Theories and Practices of Teacher Education

Lecturer: Dr. Carol Hordatt Gentles
Course: Theories and Practices of Teacher Education
COURSE CODE: EDTE 6003
ASSIGNMENT TWO
University of the West Indies, Mona Campus
Huntley Anderson
620040068

“The responsibility for Jamaican teachers’ professional development lies with teachers themselves. The fact that they do not understand this is because the quality of people we are recruiting into the profession is poor.”

Teacher autonomy in professional development is both a right and a responsibility of the individual teacher. This can be furthered by the collaborative development of capacity within school communities working together to support professional development through joint planning and execution of professional development activities and events. It is the responsibility of the school to provide mechanisms and resources to ensure both individual teachers and groups of teachers have equitable access to professional development.
It is sad to say that many colleagues view professional development as a work procedure but not as a continuous development of competencies to deliver ones roles and responsibilities. The fact that they the majority of the teaching profession do not understand this is not because of a poor quality of teachers being recruited but because there are no implemented structures on how professional development is executed within the schools or delivered from the Ministry of Education.
Until it is viewed as pertinent to ones’ personal development and is conducted in a meaningful way, this requirement to continue in the profession may lose the general objective for providing continuous training to develop individual competencies.
Quality professional development has the power to increase educators’ knowledge of academic content and teaching skills, while changing the norm of what may Jamaican teachers believe about student learning and how they interact with students. Not all Jamaican teachers’ have bought into how powerful professional development transforming schools into places in which all adults and students are deeply engaged in learning and making meaning of their lives.
Continuing Education
The Jamaican experience should be encourage teachers to pursue further studies in teaching pedagogy. Working towards advanced degrees can be both financially and professional rewards such as working towards a graduate degree while there is a disconnect between teacher recruitment into the profession from personal development continuity, these organizations which is affiliate to teachers cannot only encourage teachers to take charge of their own development. There are a number of groups or associations with which the teacher are affiliates and they should help to develop programs to keep in touch with developments in the field, effective teaching practices, and changes in resources. Thus active a membership fees does not mean active participation but it will develop a sense of continuity and meaning to our profession like that of the legal or medical profession where professional development lies with the attorney or medical personnel to be upgraded frequently.
Teachers’ views on professional Development will significantly influence their motivation to attend Professional Development and will influence its implementation, sustainability and success in integrating the curriculum and accompanying strategies into teachers’ regular classroom practices. When the quality of people that are recuited into the profession is poor they have no interest in profession development as they are not dedicated teachers. This teaching job for them might just be a means of surviving until a better job that interest comes along. These teachers are normally just qualified in the content area but lack teaching methods, so they just impart knowledge from book and does not provide innovative ways for teaching students. Some of these tea her have no passion for teaching the profession is just a stepping-stone for them.
Jamaica Teaching Council believes that professional development should be required throughout the career of teachers. Poor quality teachers are not interested in the professional development programmes as they do not want to be provided with equal opportunities to gain and improve their knowledge and skills, which is important to their positions and job performance, as other dedicated employees in the profession. A lot of people who are being hired as teachers are basically not component. One view is that taxpayers contribute to a system, which should be a quality education system, employing quality educators and that poor quality teachers considered ineffective. The Jamaican education system currently has a stronghold power base of mediocrity located in a strong bureaucratic system that is always resisting changes in the teaching profession, so they show no interest in professional development as they are not interested in changes.They do not look for any form of opportunity as they are safe remaining in the same classroom, teaching the same subject to the same groups of students within the same programme.
According to Spence (2008) great leaders and great teachers equal great student's. It therefore follows that poor quality teachers are choking the overall quality of teaching. Poor quality teachers fabricate excuses, take no responsibility for their actions, and are not very responsible to their students. They show very little or no interest in professional development as they rely soley on textbooks for content and activities and do not always link learning to student’s knowledge base. Once a poor quality teacher is recuited and moves up to permanent position it becomes very difficult to remove them from the system. These teachers continue to resist change and may even actively contribute to the removing of quality and innovated teachers from the system. Spence and Sawchuk shared a similar view that the classifications of poor performance are consistent average across the workplaces; at least twenty-five percent of teachers are of poor quality. With that percentage of poor quality in the education system, that is showing little or no interest in professional development, one can see that they not only sponsor poor performance of students, but they affect leadership and quality of teaching within the school.
Research carried out on professional development (Sawchuk, Nov. 10, 2010) shows that professional development is a challenging one to study. Hard data which equates professional development and better quality teachers are difficult to come by. Professional development relies on a two-part transfer of knowledge, which indicate that teachers behaviour change in accordance with the new knowledge and skills and those changes must subsequently result in improved student mastery of subject matter. These complex matters relating to those transactions make professional development a challenging one, so one still does not have enough evidence to say that the quality of people that are being recruited into the teaching profession is poor because they do not feel that the responsibility for professional development lies with the teachers themselves but as a teacher of information technology I believe that it is pertinent to participate in professional development as it allows me to keep abreast with the rapid changes in technology and be able to use and impart this new and updated knowledge to my students. I am sure professional development for teachers who view it as ongoing learning opportunities believe it is vital to school success and teacher satisfaction.

Reference

Spence, Earline (2008) NAE (National Education Association) Great Public Schools for every student- Professional Development

Harris, D. N. Sass, T.R., "Teacher Training, Teacher Quality and Student Achievement" Journal of Public Economics,95, 2011.

Sawchuk, S., "EWA Research Brief: What Studies Say About Teacher Effectiveness," 2011.

Sawchuk, S., "Studies Link Classroom Observations to Student Achievement," Education Week, April 26, 2011.

Sawchuk, S. "New Teacher-Evaluation Systems Face Obstacles," Education Week, Dec. 16,
2009.

Sawchuk, S., "TAP: More Than Performance Pay," Education Week, April 1, 2009.

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[ 1 ]. I believe that I have a responsibility for on-going professional development. Autonomy is determine my professional development needs based on my professional practice. Thus engaging in reflective practice to determine my professional development needs.