which are designed to improve the teaching methods they use inside the classroom is normally a part of a professional staff development program. Through the implementation of teachers’ training programs and workshops, the school teachers are expected to become aware of student diversity and enable them to learn several effective ways that will motivate the students to participate in learning (Oreck, 2004).

In line with the importance of mandated training programs and workshops for school teachers, school psychologists equally suggest the need to develop the school teachers’ social-emotional

skills. For this reason, Wnek, Klein, & Bracken (2008) acknowledge that school psychologists should take part in influencing the direction of training that was designed for school teachers.

Importance of Improving the School’s Social Climate

Creating a professional staff development program is just one step towards the overall teaching improvements in school. Improving the schools’ social climate suitable for the implementation of these programs is another factor that could affect the success and failure of a particular professional staff development program. In line with this matter, the randomized experiment of Comer’s School Development Program that was conducted by Cook et al. (1999) in 23 middle schools in Prince George’s County in Maryland revealed that the positive effects of implementing a school development program can only be felt when the person-in-charge of implementing these programs are able to have a strong control and evaluation method to counter check the effectiveness of these programs.