Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/engaging-our-teachers/5017024/
The aim of professional development is to give teachers the opportunity to consider their beliefs and attitudes around how they engage with children in teaching and learning.Chris Bayes, Development Officer (centre licenser), New Zealand
A director recently remarked to me that in the coming months she would have to hire four new teachers. Her tone was forlorn as she went on to say, “I just don’t know what I could be doing differently. So many of the promising teachers I hire don’t stay very long, and my least desirable teachers stay forever. What’s wrong with this picture?” I told Heather that she wasn’t alone, that this was a frequent lament of child care directors. Neither of us was reassured by that fact, but rather, disconcerted in our plans to move ahead with an effective training plan for her staff.
This harkened me back to the above words from Chris Bayes whom I met while working in New Zealand. Her notions of the aim of professional development stands in stark contrast to what I commonly see in the United States. Perhaps probing this a bit further could help us redesign our training efforts such that the most promising teachers stay because they are ...