Universidad Autnoma de Guerrero

Unidad Acadmica de Lenguas Extranjeras

Maestra en Docencia del Idioma Ingles

Teacher
professional
development.
Final essay

Student:

Kissa Cern Salas

Subject:

Teacher professional
development
Teacher:

MC. Mercedes Rodriguez

Burgos

Group 101

Teacher Professional Development is the continuous process of looking and

taking learning opportunities to grow personally and professionally with the aim of
always continue preparing oneself to develop skills that allow the teacher to
perform better in his/her practice (Speck and Knipe, 2005). Teacher professional
development is really important because it provides teacher with new opportunities
to develop him/herself in different aspects in the same field and to incorporate new
activities and the new knowledge that will help to develop some other skills in order
to improve his/her work and contribution to the area.
The main purpose of this essay is to present an overview of the aspects
related to the Professional Development of a Language Teacher, the main purpose
of this work is to inform and compare different types of activities and considerations
for teachers to develop professionally, in this sense, this essay covers several
aspects related to the Teacher Professional Development, and it presents some
issues like: the expected knowledge that a teacher should have, following by the
implications related with being a Teacher of Teachers, the ways to instruct teachers
and how the role of a teachers as a students can change inside of the Professional
Development preparation route; In addition to this, some ways to carry out with the
Professional Development process are explain, some of this are: Collaborative
Professional Development, Self-observation, Designing lessons, courses and
materials and Professional Development through research. Finally, the future
challenges that a Language Teacher can deal with in the path of develop
him/herself professionally are presented.
Having a tittle as a teacher does not mean that a person is completely
ready to teach and that all the knowledge and skills necessary to be in front of a
classroom are acquired: as part of the Professional Development (PD) for teachers
(especially English Teachers)

is extremely important to have the specific

requirements that are necessary to transmit and accomplish the learning of another
languages from students, and since the PD is an ongoing process is important to
keep updated all the time in order to be side by side with the requirements of a

globalized world. In the Mexican context, the following are some of the
characteristic that an English Teacher must have in order to impart the subject:
1. - Language skills.
2. - Knowledge of the student development at different ages.
3. - Knowledge related to the teaching of a language.
(PNIEB, 2009)
First, teachers must have language skills in order to teach correctly the
language. Second, teachers must be aware of the differences in teaching
according to students age. Finally, teachers must have knowledge of the different
theories, methods, approaches and methodologies that can be applied in a
classroom in order to teach English. If a teacher covers this aspects then it means
that the In Service Language Teacher has the necessary knowledge and skills to
be in charge of teaching the language, but this does not mean that the learning has
ended, on the contrary, it provides an opportunity for the teacher to continue the
preparation but focusing on another areas or skills, since the knowledge required
for being an English teachers has been already acquired.
Once that teachers, who are interested in PD, have develop the necessary
skills to teach to regular students (elementary, secondary and high school
students), teachers can follow their preparation in order to teach to a higher level,
in this case, university students. So, the next step to follow in the Professional
Development of a teacher could be to perform as a Teacher of Teachers (ToT).
Being a ToT has as outcome to help learners become effective teachers of a
foreign language (Maggioli, 2012) and as part of the instruction process, the ToT
needs to be aware of all the aspects and implications of being a ToT. Some
components to take into account are: The Instruments; they represent the tools to
be used by the ToT. The second element is the Divisor of labor between the ToT
and the teachers: the interacting, participating, planning, reflective processes. The
third element is the Community which represents the school, students, school
authorities and researches on the field. Finally the fourth element is the Rules
which are the regulations, curriculum, teaching standards and syllabus accepted by

the two parts (Maggioli, 2012). Of course teaching to a higher level requires some
other specific and different aspects that are not involved in basic education, and its
the ToT responsibility to provide the future teachers with the assumptions of what
they are going to face, some situations are going to be faced only in the classroom,
there lies the importance of having a ToT with experience in the field and that can
be able to cover in an appropriate way all the doubts and issues that can arise in
the instructions of the teachers in training and that only a prepared person with
experience will be able to answer.
The instruction of future teachers (as it was mentioned before), requires
some other aspects different from teaching to basic education. The main difference
is that the instruction is different and its mostly driven by the students themselves
or Learner-Centered: they have to construct their own learning, make decisions
about their outcomes and take responsibility of their learning process, only with the
monitoring of the teacher (Di Napoli, 2004). There are some models which are
used in the training of future teachers, which are Learner-Centered and especially
designed for the instruction of future teachers, those models are:
The Craft Model: the young trainee learns by imitating the experts techniques and
by following the experts instruction and advice (Wallace, 1991).
The Applied-Science Model: teachers learn to be teachers by being taught
research-based theories (Wallace, 1991).
The Reflective Model: based on the assumption that teachers develop
professional competence through reflecting on their own practice (Wallace, 1991).
The Modular Model: consists of five modules: Knowing, Analyzing, Recognizing,
Doing and Seeing; this model pretends to develop in prospective and practicing
teachers into critical thinkers, exploratory researchers and transformative teachers
(Kumaravadivelu, 2012).
These models provide a guide in which ToT can follow with their instruction,
but the best model would be a holistic one, in which the most meaningful aspects
of each model are taken into the classroom in order to have all the aspects cover:

knowledge of the teaching theories and the opportunity to practice and observed
with an expert teacher, and following the modular model to improve and reflect with
the cycle. No model is better than the other, but all of them provide with very useful
approaches to teach to the teachers in training and most importantly: they are
specifically focus in training teachers so the outcomes will depend in the way the
ToT approach this models, there lies the importance of preparation and knowledge
about the subject.
One very important part of the Professional Development, is the assistance
of teachers to special courses, seminars, workshop, courses, conferences and
even to obtain a Masters or PHD title. What all these activities have in common, is
that when teachers attend to them they go as Teachers in the role of students.
Even when teachers already have a tittle, they go back to the role of students in
certain situations, but, even when they take the role of a pupil again, this does not
mean that the approach to teach them is going to be the same: the instructions of
teachers happens under two perspectives:
1. - A knowledge transmission perspective: Knowledge about teaching and
learning can be transmitted to teachers by others. Where learning is seeing as:
First, learn about teaching; then, observe and practice; finally, develop effective
teaching behaviors.
2. - A socio-cultural perspective: Based on assumptions that knowing, thinking,
and understanding come from the practice of learning and teaching in specific
classroom and school situations. Where learning is seeing as: Learning to teach;
then, understand the culture and context where teaching takes place; finally, the
activity of teaching and learning.
(Johnson & Freeman, 2001)
This two perspectives have in common two aspects: learning about teaching
and practice. And differ in the developing of teaching behaviors and understand the
culture and context. Even when they have differences, the similarities cannot be
unnoticed: is an essential part of teaching to know how to do it and then practice it.

The other two aspects are aim to the different purposes that the teacher had to
take depending on the specific activity, teachers needs and context of work: to
improve the teaching behaviors or being aware of the differences among teaching
places.
Another important aspect to underline where the teacher takes the role of a
students, is that the type of activities are different as well: they are more
autonomous, based on reflection in order to change something, and its
effectiveness will depend on the degree of commitment that the teacher has
towards the realization of them, because the learning will only happened if the
teacher follows the activities and ToT instructions. Some examples of the activities
used are: Seminars, feedback sessions, projects, group reflection, buzz groups
and open learning, just to mention some (Wallace, 1991).
Professional Development does not happen just individually, as an activity
that a teacher has to carry out bye him/herself, this process can also occur with the
collaboration of a peer who is interested in PD and is willing to collaborate to
improve

the

teaching

practice

and

grow

professionally.

Collaborative

Professional Development can be defined as any sustained and systematic

investigation into teaching and learning in which a teacher voluntarily collaborates
with others involved in the teaching process, and in which professional
development is a prime purpose (Johnston, 2009).
According to Jonhston (2009), there are eight ways in which collaborative
teacher professional development can occur:

1. - Action research, teachers make a small-scale research into their own

classroom, just as Kemmis and McTaggart (1988) mentioned: it is only action
research when its collaborative and it is achieved through the critically examined
action of individual group members.
2. - The Narrative inquire consists in the narration of the teaching practice in
order to be analyze and re-tell to obtain a significant feedback from other teachers.

3. - The Cooperative Development is similar to the action research, the only

difference is that cooperative development follows and use certain form like
checklists or questionnaires design by the peers.
4. - In the Exploratory practice, teachers solve puzzles or specific problems in
their classroom, using specific procedures like data gathering.
5. - In Team teaching, peer teachers involved work together in the design and
planation of the class, taking into consideration the specific needs of the students,
always with the purpose of professional development.
6. - The Dialogue Journal Writing is consistent with the teacher writing to express
himself about his practice and later publish this writing or print it in order to be
shared with other teachers that can provide an assessment or feedback to the
work.
7. - With the Long-Distance Collaboration, teachers share their experiences with
other teachers around the world and just like in the Dialogue journal writings, the
other teachers provide a feedback.
8.- Other possibilities, some options like Peer visitation, Peer interviewing, PeerMentor Observation and Publishing communities, are include.
Collaboration in PD, provides an extra help from a peer, and the opportunity
to find another aspects or issues in the classroom that might not been observed
before. One advantage of this is that with peer collaboration, other teachers can
identify what you havent and provide another perspective of everything that
happens in the classroom. Another advantage of Collaborative PD is that it can
happen not only presential but also via internet with the use of Blogs and Emails,
where teachers from all over the world can comment about their experiences in
order to enrich yours. Finally, the teacher can become critical him/herself since this
is and exchange activity and what the teacher receive from the other teacher is the
same that he/she has to do.
One advantage that Collaborative Professional Development provides, is the
fact that through collaboration teachers cannot only exchange experiences, but

also all type of materials and programs that they have. There are some cases in
which the course book or the curriculum use in a school or program does not meet
with students performance or level or when a teacher is required to create a
specific program with a specific purpose, in this cases, the teacher needs to create
or Design lessons, courses or materials. But is not just to create a program from
scratch: it has to follow certain stablish guide o national program in order to meet
with what students are supposed to learn (Richards, Platt and Platt, 1993). And the
most important aspect to take into account when designing a course, material or
lessons are of course the students: their level, what they want to learn, their age.
The importance of needs analysis is mentioned by Hutchinson and Waters (1996),
Jordan (1997) Robinson (1990) when saying that any approach to course design
should start with some kind of analysis of: target needs, present situation,
language, etc. With the data obtained it will be possible to formulate general aims
and more specific objectives as intended outcomes.
In this sense, following the path of becoming more critical, one way of
Professional Development that does not involve peer collaboration is the SelfObservation in Teacher Professional Development, in this case, the teacher is
the one in charge of doing the observation, by using a recording device that allows
teacher to observe the teaching practice after this happened and in this way
identify what is working and what is not, and then look for a way to correct or
change certain aspects of their teaching. In the self-observation, the teacher is the
one who assesses the origins, purposes and consequences of his or her work at all
levels (Bartlett, 1990) and its also the one in charge of the decisions to be made in
the classroom. This activity provides the opportunity for teachers to develop
autonomy, reflection and awareness, in a more private situation, because
according to Cosh (1999) many teachers may still feel nervous about being
observed although the emphasis is on self-development. One consideration to bear
in mind, is that during the recording of the lesson, teachers must be very careful
with the place they put the recording device, in order to avoid students to realize
they are being observe; this can affect considerably the behavior of the students in
a positive or negative way and as a consequence of this, the observation will not

be valid since the behavior of the students is not normal, and of course, changes
and implementations will not be possible to made; this phenomenon is called
Reactivity (Heppner, Wampold & Kivlinghan, 2008). For this reason and in order
to have a correct appreciation of the classroom behaviors and practices, it is
recommendable to place the device before students arrive to the classroom and at
the back of the class to have a view of the whole class, including the teacher.
One final procedure that teachers can do in order to grow professionally, is
the Professional Development through Research. The first step to become a
teacher involve in the investigation, is that first teachers have certain knowledge
about research, for example: learn about the methodology for investigation, how to
observe and do interviews, take notes, ask, reflect and develop theories about the
actions in the classroom, among others (Uttech, 2006). Once that teachers have
acquire what really research is about, then they are going to be able to implement
it in their own teaching practice through the use of the Action-Research. Action
Research is widely perceived as a viable approach to helping teachers develop
their teaching practice and promote their professional competency (Atay 2008;
Gao, Barkhuizen, and Chow 2011). The main difference that Action-Research has,
is that once that the teacher has finished with the theoretical part of the
investigation process, with the finding, he/she can promote or implement actions in
order to solve certain problematic identified through the research or just in order to
improve the teacher can experiment some theories or hypothesis in his/her
students. The good thing about Action-Research is that students are not exposed
to an outside investigator that (just as it was mentioned before) can affect the real
behavior of students, and since students are with their teacher, then the
observation can be carried out without students can even notice. Action-research is
a very powerful tool for teachers but also for students since they are the main
beneficiated with the results of the investigations. And for PD, research represents
the immersion of the teacher in a scientific area which also have as main
beneficiated the students.

Teacher professional development, can only bring advantages to the

teachers that are interested in growing, but, they must be aware of the type of
challenges that they might face, because at the end of the day: any type of
preparation requires a commitment with oneself and also be aware that it will take
time to master something. Some of the Future challenges for teacher
professional development that they might face in their path to become
professionally develop are: Introducing new activities in ways that inspire buy-in;
balancing principal control with teacher autonomy; Committing to ambitious goals;
maintaining industriousness in pursuit of those goals; and effectively harvesting
and sustaining the gains (Ferguson, 2006). Teachers dont have an easy duty to
follow when it comes to PD, especially because the updates that are happening
every year, and its crucially important that teacher are aware of all those changes
and part of the PD is about that, about being inform and updated with information
all the time. Also, technology play an important role, especially with the proliferation
of Internet that allows to communicate and have access to an uncountable number
of resources to use in the classroom, as long as the teacher has the necessary
skills to access to that information. Nowadays, is really important to be able to use
the technological devices that can improve the teaching practice and results in the
classrooms but this is part of the professional development. This does not have to
be seen as a challenge, but as another opportunity to learn something new.
At the end of the day, teachers must remember that the real reason why
they are doing all of these, is to improve students learning and if that happens then
it means that the next generations will be more prepare to face the new challenges
of the world and as a result of this we will have better human beings living among
us.
As a conclusion, we can say that Teacher Professional Development has as
main purpose to enrich the teacher knowledge and skills in order to improve their
teaching practice. This process can happen individually (Self-observation, through
Action-Research, attending to specialized courses and keep update with new
information) and also in a collaborative way (through peer observation, team

teaching, journals, among others), but this does not change the main purpose
which is professional and personal growth.
The main advantage of the Professional Development, independently of the
activity or technique that the teachers do, is that they become aware of what is
happening in the classroom: they analyze, observe, check, reflect and the come up
with a possible solution or approach to something they identify in their classroom;
in this way, teachers develop problem-solving abilities and as a result of this, they
improve their teaching practice.
With the continuous preparation, teachers keep up to date with what is new
in the field, and they are able to identify what events that they can implement in the
classroom according to their students specific needs, because as it was mentioned
before, they know their students better that anyone, and they are the more
capacitated to make educational choices depending on their perception and
analysis of what is going to benefit the pupils.
In my opinion, Teacher Professional Development, is the best way to
improve and become a better teacher, because it provides with more tools and
knowledge to use in the classroom, and is the only way to be updated and follow
the changing educational choices of a globalized world that requires every day
more from students, and growing professionally means that a teachers will be able
to give more for students.
I consider that more than an option, professional development should be a
path taken by all teachers, because at the end of the day the main objective of all
teachers is the same: improve the learning of the students; and growing
professionally will enrich the achievement of this objective and as a result of this
the new generations will be more prepare to face every day challenges.

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