Research has shown that a significant proportion of teachers think that professional development does not meet their needs and over half reported that they wanted more development than they actually received during the previous 18 months.
Why is this? Well the main reason is that professional development is often perceived as requiring a formal process such as attending a training course. If teachers aren’t being “sent” on a programme with a cost attached to it then, it’s not deemed to be development.
The reality though is that this is the most ineffective form of development. Effective professional development is a process of on-going learning that takes place all the time, but to be meaningful it needs to be planned, structured managed and reviewed.
