TEACHER  DEVELOPMENT

Teacher Development: What Teachers Need to Know

Last updated 15 December 2023 / By Zineb DJOUB           

To develop students’ 21st-century skills and render education more responsive to the challenges of a knowledge-based society, teacher development has been constantly called for. The conception of teaching as a life-long learning process is gaining momentum with the variety of conferences, courses/programmes, and published materials supporting it.

But, to develop as teachers we need to understand the nature of this development. Does it mean professional, personal, or social development?

This article aims to clarify the meaning of teacher development by explaining what teacher professional, personal, and social development mean and how these relate to teacher development.

Professional development  

Professional development, also referred to as professional learning by teachers already engaged in professional practice, is the process of developing the necessary knowledge base and skills teachers require to carry out their roles effectively.

This does not only involve learning new theoretical teaching ideas and suggestions but also trying them out and learning how to make them more effective within their teaching contexts.

Teachers’ ongoing reflection, evaluation, and analysis of their practices are necessary elements of their professional development as these can support them to construct new teaching theories and improve their performances (learning-by-doing approach as put forward by Whitford, 1994).

Indeed, being critical, reflective on teaching experiences, and motivated to bring change and improvement are essential for teachers’ professional development.

Becoming professionals, as Darling-Hammond and Bransford (2005) explain entails being ‘adaptive experts’  which is the intent of teachers’ engagement in such a process.

Today’s teachers should be experts in their work, i.e., planning their lessons, communicating, managing, carrying out, and assessing the activities of the teaching-learning process more effectively, and meanwhile adaptive, i.e., being flexible to different students’ needs and preferences.

Does professional development mean teacher training?

Professional development and training are not synonymous. Let’s first explain what teacher training means. Teacher training aims to help teachers learn the necessary pedagogical knowledge and skills. More particularly, it is mostly concerned with the “How”. For instance, how to use a particular digital tool and integrate it into a given lesson, how to teach mixed-ability classes, how to flip the classroom, etc.

Professional development incorporates training, but it emphasizes teachers’ awareness of their teaching contexts and how to apply such practical skills in these contexts.

This is because teaching is a challenging job that requires more teacher flexibility and creativity to deal successfully with the unexpected and cater to the different students’ needs in each classroom.

Thus, professional development aims to aid teachers in learning how to adjust their teaching to their students’ learning needs through understanding the “Why” or rationale behind any pedagogical decision made or choice about their teaching contexts.

An effective professional development should, therefore, encourage teachers to experiment with new ideas or tools in their teaching contexts, reflect on how these impact their students’ learning, make further decisions to achieve their intended objectives and share their experiences.

Its elements should include reflective discussion sessions based on previous and current classroom experience, collaborative learning, reflective diaries/journals or portfolios, and teacher-led activities that provide multiple opportunities for teachers’ choice, autonomy, and active learning.

There are schools, colleges, and universities that provide in-service educational opportunities for teachers through planned programmes that intend to address their needs (formal professional development). But, professional development can also be self-initiated (informal).

There are plenty of resources teachers can turn to if they want to develop professionally. These can include, for instance, self-monitoring through self-observation (videorecording), reading books, journals’ articles about teaching, taking online courses, attending professional development conferences, conducting action research, etc.

Teacher personal development

Personal development or self-development refers to possessing personal strengths and characteristics that aid teachers in defining and making sense of their teaching practice and of themselves as individuals. This is through developing the necessary life skills that can help them grow in and outside their profession.

There is a range of life skills that assist teachers in coping with the challenges of everyday living. Getting organized, solving problems, engaging, and caring about students are among the key life skills that teachers need in the profession.

Because teachers’ professional role can be affected by their personal life factors, they need to develop certain life skills related to their personal lives. These can include balancing their professional and personal lives, coping with family pressure, stress, and negative emotions (like anger, sadness, etc.), making effective decisions concerning their health, etc.

Personal development is a powerful tool to reach a well-defined and healthy sense of self as teachers (self-concept enhancement), which can result in positive self-esteem and self-confidence.  Besides, it enables teachers to recognize, understand, and manage their emotions thereby having good intrapersonal skills (emotional intelligence).

Since it focuses on socio-emotional or affective growth which can be reflected in teachers’ attitudes and interactions with their students, developing the ‘teacher self’ is crucial to enhancing quality education. Therefore, teachers’ personal development needs to be targeted in teacher education programmes.

Teacher social development

Developing students’ social skills such as taking turns, listening, understanding, and communicating the intended meaning is deemed essential in today’s education. But, are teachers prepared for this task? Do they possess the social skills to interact effectively with those around them?

It seems that much more focus is given to students’ social skills development whereas less attention is devoted to teachers’ social development. The latter refers to developing the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes that enable teachers to relate to others effectively and to contribute positively to their community.

This capacity has been labelled ‘social competence’. According to Huitt and Dawson (2011), social competence includes: (1) being aware of one’s own and others’ emotions, (2) managing impulses and behaving appropriately, (3) communicating effectively, (4) forming healthy and meaningful relationships, (5) working well with others, and (6) resolving conflict.

Thus, the process of developing such capacity involves the affective (emotions), cognitive (decision-making), and social domains (communication). Teaching is based on interpersonal relationships. So, communicating effectively with students, colleagues, other staff members, and parents and maintaining healthy professional relationships are skills teachers need for a successful career and well-being.

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Teacher development

Teacher development occurs when these aspects of development are occurring: personal, professional, and social development. This is because teacher development is a learning process, so emotions have a say in how the brain functions; positive emotions (like motivation) boost engagement in learning.

Quality knowledge and understanding are of utmost importance to learning (cognition). Besides, the social nature of learning is crucial since this process is actively constructed through social interaction and negotiation with others.

These building blocks of teacher development are interrelated, i.e., each development’s aspect depends on the other aspects. To illustrate, a teacher who cannot manage his emotions or self-regulate (not personally developed) is not likely to control or manage effectively his classroom and thus interact effectively with his students (cannot develop professionally and socially). When feeling angry he will burn out, lose control, and treat students badly and he may even forget the lesson plan.

These types of development should be the intended outcome of any teacher development intention or programme.

Teacher development is an evolving learning process. This learning process is ongoing and endless. Even if a teacher has achieved certain development, he still needs to learn along with his whole life and career. In this rapidly changing world, preparing skilled workers and engaged citizens is becoming a game-changer.

Therefore, teacher development must be every teacher’s passion, concern, and intended aim.  Such development does not only depend on formal learning but it can also be self-initiated by teachers. In this case, finding the right professional development activities that fit one own needs and preferences remains a necessary decision to make.

Whether it is formal or informal, updating, innovating and searching are the three pillars of teacher development (Cárdenas et al., 2010). Interest and commitment to change are also vital for this process.

To share my experience with you, I have been learning through reading, editing, and mostly through participating in international conferences about education. This has added a lot to my development as a teacher. I have learned how to be professional, interact with people, and overcome negative emotions that were really irritating me, namely anxiety and timidity. And I am still learning …

How about you? What do you think of teacher professional development? How can it be best achieved? I would be glad to hear from you.

 

References

Cárdenas, M. L., González, A., & Álvarez, J. A. (2010). El desarrolloprofesional de losdocentes de inglésenejercicio: algunasconsideracionesconceptuales para Colombia [In service English teachers’ professional development: Some conceptual considerations for Colombia]. Folios, 31, 49-68.
Darling-Hammond, L., & Bransford, J. (2005). Preparing teachers for a changing world: What teachers should learn and be able to do? San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons.
Huitt, W. & Dawson, C. (2011, April). Social development: Why it is important and how to impact it. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/papers/socdev.pdf
Whitford, B. L. (1994). Permission, persistence, and resistance: Linking high school restructuring with teacher education reform. In L. Darling-Hammond (Ed.), Professional development schools: Schools for developing a profession (pp. 74-97). New York: Teachers College Press.