Ways To Continuing Professional Development

Ways to continuing professional
development
Lifelong learning and continuous professional development in my opinion are
much the same thing. I doubt if many people would say that learning throughout
ones life is not a good aim to have. However, as far as CPD (Continuing
Professional Development) goes, I have always been disheartened to see how
some teachers are happy to go on much as they always have done, doing a
reasonable job but not developing to any great extent. Meanwhile, others strive to
push their boundaries and actively create challenges for themselves, learning
from their experiences and adding to their skills and their self knowledge, often in
their own time.
Many of us are somewhere in the middle. We want to develop professionally, and
while we are mindful of maintaining a healthy work-life balance, we are prepared
to find the time we need within our working lives to learn, develop and thereby
improve our practice. I recently did some research for a conference presentation
via an email questionnaire to experienced teachers, to find out about their CPD.
Most of the 34 teachers who responded had been teaching for ten years or more,
in private language schools, universities and colleges.
One question asked if they considered their CPD opportunities to be good,
adequate, inadequate or non-existent; more than half of them said they
considered their CPD to be good or adequate. Another question asked what
activities they had been involved in to keep up their CPD. I also asked those who
considered their CPD to be inadequate what activities would be ideal for them.
These were the areas which emerged:
Experts There is a lot to be learnt through taking advantage of all the experienced
and expert practitioners in the field of ELT, by attending sessions they may give at
conferences or, if teachers are lucky, talks that are available in their vicinity.
Reading readily available articles and books written by experts and participating
in online events or blogs with invited professionals is an alternative if experts
are not available in the flesh somewhere near you.
F2F workshops Similar to the above, but not necessarily with known ELT
professionals. Often teachers get a lot more out of smaller, more intimate
workshops where there is the opportunity to discuss and debate ideas and
opinions and take away ideas for classroom activities and to reflect on. Online
communities These may include an interactive virtual conference such as the
annual IATEFL online conferences sponsored by the British Council, or the blogs
on the TeachingEnglish website, or other forums and discussion boards set up to
encourage participation around ELT topics by teachers from all over the world.
Talking informally Joining other teachers in the staffroom discussing their next
lesson or the materials they are using is one of the easiest and most effective
ways of developing, especially if you borrow the ideas and try them out in your
own classes.
Individual reading Another easy way to learn that can include internet materials
and journals as well as actual books, which can be expensive and difficult to
obtain in some parts of the world. We can read anywhere in any short piece of
snatched free time.
Reading groups While reading is done individually, what is learnt can be
formalised in discussion in a reading group. Set a text to read and come together
with colleagues a few weeks later to discuss its content. So much can be learnt
through sharing of impressions and discussing issues the reading material raises.
Programmed action research You may be lucky enough to have a head of
department or principal who wants research results which shed light on what is
going on in his or her institution, and is prepared to provide time for teachers to
provide the evidence. This is one interpretation of programmed action research,
though there are lots of others, and teachers cannot help but learn from the
experience and the results.
Individual action research Similar to the above, but teacher-directed and not
imposed. Often very small scale, nevertheless so much can be learnt from
studying your students or yourself in the classroom, and there is a huge range of
aspects of teaching which you can put under an action research microscope.
Giving sessions This can range from a small in-school meeting where teaching
ideas are shared right through to a session at a large international conference. All
conference speakers started small and all teachers have something to say. This is
a particularly effective way to develop due to the planning and research which
takes place before the session as well as the discussion and feedback which it
provokes.
Writing Similar to the above, writing ranges from short articles right through to
books. Keeping a diary and reflecting on your teaching is a good way to start and
there are plenty of models out there to learn from, while the preparation and
research necessary teaches you as much as the writing and rewriting itself.
Doing a formal course This is often the first thing people think of when they think
about professional development. But it is often the most prohibitive due to time
and expense, and often courses do not provide exactly what is needed. If you are
lucky enough to be able to follow a course, however, make the most of the time
you have laid aside for thinking and learning, because doing a course is a great
way to develop.
Membership of professional bodies This can provide opportunities and facilitation
of many of the areas above, and although subscriptions can appear expensive,
there is often so much offered by a professional body that it justifies the expense.
Prepare to be active though, as so often you will get more out of it the more you
put in yourself.
Other ways The teachers I surveyed also talked about the following things they
had done that they found helped their professional development: engaging in new
professional activities, doing things for the first time peer observation trying out
different methods/approaches in class (sort of like action research) reflective and
exploratory practice, though not programmed or formally monitored being trained
up as a teacher trainer completing an online course to be an e-tutor participating
in projects in a group with fellow professionals forming a local group: to discuss
issues and take turns to lead sessions.
As you see there are plenty of ways to keep up your continuous professional
development in ELT. If a number of these activities are combined into a planned,
interlinked programme, with monitoring and evaluation, even if only by the
teacher him or herself, there can be real, satisfying results for teachers wishing to
keep up and improve their professional development. Which area of CPD is most
important for you?

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