mardi 11 avril 2017

Maximizing The Effect Of Professional Development For Teachers

By Catherine Hayes


Teaching is one of the most important professions in the world. For most of the year, children are in the care of these educators. Parents expect them to comfort, console, befriend, and discipline their charges in addition to teaching them everything they need to know to become successful and productive citizens. This may be an impossible job, but many dedicated individuals attempt it daily and wouldn't do anything else. In order to give them the best tools available, to make the work easier and more effective, professional development for teachers training is implemented.

Educator feedback is important to the leaders of these training sessions, and one thing they often hear is a complaint about speakers who have never actually spent time in the classroom. They may have advanced degrees and be published authors, but they have never faced a room full of children who would rather be somewhere else. Years of classroom teaching experience is preferable in someone instructing other experienced educators about the job they are already trained to do.

Education theories are of no interest to many in the teaching profession. They would rather deal with practical matters and hands on demonstrations when they attend seminars. Many professionals argue that theory and practice are complimentary, and are equally important. There have been many educational fads based on unsound theories over the years that have undermined the solid evidence about how different environments affect children and how children develop and learn. This is unfortunate because the unsound theories tend to be the ones most remembered.

Most educators do not go to school every day for the paycheck or because they get three months off in the summer. Most love the jobs they do and want to be the best educators they can be. Training sessions should make them better and more effective teaching professionals. They do not need more paperwork or more reports to file.

Some speakers at training sessions spend a lot of their time advancing ideas that sound great, but cannot be put immediately into practice in the classroom. These plans and ideas sometimes take weeks and months to develop and may only become practical too late in the school year to be of any help to the staff.

When they spend their own time going to seminars or teaching sessions, educators need to feel that the subjects discussed are relevant to their situation. If they are not, the time has been wasted. Seminars and classes should be targeted to specific groups and the subjects should be meaningful.

It sometimes seems like there is an ongoing battle between classroom educators and administration officials. Goals often seem to be at odds. Many teaching professionals would like to see board members and principals attend training sessions so they can hear exactly what is on the minds of the staff directly in charge of young people.

Individuals who choose teaching in a classroom, with all the challenges and problems they face, should be given the most effective tools possible to do their jobs. Listening to their suggestions about the best way to do that is important.




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