Saturday, December 31, 2016

Professional Development For Teachers Should Be A Very High Priority

By Douglas Cole


Teaching used to be seen as a calling, but in modern society it often seems as if educators have received the short end of the stick. They have to deal with classes that are simply too large to allow any individual attention to learners. They do not have much time or opportunity to interact with fellow educators and they spend most of their time in isolation. Many educators are longing for programs aimed at professional development for teachers, which will help them become better educators.

Many people think that educators just teach and that they therefore have a short working day. The facts are that educators carry a heavy work load. They have to be involved in extra curricular activities, they have to attend many meetings and they have numerous administrative responsibilities. In addition, they have to attend school functions and sports events. Most educators have to take some of their work home.

Apart from carrying a heavy work load, educators also have to work within a system that is woefully short of every imaginable resource. There are not enough teaching aids, not enough support staff or educators and definitely not enough funds to provide students with the opportunity to receive an education in a well equipped environment. Educators have very few opportunities to develop professionally in order to advance in their careers.

One of the easiest and cheapest ways in which schools can help their educators to develop professionally is to become part of an instructional rounds system. This very popular system involves small groups of less experienced educators to attend the classes of very experienced or talented educators. The aim is to learn by observing. Numerous educators have testified to the fact that they learned much by taking part in instructional rounds.

Successful educators take responsibility for their own professional growth and many of them use technology to achieve this aim. They belong to discussion groups where peers advise each other, where new ideas are presented, results discussed and questions asked. They also enrol for on line courses and they attend on line seminars. This interaction with other professionals, albeit over the ether, play an important role in developing educators professionally.

There are other ways in which technology, especially the internet, can help educators to progress on a professional level. Access to the internet means access to countless resources such as teaching aids, multimedia files that help explain difficult concepts and additional information on any subject imaginable. Access to the internet can therefore play a vital role in helping educators to become better in their jobs and to obtain better results.

Educational experts agree that the key to a quality educational system lies in helping educators to grow professionally. It is the educators that form the front line of the entire system. Sadly, they also agree that there are simply not enough such opportunities. They advocate that educators should be given bursaries for further formal studies, that more development seminars be arranged and that the budget for education be revised drastically.

If educators are given opportunities to grow professionally it is just possible that teaching becomes a calling again, instead of just a job. In many ways, the future of a nation can be linked to the quality of education received by the present generation. With enthusiastic and well qualified educators that future can be rosy.




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