Tailoring Professional Development Programmes to Meet Teachers’ Needs

If the aim of Education for a New Era is not just change, but change for the good, resulting in improved teaching and learning outcomes, allowing teachers to remain in stasis cannot be an option. Indeed, it seems that the more ambitious the aims of educational reform, the more critical teachers are to its success. Innovation almost always involves a change of direction, and a change in pace, but to succeed, these must overcome the inertia naturally inherent in a teaching workforce which may be inured to years of rote learning and recitation, and to retaining the status quo. Assuming that change will occur by osmosis or leaving it to accident, is surely a recipe for failure.

If teachers are the agents of change as Fullan (1995), Hargreaves (1989) and others argue, then they must be equipped to change themselves, including their behaviours and practices, and those of the learners for whom they are responsible. Developing teachers as professional practitioners is an essential element of successfully designing and implementing innovation and reform, especially since the literature is clear about the importance of teachers as agents and actors in taking reform forward and achieving whatever ambitions are associated with it. This means as I noted earlier, that ‘developing’ teachers is integral to change and intended outcomes, and this cannot be merely incidental or worse, accidental.

What this clearly means, is that reform and innovation will surely fall short, unless it is accompanied by well-designed and carefully implemented programmes tailored to meet the professional development needs of the main stakeholders, the teachers.

If teacher professional development is central to educational reform and to achieving the ambitions embedded in Education for a New Era, then new approaches e.g. standards-based models of curriculum and assessment, rely on teachers who are re-skilled and re-educated about what is involved and which new strategies are needed. Without the essential pre-cursor of professional development related to new curriculum and assessment for example, it seems unfair and unreasonable to expect that teachers will make the transition ‘automatically’ or be guided by some ‘unseen hand’.

Within educational settings, as indicated earlier, it is generally understood that professional development includes multi-varied learning experiences which are typically planned, and intended to improve teachers’ classroom pedagogy and thus, teaching and learning outcomes. This means that professional development can occur in diverse situations and settings. It need

not be confined to just one approach, or to ‘formal’ activities such as those delivered by institutions of higher education for example.

Of course, for professional development to be effective, no matter where it takes place, requires sound planning and forethought, noting that Hopkins (2001:9) emphasises professional development through in-service training, supervision and mentoring in collegial surroundings. Fullan (2001a:71) extends this premise by suggesting that the successful implementation of professional development requires continuous encouragement, in which, “the more factors supporting implementation, the more change in practice will be accomplished”. Hopkins also notes the need for support in the design of professional development action plans, asserting that such plans should have clarity of purpose and statements relative to outcomes of professional development for teachers.

In studying various aspects of professional development, Hopkins (2001) adds weight to the research of Havelock and Huberman (1978) and Stacey (1992), by indicating that adult learning is a process of individual change which is diverse and which does not lend itself to some pre- ordained blueprint with rigid structures. Therefore, if professional development is to be successful, and result in dramatic changes in classroom teaching, a classroom-based system which evaluates and reports on the outcomes must be established. It is only through well- designed systems that monitor educational change, that its effects and successes can be tracked. Following a similar line of thinking, Scheerens (1992) argues that successful classroom pedagogy may be sustained through a shared vision of change objectives inclusive of continuous in-service training, professional development, time for teacher collaboration, and support for increased

teaching skills and knowledge of curriculum content. The importance of a shared vision on change objectives becomes more evident in Chapter 7.

Dalin et al. (1994) strongly suggest that it is continuing in-service training available at the school site, and effective monitoring, coupled with support systems and strategies, that promote successful educational change. These authors also state that successful professional development demands longitudinal policies based on extended timeframes for professional development. Further support for Dalin et al. (1994) is found in Goldenberg and Gallimore (1991), who state that changing a teacher’s belief system and subsequent teaching behaviours in favour of educational change, requires time, monitoring, and resources; and these types of change do not occur overnight by simply offering a series of scheduled professional development workshops for teachers. Goldenberg and Gallimore (1991) further argue that ‘one-shot’ workshops for teachers do not work, and do very little to advance educational reform. They add that “to genuinely improve teaching, we must say goodbye to quick-fix workshops and hello to staff development that provides intellectual stimulation and opportunities to develop new knowledge and skills” (ibid: 69). The types of professional development needed by women ESL teachers are discussed in Chapter 8.

Building on the work of Goldenberg and Gallimore (1991), Shulman (1987) argues that professional development for teachers should be based on a teaching knowledge base. He further asserts that this kind of knowledge base would be a powerful strategy for professional development programmes. Shulman’s study reveals that the majority of professional development programmes concentrate on a teacher’s classroom management style, but in reality, very few are actually focused on “the management of ideas within the classroom discourse” (1987:1). He

teacher practice in the following domains: practice of change in the curriculum practice of instruction, practice in the use of subject-matter or content knowledge, and practice of pedagogical skills based on teachers’ beliefs and understandings.

Thus, according to Shulman (1987), teachers should be encouraged to use the context of their classrooms to further develop their professional skills. The classroom context includes: content knowledge and skills relevant to what students need to know and be able to do, educational materials, e.g., curriculum and assessment, the teaching and learning process, and collegial practice by working with experienced teachers toward developing their own teaching strategies and skills. In Chapter 8, I show how the ESL teachers in my study lacked encouragement from school support organisations to make sense of their context.

MacGilchrist et al. (2004) take a position broadly consistent with Shulman’s premise and his recommendations, arguing, as does Shulman (1987), for continuing personal and professional development opportunities for teachers. They also add that professional development can have a strong influence on learners’ skill development, self-confidence and classroom behaviour, and state that it is necessary for teachers to stay abreast of changes in their areas of expertise, particularly in respect of the content of what they teach. MacGilchrist et al. (2004) cite relevant research that shows that teachers need to be concerned with improving pedagogy, continuous learning, and with gaining knowledge in scientific discoveries which are related to their teaching responsibilities.