Professional Development
I. Introduction
Throughout
history, education is extremely important for human beings both mental and
physical development. However, the two main actors play key roles in education
system; the receivers who are students and the providers who are educators. The
beginning of the new millennium within the new era of globalization, many
societies are engaging with the education reform in which there are many
elements in the education reform needed to improve, but the essential element
is teacher’s ability improvement and the professional development.
In
response to an increase of student enrolment of higher education institutions
from 92,340 students in the 2006-2007 academic year to 137,253 students in the
2008-2009 academic year (UNDP, 2011), a number of higher education institutions
has increased rapidly. That is, in 1996, only one private university was
opened, and currently 32 public higher education institutions and 45 private
ones are opened (UNESCO, 2010). An increase of higher education institutions
would require a larger number of teachers to fulfill the teaching
positions. It has been noticed that
although the teachers of the higher education institutions have increased
rapidly, teacher professional development system has not formally been operated
in most higher education institutions in Phnom Penh as well as elsewhere in
Cambodia.
In this study, two instructors were elected for
interview about their experience and strategies to find out how academic instructors
develop their professional development which is related to our topic “what are
the strategies of professional development in higher education?”
In other words, the curriculum is a statement of the
goals of learning that teachers have to follow the curriculum and provide the
best quality of learning, so the teachers should know better way how to develop
student’s education in class or what methods they should apply to improve
learning and teaching quality.
II.
Literature Review
There
are many scholars and authors defining the term “Professional Development”.
However, professional development is a kind of professional development in
teaching career in which it refers to the development of a person in his or her
own professional role in teaching. According to Glatthorn (2006, p.130), “professional
development is the professional growth of a teacher who achieves as a result of
gaining increased experiences in his or her teaching.” Actually, teaching
development can be both formal and informal experiences which a teacher retrain
or participate in many forms of seminar, workshop, or conference. However, Glatthorn
(2006), “watching any kinds of documentaries related to academic educations can
help a teacher develop his or her professional skill as a professional teacher.”
Furthermore,
Jack C. Richards &Thomas S. C. Farrell (2005), “the concept of professional
development is broader than career development in which teaching development
can be categorized into many characteristics such as teachers are treated as
the active learners who engaged with evaluation and reflection of the teaching
and teaching development is the long term process in which teacher needed to
retrain or participate in the form of seminar or conference about teaching
development.” However, Christopher Day
and Judyth Sachs (2004) stated, “teachers who are engaged in cycles of
effective professional learning take greater responsibility for the learning of
all students; they do not dismiss learning difficulties as an inevitable
consequence of the home or community environment.” Christopher Day and Judyth
Sachs (2004) continued, “As they take more responsibility, and as they discover
that their new professional knowledge and practice are having a positive impact
on their students, they begin to feel more effective as teachers. Like greater
expectations, heightened responsibility is developed most effectively when
teachers observe that their new teaching practices are having positive impacts
on their students.”
In
addition, Sara Bubb (2004) stated “Professional development is kinds of
building both on foundation of skills, knowledge, and expertise and
professional skills of teaching. However, professional development must build
upon the current foundation of basic skills, knowledge, and areas of expertise
of the educational personnel involved. Professional development will link new
knowledge and activities with what the practitioners already know and are able
to do, and will extend their thinking and all teachers bring strengths to the
profession and want their students to achieve and feel successful; teachers
will attempt new ways of teaching when they are convinced that their students
will benefit.”
However,
the professional development is about teachers learning, learning how to learn,
and transforming their knowledge into practice for the benefit of their
students’ growth. “Teacher professional learning is a complex process, which
requires cognitive and emotional involvement of teachers individually and
collectively, the capacity and willingness to examine where each one stands in
terms of convictions and beliefs and the perusal and enactment of appropriate
alternatives for improvement or change,” Beatrice
Avalos (2005).
Moreover,
according to Jack C. Richards and Thomas S. C. Farrell on Professional
Development for Language Teachers (2005) stated “there many kinds of resources
or areas that teachers can build up their professional development such as
workshop, self-monitoring, teacher support groups, keeping a teaching journal,
peer observation, teaching portfolios, analyzing critical incidents, case
analysis, peer coaching, team teaching, and action research.”
Furthermore,
“successful teachers keep on learning and so they continues to develop their
professional skills and there are three factors that the teachers need to
improve such as: improving English proficiency and accuracy through reading
newspaper in English, listening to English on the radio, keeping a diary in
English, talking in English to other English teachers, translating in ones’
head, and talking to the students in English, improving teaching skills through
self-reflection, keeping a teaching diary, observing other teachers, and team
teaching, and improving the leadership through self-improvement and class
leadership” (KAO Sophal, Introduction to TESOL, p. 92 &92). Whereas Sparks and Loucks-Horsley (1990)
proposed “five models of what they called staff development: the individually
guided staff development model; the observation/assessment model; the
development/improvement process model; the training model; and the inquiry
model.”
“Professional
development skill in teaching will lead to effective learning of the students
and effective teaching of the teacher. Moreover, this can fulfill the students’
needs and reflect the outcome of the students”Andy Howes, S.M.B. Davies and Sam
Fox (2009).
III.
Research Methodology
In order to complete this task in the research on
Teacher Development, I need to spend some times as follow,
For the first week, I
find out and surf the internet for relevant documents through various websites
and including books, newspapers for the whole week. During the second week, I
collect and combine all data that I found together in order to set up the
specific source and create the questionnaires for interviewing on the topic, The
third week, after the teacher provided some guideline on my topic, I prepared
for interviewing the target people who were appointed at PUC. In this study,
two instructors from PUC were elected for interview about their experience and
strategies to find out how the teachers of English and academic instructors
develop their professional development which is related to our topic “what are
the strategies of teaching professional development in higher education in
Cambodia?” I spend 30 minute for interview by asking them directly at Main
Campus.
Later, I started analyzing, interpreting, and writing
the research paper. Moreover, I analyze the findings with the lecture theory,
theory and policy that we found in the lecturer review and any documents.
To conduct the research
on the topic “Professional Development in Higher Education” perfectly, I need
to choose the major elements including the strategies that teachers
of English and academic instructors
used to improve his or her professional skills in teaching.
IV.
Finding and Discussion
The
findings of the study reveal that, there are many approaches which the teachers
will be able to develop and improve their professional skills in teaching.
Those strategies include joining teaching development training course,
participating in seminars, conferences, and workshop. Moreover, teachers can
also improve and build up their professional development in teaching skills
through self-learning and self-development. In other words, 100% of them agree
to use these strategies to develop themselves as a professional development as
follows:
Ø Workshop participation: Workshop is an intensive,
short-term learning activity that is designed to provide an opportunity to
acquire specific knowledge and skills. As said “Workshops can provide input
from experts, offer teachers practical classroom applications, raise teachers’
motivation, develop collegiality, can support innovations and so on.”
Ø Self-Monitoring and
Self-Reflection: self-monitoring is also a starting point in teacher development is an
awareness of what the teacher’s current knowledge, skills, and attitudes are
and the use of such information as a basis for self-appraisal. What one of them
had said, “Self-monitoring or self-observation refers to a systematic approach
to the observation, evaluation, and management of one’s own behavior in order
to achieve a better understanding and control over the behavior.” They
continued “like other approaches to reflective teaching, self-monitoring is
based on the view that in order to better understand one’s teaching and one’s
own strengths and weaknesses as a teacher, it is necessary to collect
information about teaching behavior and practices objectively and
systematically and to use this information as a basis for making decisions
about whether there is anything that should be changed.” Both of them said, “There are three
approaches to self-monitoring of language lessons: lesson reports,
audio-recording a lesson, and video-recording a lesson.” Moreover, some
benefits of self-monitoring are mentioned “it allows the teacher to make a
record of teaching that he or she can use for a variety of purposes, it can
also provide an objective account of one’s teaching, it can help teachers
better understand their own instructional practices and make decisions about
practices they are not aware of and might wish to change, it can help teachers
develop a more reflective view of teaching, that is, to move from a level where
they are guided largely by impulse, intuition, or routine to a level where
actions are guided by reflection and self-awareness, it is teacher-initiated,
and it enables the teacher to arrive at his or her own judgments as to what
works well and what does not work so well in the classroom.”
Ø Teacher Support Group: one of them said, “teacher
support group can be defined as two or more teachers collaborating to achieve
either their individual or shared goals or both on the assumption that working
with a group is usually more effective than working on one’s own and a support
group involves a group of teachers meeting to discuss goals, concerns,
problems, and experiences.” Furthermore, both of them mentioned, “the group
provides a safe place where teachers can take part in such activities as
collaborating on curriculum and materials development, and review, plan, and
carry out activities such as peer coaching, team teaching, action research, and
classroom observation.” some purposes and benefits of teacher support groups
are said, “they are reviewing and reflecting on teaching, materials
development, trying out new teaching strategies, peer observation, observe
videotapes, write articles, and invite outside speaker.”
Ø Teaching Journal: both of them mentioned, “a
teaching journal is an ongoing written account of observations, reflections,
and other thoughts about teaching, usually in the form of a notebook, book, or
electronic mode, which serves as a source of discussion, reflection, or
evaluation.” Moreover, one of them continued, “the journal may be used as a
record of incidents, problems, and insights that occurred during lessons; it
may be an account of a class that the teacher would like to review or return to
later; or it may be a source of information that can be shared with others.”
Ø Peer Observation: “peer observation refers to a
teacher or other observer closely watching and monitoring a language lesson or
part of a lesson in order to gain an understanding of some aspect of teaching,
learning, or classroom interaction.”,
one of them said.
Ø Teaching Portfolio: both of them said, “a teaching
portfolio is a collection of documents and other items that provides
information about different aspects of a teacher’s work.” In addition, one of
them continued, “it serves to describe and document the teacher’s performance,
to facilitate professional development, and to provide a basis for reflection
and review.”
Ø Peer Coaching: both of them said, “Peer
coaching is a procedure in which two teachers collaborate to help one or both
teachers improve some aspect of their teaching.” Therefore, one of them
continued, “in peer coaching, a teacher and a colleague plan a series of
opportunities to explore the teacher’s teaching collaboratively.”
Ø Team Teaching: team teaching (sometimes called
pair teaching) is a process in which two or more teachers share the
responsibility for teaching a class. The teachers share responsibility for
planning the class or course, for teaching it, and for any follow-up work
associated with the class such as evaluation and assessment. It involves a
cycle of team planning, team teaching, and team follow-up.
Ø Reading Book: reading book is a kind of
strategies that the teachers use to improve to develop their professional
teaching skills. Reading book can provide the techniques of teaching skills and
other skills to help the teachers to improve and build up their teacher
development.
Ø Surfing the internet: of course, internet is the
rich resource for enlarge knowledge in term of professional development and
teacher development. In the modern world of technology, internet can
help teachers and other to improve and fulfill their knowledge.
More
than these, they let us know that professional development is the most
important course and strategy that every teacher needs to develop and improve
because professional skill in teaching will lead to effective learning of the
students and effective teaching of the teacher. Moreover, this can fulfill the
students’ needs and reflect the outcome of the students.
As
mentioned above, the teachers will be able to improve and develop their
teaching skills through improving English proficiency and accuracy, improving
teaching skills and improving leadership and in order to improve these factors
teachers need to participate in various workshops, seminars, and conferences or
professional teaching development training courses. Therefore, as teachers bear
a key role in the education of learners it is imperative that they give top
priority to professional growth. They should constantly be trying to find ways
to improve their knowledge, not only of their subject matter, but also of
pedagogical methodology.
V.
Conclusion and Recommendation
In
conclusion, professional development is a kind of method use to describe the
process of pursuing professional development or personality ability
development. Teacher Development generally refers to general growth not focused
on a specific job. It serves a longer-term goal and seeks to facilitate growth
of teachers’ understanding of teaching and of themselves as teachers.
Moreover,
they said “strategies for profession development often involve documenting
different kinds of teaching practices; reflective analysis of teaching practices,
examining beliefs, values, and principles; conversation with peers on core
issues; and collaborating with peers on classroom projects.” However, they
continued “although many things can be learned about teaching through
self-observation and critical reflection, many cannot, such as subject-matter
knowledge, pedagogical expertise, and understanding of curriculum and
materials.”
The
weak points will be improved when the teachers themselves know their weakness
and strength and there are many strategies that the teachers can use to improve
and develop their professional skills in teaching such as improving English
proficiency and accuracy through reading newspaper in English, listening to
English on the radio, keeping a diary in English, talking in English to other
English teachers, translating in ones’ head, and talking to the students in
English, improving teaching skills through self-reflection, keeping a teaching
diary, observing other teachers, and team teaching, and improving the
leadership.
Throughout
our research, there are many strategies that the teachers can use to build up
and develop teaching profession skills such as workshop participation,
self-monitoring and self-reflection teacher support group, teaching journal
peer observation, teaching portfolio peer coaching, team teaching reading book,
and surfing the internet. In order to be a professional teacher in term of
language education, teachers have to know themselves that it is crucial to
learn those new techniques and strategies of teaching. In this research is
conducted in the small scale, so this research is regarded as non-reliable
resource and we would like to recommend to others who want to conduct on this
research topic ones will be able conduct more research to make this one to be
reliable and resourceful for everyone in the future.
The
teacher should understand that he or she is a resourceful person who will
provide knowledge to other, should find out more knowledge themselves to
fulfill the shortage point. When the teacher is knowledgeable and resourceful
with methodologies in teaching or a great deal of general knowledge, he or she
can provide a great deal of knowledge to his or her students. Therefore, Every
Teacher should try to develop themselves to be a professional ones in term of
professional development.
IV.
References:
1. Kao Sophal, TEACHER PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT: Self-directed Methods of Teachers of Public and Private Higher
Education Institutions in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 2012
2. KAO Sophal, Introduction to
TESOL, page 92 &93, 2010
3. Jack C. Richards &Thomas S.
C. Farrell, Professional Development for Language Teachers “Strategies for Teacher
Learning”, 2005
4. Christopher Day and Judyth
Sachs,International
Handbook on the Continuing Professional Development of Teachers, 2004
5. Barbara B. Levin, Energizing Teacher Education
and Professional Development with Problem-Based Learning, 2001
6. Andy Howes, S.M.B. Davies and
Sam Fox, Personalizing teacher
development through collaborative action research, 2009
7. Sara Bubb, The Insider’s Guide to Early
Professional Development: Succeed in your first five years as a teacher, 2004
