'Professional Development\r'

'Professional culture Do it and Remember â€Å"Wherever you compliments to go, you devour no choice still to start from where you ar”, (Karl Popper) Abstract This write up pull up stakes delve into the process of an already implemented and on-going proposal of teacher increment at a private girls’ Catholic inform in Capital Federal. The entrée will state the nature of the project, the jobs dealt with and the objectives, as substantially as the state involved. The writings Review will provide the reason necessary for its implementation, which includes nigh bibliographical references that served as backbone to the project.To flurryclude we will see the endpoints of the implementation of the proposal , the impact it has had on the subjects involved and its possible in store(predicate) ad honestments, the latter(prenominal) based on a perspective attached in the Appendix. Introduction thirteen classs ago I was offered to organise the side De partment of Primary naturalize at a catholic institution. The population involved in this lying-in were the owners, the government activity of the coach, the administrative staff, the teachers, who in the majority had been working(a) at the naturalise for some time, the pupils and, of course, their parents.On commencement analysing the graveluation, I set myself two fibres of objectives: pathetic boundary objectives and a long term one. The long term objective the regime commissioned me with, was to improve the level of English of the pupils. This overwhelming working class could only be fulfilled if I set myself myopic term objectives, which would serve as a scaffold to realise such aspiring(prenominal) terminal. It entailed thorough work on the teachers’ pro betterment, as it was my deep belief that the well-nigh important asset a domesticate could rely on for its improvement was the teachers.After academic term in during lessons, holding meetings and g etting to slam the teachers better, I was subject to have a drop off insight of what the challenges were and, therefore study an appropriate course of action. 2 literature Review Where to start? After roaming round the aim, getting acquainted with the premises, the first task to tackle was take a shit a true atmosphere with and among the teachers and to try to work with them in the same room I judge them to work in their lessons. There were antithetical dimensions to be shrink fromsidered and none was to be overlooked.One of those aspects was the teachers’ expectations with square off over to the coordination. The new coordination would certainly bring to a massiveer extent or less changes and I had to find out how bore and flexible they were and if they were not, the challenge would be to displace the work for change in them. I teach only as well as the atmosphere that I engender. I believe that education is change and that I will not be adapted to educ ate unless I am in addition able to change. (K. Head and P. Taylor (1997- p. 10) For this change to be welcome, the affective dimension was crucial.There was a learn to create unstructured time for them to be together and exchange experience and ideas: (…) some different experiences that shape your life and make you the person- and the teacher- that you are. (K. Head and P. Taylor, 1997- p. 19) Successful teamwork would only imply place if each participants’ individuality were respected. This would create the ground for the teachers to feel that they could be themselves and could each contri moreovere, in their own style, to the process of change and development in the area.Personal awareness of their capacities and skills would primarily result from self reflection and by their own questioning of who they are and what they do rather than by any external training agenda. (K. Head and P. Taylor, 1997- p. 1) The coordination’s initial job was to draw informati on somewhat the teachers’ inescapably and deeds, to act accordingly. Sitting in on classes provided the coordination with a clear go through of reality. The positive features were to be enhanced and the cast out aspects were to be reversed.To release pressure from teachers, the counselling of the coordination would not have to be on the result, i. e, the product of an individual lesson, but on a thorough analysis of the current developmental process. Inspirandose en Sartre (1956), van Lier (comunicacion personal) comenta que en la formacion de profesores les parece util considerar el desarrollo del profesor dentro de un amplio espectro de experiencias (ver figura 1). Tener se relaciona con el conocimiento (de la materia que se ensenan y de pedagogia, del yo y de los demas) y los recursos de que disponen los profesores, hacer con genus Sus destrezas y habilidades para construir oportunidades de aprendizaje, y ser con sus cualidades personales, su vision y su sentido de l a mision. (J. Arnold, 1999, p. 22) Ser Tener Hacer Figura 1: Areas para el desarrollo del profesor so the idea of providing workshops that would cater for the needs was implemented. mapping Planning The implementation of the teachers’ weekly planning of their lessons proved to be effective. The teachers received quick feedback, comments, referions, praising and criticism and were excessively able to ask questions and clarify doubts and exchange ideas.One way of seeing how the plans were put into practice was to watch lessons. This was very upholdful both, for the teachers and the coordinator, as they showed the needs of the teachers, their individual strengths and weaknesses. Self reflection was fostered by posing the teachers questions on problems to consider and analyse. This type of work was demanding. It was carried out for two years, but then changed to personal chats which, though more time consuming, were more profitable and welcome. cooperative work.Sharing id eas and achievements was an important part of the process. A travel copybook was one of many resources used on the way. With the truism No teacher is an island (M. J. Wallace, 1998, p. 207) the copybook circulated among the staff. instructors were advance to state the nature of a problem they had. The copybook passed on the 4 rest of them who, voluntarily, essay to view as a solution to their colleagues’ problem, or, if they couldn’t, just support. (…) professional isolation is crowning(prenominal)ly a barrier to professional development (M.J. Wallace, 1998, p. 207) Enhancing teachers’ expertness The identification of individual assets led to, what Wallace calls: serviceable division of labour. Specifically this resulted in turn lessons, provided by a teacher who was also an actress, Cooking lessons, a teacher whose family was in the catering business, just to mention some of a variety of contributions; each teacher with their special talent. Wor kshops In this process, the coordination saw the need to provide teachers with the state of the art in the area of ELT.In order to do this, the teachers were invited to hang up in-service courses which sprang from an geographic expedition of their needs. Guided by the motto â€Å"you learn by doing”, the teachers were not lectured on the different trends but experienced their lotion during the workshops; if they happened to be interested in the opening behind the practice, they could always resort to the dilate bibliography provided. It was important to raise the teachers’ awareness as to the theory behind their action so that they had the tools to choose and change.Teachers use their intuition a lot to tackle different issues in their daily work, what Head and Taylor call action-knowledge. They should capture aware that there is always a theoretical background to what they do, and that the awareness of this will broaden their scope of choice in the classroom sit uation. Teachers’ language proficiency was an opposite(prenominal) issue to consider and develop, as about of them had finished their teacher training courses and had stop studying English systematically.The workshops were also lie to improving their language skills. Conclusion The ultimate objective of the coordination can be say to have been reached, though not completely. Its supremacy can be measured externally by an International Exam the pupils sit at the end of their Primary initiate: Cambridge Preliminary English Test. After a lot of hard work, this has been a great achievement. The teachers were given a questionnaire to complete (Appendix 1) whose results are under analysis.However, the teachers’ immediate reaction to the task resulted in more food for fancy than the actual written completion of the questionnaires. The teachers 5 expressed their satisfaction with what had already been make as regards their professional development, and couldn’t suggest any further subject for future courses. This may have two readings: on the one hand, teachers also have a sense of achievement; on the other hand, it should encourage the coordinator to go on with the exploration of possibilities for development and improvement of the teaching staff.To conclude, though we feel that the long term goal was partly achieved, as a result of the implementation of the short term ones, it is clear to us that teacher development should be an on-going, never-ending, life-long process. Appendix 1 Professional festering: Survey- November, 2003 6 Dear teachers, I would be very grateful if you could fill in the following questionnaire and give it back to me as soon as possible. 1. How long have you been teaching English in this school? Write X where appropriate) 1 year More than 2 More than 5 More than 8 2. Have you go to courses for Professional Development at school or elsewhere? Yes: No: If your reaction is yes, which courses can you mention? ______ _______________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 3.Have your teaching strategies changed in some way as a result of the courses? If so, in what way? _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 4. What aspects of the school have contributed to your professional development ? give each a mark from 1 to 5, 5 being the most pertinent aspect) Choice of text-books: Project work: collaborative team-work: Coordination meetings: In-service training: Others: ____________________________________________________________________ _____________ _______________________________________________________ 5. What type of course would help develop your teaching further? set up suggestions. _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Appendix 2 Budget The school paid a salary to the coordinator to perpetrate her duties as such and to help the teachers develop professionally. The teachers, on the other hand, were â€Å"invited” to participate in the workshops and the owners of the school considered that the teachers’ participation in in-service workshops was a fringe benefit for them. References Head, K. and Taylor P. , 1997, Readings in Teacher Development, Heinemann, Oxford Arnold, J. , 1999, La dimension afectiva en el aprendizaje de idiomas, Traduccion de Alejandro Valero, CUP, Madrid. Wallace, M. J. , 1998, Action Research for Language Teachers, CU P, UK.\r\n'