The 5 Ws and 1 H of teachers'profess!onal development

Redefining the Early Childhood Development Profession in India

Maya Menon

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Breaking News !!Imagine such a headline, week after week....

What are the government & private school managements doing to ensure that all

teachers in all schools are being enabled to be the best that they can be?

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The Reality Hurts !

● One of the largest education systems in the world● Largest number of under-15years● 160 million children under 6 years

● Actual status & quality of Early Childhood Care and Education in India unclear

● Overall quality of teaching – a grave concern● Skewed sense of priorities amongst policy makers

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What can be done?

1. High quality pre-service teacher preparation & education

2. Rigorous & relevant continuing professional development(CPD) of teachers

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CPD is a complex domain.... Let's investigate

● Why is professional development of teachers critical for India?

● What sort of development opportunities are meaningful for teachers?

● What are the key obstacles to professional development?● Why should one spend time and money on PD when it

doesn't really change things much? ● Who should undertake professional development?

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CPD is a complex domain.... Let's investigate

● Who should provide professional development? ● When would teachers be ready for PD? When should teachers

undertake PD? ● Where is there time for PD?

● How can we measure the impact of PD? ● How does PD impact teachers and teaching?

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Why is professional development of teachers critical for India?

● We are caught in a contradiction – we value education but lack a culture of lifelong learning

● Competent teachers and effective teaching are the single most critical factor that improves school systems

● Most of our teachers have had mediocre learning experiences● Teachers lack a strong sense of personal and professional

identity● Need to neutralise the negative influences of one's own education

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Why is professional development of teachers critical for India?

● To become a country of great schools, we all need to become better teachers, every single one of us….

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What sort of development opportunities are meaningful for teachers?

● There is no ready-made formula for improving or enabling great teaching

● Meaningful PD should be ongoing, sustained and need-based. ● Ranging from body language, voice and demeanour,

personal identity, inter-personal skills, teaching methodologies, questioning skills and classroom management

approaches, to formative assessment, meaningful use of technology, reflection and documentation.

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What sort of development opportunities are meaningful for teachers?

● Honest review of existing practice, ● practising newly learnt approaches in class to acquire fluency,

● Coaching support ● Timely feedback

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What sort of development opportunities are meaningful for teachers?

Hands On

SupportiveEncouraging

Challenging

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What are the key obstacles to professional development?

● 1. Authentic, self-directed learning is an alien concept to most teachers

● 2. The vast majority of Education Dept officials, school principals, school managements are not able to distinguish between in-service training of teachers and professional

development of teachers.

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What are the key obstacles to professional development?

● 3. Lack of follow up nor emphasis on measurable outcomes.4. No career growth path charted out from pre-service days

● 5. Overwhelming teachers with too many changes● 6. Inadequate allocation and ineffective use of funds for

teacher development.

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Why should one spend time & money on PD when it doesn't change things much?

● Great teachers are not born – they are made – slowly but surely!

● No professional development goes waste – IF there's clarity of objectives and outcomes

● “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a

habit.” Will Durant

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Why should one spend time & money on PD when it doesn't change things much?

● Unfortunately school decision-makers tend to give priority and precedence to infrastructural improvements over

improving teaching quality ● Despite overwhelming evidence that - good teachers & great

teaching ensures student learning.

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Who should undertake PD?

● Educators at all levels need just in-time, job-embedded assistance as they struggle to adapt new curricula and new instructional practices to their unique classroom contexts.

(Thomas Guskey)

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Who should provide PD?

● This depends on what is the focus area for professional development.

● For e.g if a teacher wants to improve her voice modulation or diction (vital for ECCE teachers), a drama professional or voice coach would

be appropriate.● For pedagogy or classroom routines and processes & assessment practices the best people to provide PD are passionate, imaginative,

capable teachers

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Who should provide PD?

● Worrying tendency to equate training provided by providers of technology solutions as PD.

● Would professional development for doctors, architects, artists, lawyers etc. be provided by technology-solution

providers ?

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When would teachers be ready for PD? When should teachers undertake PD?

● “ Every teacher fails on a daily basis. If you are not failing you are not paying attention. Because we fail all the time.......

..........This job (we) do is so hard that one lifetime isn't enough to

master it. So every single (teacher) needs to accept the commitment to carry on improving our practice until we retire or

die. That's the deal”. Dylan Wiliam

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When would teachers be ready for PD? When should teachers undertake PD?

A good strategy to make teachers ready for PD is for every school administrator and head to assume that every teacher

wants to improve their teaching.

It's this attitude that will gain “cultural currency over a period of time” John Tomsett

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Where is there time for PD?

● If our survival or a school's survival depended on it – we would make time for professional development....

● We have to get away from the notion that teachers need to work the same number of hours or days as students !

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Where is there time for PD?

● Every minute that's spent in class, engaging with students, throws up opportunities for reflection, feedback by a peer or a

senior expert. ● Listening to a podcast by a specialist teacher, on the way to work,

reading an article by an expert on early years education, ● Sharing a teaching approach successfully implemented in one's

class all offer ways to develop professionally. ● Need-based formal professional workshops & courses on

aspects of effective educational practice.

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How can we measure the impact of PD?

● Good professional development needs to be evaluated using a backward approach

● What do we want teachers to learn and more importantly what competencies should their learners have?

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How can we measure the impact of PD?

● Good professional development needs to be evaluated using a backward approach

● What do we want teachers to learn and more importantly what competencies should their learners have?

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How can we measure the impact of PD?

● Guskey's (2002) 5 Levels of evaluating professional development:

1. Participants' reactions2. Participants' Learning

3. Organisation's support & change4. Participants' use of new knowledge & skills

5. Student Learning outcomes

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How does PD impact teachers and teaching?

Professional Development

Change in Teachers’

Classroom Practices

Change in Student Learning

Outcomes

Change in Teachers’

Beliefs and Attitudes

Guskey, T.R (2002) Teachers and Teaching : Theory and Practice Vol.8, No. 3/4

Every Teacher More enabled. More inspired.

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The 5 Ws and 1 H of teachers'profess!onal development

Redefining the Early Childhood Development Profession in India

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