"Choosing the Right Path: Understanding Models of Professional Development in Education"
- Get link
- X
- Other Apps
Choosing the Right Path |
In her 2005 paper, "Models of Continuing Professional Development: If considered as a structure for analyzing PD as presented in “A Framework for Analysis,” Kennedy offers a useful way of thinking about how it can be done effectively. To that end, she presents a framework for classifying the PD models by the approach, the type of goals, and the nature of the teacher engagement that such models foster. These make it easy for the schools and educators to select the relevant PD, which suits the needs of the school.
Professional Development in Education |
Kennedy also mentions one
model, the training model, which is
more about teaching new skills and transferring information. This approach is
straightforward: it provides teachers with actual strategies or approaches they
could implement in the learning-teaching process immediately. On the other pole,
there is the model like a community of
practice that will let teachers work in pairs or groups, to share ideas
and discuss difficulties they face in teaching in the framework of a friendly
knowledge community. This model is centered on the brotherhood and sisterhood
of people as well as their mutual enlightenment.
Most fascinating is the change model which does not confine
itself to teaching practices, but aims at changing the educators’ approaches to
teaching. This model is supposed to disrupt the status quo, and force educators
to enhance their practices and make a difference that sustains a lifetime.
Kennedy’s framework
demonstrates why it is relevant to synchronize PD with the desired outcome. For
example, changing goals from a competencies-based training model might be
achievable with skill-based goals, while if the shifts are from a traditional
transmission of knowledge model of teaching to a more innovative or progressive
model, then a transformative approach is most probable. In this way of
categorizing PD, Kennedy assists educators and the institution in planning for
professional development that brings about real improvement in education and
not merely in acquiring skills as part of the training while reducing the
likelihood of having ineffective PD that does not foster educational
improvement.
- Get link
- X
- Other Apps
Comments
Post a Comment