Continued professional development of teachers is generally regarded as a function of school leaders who can influence the culture and organizational structure of the school. A school leader plays a critical role in the area of teacher professional development, and it reflects upon the success of the school.
Professional Development of teachers is a crucial DNA in successful schools. Yet many schools undermine the importance of empowering their teachers continuously.
School leaders are expected to cultivate a school culture conducive to the teachers' professional development. Providing purposeful staff development programs and one-on-one staff coaching can help create an environment where teachers can strive to achieve their full potential.
What is the Focus of Teacher Professional Development & the Role of School Leaders Seminar?
As the pedagogical leader in a school, the leadership team is responsible for creating a school culture that allows the teachers ample scope to achieve excellence in their professional development journey. This can be achieved by leading, guiding, and supporting the teaching staff’s learning process and by ensuring joyful learning at all levels. Promoting innovative pedagogy, learning from the best practices adopted by other schools, and encouraging the staff to stay updated on new ideas and tools can go a long way in ensuring effective teacher development.
Teacher empowerment is a significant aspect of teacher professional development. Career growth opportunities and academic leadership positions should be made available for teachers at all levels across schools. Teachers should have more autonomy when it comes to choosing aspects of pedagogy in classroom teaching. If teacher professional development is to be prioritized, more significance needs to be accorded to pedagogical leadership in the teaching and learning process.
When we talk of teacher professional development, one major area to focus on is teacher meetings. Such meetings are held for numerous reasons, including curriculum planning and communication of key developments within the institution. While conducting meetings, teachers often face time constraints and might be unable to get the most out of these crucial meetings. Adopting certain strategies to better plan and coordinate these meetings can help to make them more effective.
Teaching is a highly fulfilling yet stressful profession. More often than not, teachers end up feeling unappreciated despite their efforts to educate the younger generation. Teachers need recognition for the value they add to society and appreciation for their professional achievements. School leaders who acknowledge the efforts of their teachers and boost their morale consistently cultivate a work culture that encourages continuous teacher professional development.
How to Make the Most of Your Teacher Meetings?
Teacher meetings are held for numerous reasons, including reviewing lesson plans and student assessments, discussing key developments within the workspace or the industry, and facilitating professional development sessions. The school leader is responsible for ensuring that each teacher meeting is purpose-driven and empowering for everyone involved.
Implementing powerful strategies to facilitate communication between the school leader and individual teachers can go a long way in ensuring that each meeting is effective and leads to meaningful takeaways. Each teacher meeting is different and can be convened most effectively only by implementing the right strategy.
The eminent speakers at the webinar on "Teacher Professional Development - Role of Leaders" offered many insights and strategies into Teacher Professional Development
The webinar touched upon the need for learning & development in teachers to the degree and variants of intervention at all hierarchical levels. The featured speakers also shed their valuable insights on impactfully implementing the reflections of all professional development learnings.
Take a look below at key takeaways from the sessions
Webinar 1: "Teacher Professional Development - Role of Leaders"
This webinar was chaired by experts Ms.Poonam Khanna (Primary Lead, Harvest International School, Bangalore), Ms. Radhamani, Principal, NSN Memorial School, and Ms. Shazia Tabassum -Principal - Greenwich Academy, Hyderabad.
They analyzed the necessity of a transformational development journey among the teachers as well as how teachers are benefitting from their decades of experience. Below you will find the key takeaways from the immensely valuable session.
One of the Key Takeaways was
- Focus on the content than on the teachers
The leaders must ensure that the parameters which are being identified for teachers’ professional development should focus more than the mere observation of teachers. The perspective should be shifted to the betterment of the content, not the teacher. This focus shift will eliminate the hesitation of being observed and the teachers would be more welcoming towards the same.
- Implementation of training till the classroom level
The experts couldn’t stress more on the importance of implementation of learning and development among the teachers. The reflections of the developmental training should reach classrooms, until then the final step of any training could not be achieved.
- The emotional development of teachers
Along with the social and professional development, the focus should be given to the emotional development of the teachers too. It is very crucial to the socio-emotional development of the children as well.
The webinar also stressed the transparency of the whole process for the teachers to be more secure and adapted towards the approach of their professional developments through observations.
Watch the full recording here in case you missed it!
