What is Teacher Professional Development?

Professional development, in a broad sense, refers to the development of a person in his or her professional role. More specifically, teacher development is the professional growth a teacher achieves as a result of gaining increased experience and examining his or her teaching systematically.

Professional development includes formal experiences (attending workshops and professional meetings, mentoring, etc.) and informal experiences (reading professional publications, watching television documentaries related to an academic discipline, etc.). This conception of professional development is, therefore, broader than career development, which is defined as the growth that occurs as the teacher moves through the professional career cycle, and broader than staff development, which is the provision of organized in-service programmes designed to foster the growth of groups of teachers; it is only one of the systematic interventions that can be used for teacher development.

When looking at professional development, one must examine the content of the experiences, the processes by which the professional development will occur, and the contexts in which it will take place. This perspective is, in a way, new to teaching. For years the only form of ‘professional development’ available to teachers was ‘staff development’ or ‘in-service training’, usually consisting of workshops or short-term courses that would offer teachers new information on a particular aspect of their work.

Teacher professional development was usually unrelated to the teachers’ work. Only in the past few years has the professional development of teachers been considered a long-term process that includes regular opportunities and experiences planned systematically to promote growth and development in the profession. This shift has been so dramatic that many have referred to it as a new image of teacher learning, a new model of teacher education, a revolution in education, and even a new paradigm of professional development. There has recently been a significant increase in the level of interest and support that teachers throughout the world are receiving in their professional development.

The new perspective of professional development has several characteristics:

1. It is based on constructivism rather than on a ‘transmission-oriented model’. As a consequence, teachers are treated as active learners who are engaged in the concrete tasks of teaching, assessment, observation and reflection.

2. It is perceived as a long-term process as it acknowledges the fact that teachers learn over time. As a result, a series of related experiences is seen to be the most effective as it allows teachers to relate prior knowledge to new experiences.

3. It is perceived as a process that takes place within a particular context. Contrary to the traditional staff development opportunities that did not relate ‘training’ to actual classroom experiences, the most effective form of professional development is the one which is based in schools and is related to the daily activities of teachers and learners. Schools are transformed into communities of learners, communities of inquiry, professional communities and caring communities because teachers are engaged in professional development activities. The most successful teacher development opportunities are ‘on-the-job learning’ activities such as study groups, action research and portfolios.

4. Many identify this process as one that is intimately linked to school reform; professional development is a process of culture building and not of mere skill training which is affected by the coherence of the school programme. In this case, teachers are empowered as professionals, and therefore should receive the same treatment that they themselves are expected to give their students.

5. A teacher is conceived as a reflective practitioner, someone who enters the profession with a certain knowledge base, and who will acquire new knowledge and experiences based on that prior knowledge. In doing so, the role of professional development is to aid teachers in building new pedagogical theories and practices and to help them develop their expertise in the field.

6. Professional development is conceived as a collaborative process. Even though there may be some opportunities for isolated work and reflection, most effective professional development occurs when there are meaningful interactions, not only among teachers themselves, but also between administrators, parents and other community members.

7. Professional development may look and be very different in diverse settings, and even within a single setting, it can have a variety of dimensions.

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