Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Professional Development For Teachers Is The Key To Quality Education

By Douglas Cole


One would think that the working environment of educators is very social. After all, they spend all day among people. In most cases, just the opposite is true. Educators often work in isolation. They are overloaded and their classes are too big. There is little time to spend with colleagues. Even worse, the heavy burden that they carry make it very difficult for them to become part of any program aimed at professional development for teachers.

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.

There are some efforts to help educators to develop professionally. Instructional rounds, for example, have proven to be highly effective. This is a system whereby small groups of educators attend the class of an experienced and successful colleague. The aim is to learn from that educator. Observers get new ideas they can use in their own class rooms and they get the chance to interact with other educators.

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.

The internet is also richly populated with sites that give educators access to teaching resources. These vary from illustrations, sample exercises and multimedia presentations that can do much to simplify complex concepts. Using such technology can only improve the proficiency of the educator but also makes it easier for the students to do well at school and to actually look forward to their classes.

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.

Programs aiming at developing educators professionally should be a priority for every educational authority. Everyone benefits. The educator grows, the students benefit from that growth, the results improve and the quality of education is raised. This must surely be the result everyone wants.




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