Professional Development for Educators
A school system's most important asset is its teaching force. And the most important investment a school board, administrators, and parents can make in a school system is to ensure that teachers continue to learn. Continuous, high-quality professional development is essential to the nation's goal of high standards of learning for every child.
Professional development is a continuous process of individual and collective examination and improvement of practice. It should empower individual educators and communities of educators to make complex decisions; to identify and solve problems; and to connect theory, practice, and student outcomes. Professional development also should enable teachers to offer students the learning opportunities that will prepare them to meet world-class standards in given content areas and to successfully assume adult responsibilities for citizenship and work.
Professional development should
- deepen and broaden knowledge of content.
- provide a strong foundation in the pedagogy of particular disciplines.
- provide knowledge about the teaching and learning processes.
- be rooted in and reflect the best available research.
- be aligned with the standards and curriculum teachers use.
- contribute to measurable improvement in student achievement.
- be intellectually engaging and address the complexity of teaching.
- provide sufficient time, support, and resources to enable teachers to master new content and pedagogy and to integrate this knowledge and skill into their practice.
- be designed by teachers in cooperation with experts in the field.
- take a variety of forms, including some we have not typically considered.
- be job-embedded and site specific.