In this article, Kathryn Joy, Teaching and Learning Lead at Cambridge University Press, explains why professional development is important for teachers and explores how to implement it effectively within a professional environment.
Why is professional development important?
“The quality of the teaching system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.” McKinsey & Company, 2007.
Research has shown a connection between the approach to professional development and the improvement in outcomes for schools. It doesn’t matter what school a child goes to, but it does matter what classroom they are in. The most critical difference is the quality of the teacher (Sanders and Rivers, 1996).
Looking at the research, it comes as no surprise that schools are looking to invest in professional development opportunities. It’s within their best interests to create an environment where teachers feel positive about their own learning.
How can you create an environment that encourages development?
We’ve had a look at why professional development is so important, but it can be difficult to know where to start. Based on research, there are six key factors involved in creating an environment that supports professional development (Kraft and Papay, 2014).
What makes effective professional development?
Based on research from the Teacher Development Trust, our professional development team broadly refers to a set of eight key elements of effective professional development.
Quick tip: Remember that several of these factors overlap and work in correlation with each other.
Culture of learning
In your school, how do your teachers view ability and learning potential? Does your school have a growth mind-set?
To improve the way both teachers and learners view ability and learning potential, it’s important to create a classroom culture in which all involved see ability as incremental rather than fixed (Carol Dweck, 2006). Remind yourself that there is always something new to learn.
Collaborative
Teachers can learn a lot from school-based shared experience, but online communities such as our Cambridge Teacher Support Service can open up networks across the globe.
Online platforms provide additional opportunities to connect to a wider teaching community. Collaboration can also include external expertise from peers or education experts.
The focus can be on broader pedagogical topics, such as assessment for learning or active learning. However, some teachers may learn better in subject-specific groups that share the same subject focus e.g. mathematics or science.
Overall, opportunities for collaboration generate opportunities to gain feedback from peers and experts e.g. through peer observation.
Sustained
Consider how to implement professional development over time. This could mean building a long-term professional development strategy or investing in long-term support, such as our Cambridge Teaching Skills Roadmap.
When developing a plan, think about the importance of feedback. It is not just about training or sharing information, but about following up with additional support and providing teachers with recorded feedback to support their development.
You might decide to build specific opportunities for feedback into your development plan. As a result, you can keep track of any changes and make improvements to teaching and learning.
Different experience levels
It is also important to recognise that teachers have different experience levels and starting points. A professional development plan should provide support to all, regardless of where they are on their teaching journey.
From our own research, we know that learning about teaching methodology is a key training need for lots of teachers. However, as suggested above, some teachers may prefer to engage in subject-specific training. There may be ways to adapt the development programme to better suit the needs of the teachers.
We’ve seen how important it is for schools to invest in developing their teachers, however it takes time and commitment to embed a development culture in a school. If you’d like support and guidance, take a look at our professional development opportunities.
The content for this article is taken from Kathryn Joy’s recent talk at our Be Ready for the World conference. If you would like to find out more, watch Kathryn’s full session on our YouTube channel. Or if you would like to know more about our Primary and Lower Secondary books helping students to be ready for the world, check out our hub page.
