What are some of the Professional Development Courses that Teachers can avail?

Education is a learning cycle without an end and teachers are life-long learners. Professional development for teachers helps them to keep themselves updated with the subject knowledge and the advances in the areas. Research shows student achievement increases by 21 percentile points as a result of professional development for teachers. Let us look at some of the objectives of the Professional development program for the teachers.

• Updating the subject knowledge with the advances in the areas. 
• To update the skills, attitude and development in the teaching techniques and stay updated with the educational research and development.
• Improvise the teaching techniques and apply the changes in the curriculum.
• Help schools develop and apply new strategies in curriculum and other aspects of teaching practice.
• To socialise within the teacher community and exchange the best practices of the teaching with fellow faculties.
• Help new and weaker teachers to become effective in teaching.

Professional development of teachers has a direct impact on the children’s learning ability and their overall development. It is not that teachers do not update themselves. There are various activities through which teachers try to keep themselves abreast with the current scenario but outcome varies from activities to activities. Listed below are the list of activities that teachers are involved in.

• Informal dialogue to improve teaching
• Courses and workshops
• Reading professional literature
• Education conferences and seminars
• Professional development network
• Individual and collaborative research
• Mentoring and peer observation
• Observation visits to other schools
• Qualification programmes

These are informal ways of development where teachers do update themselves. There are various reasons why teachers are not able to engage in formal programs of professional development, listing below few.

• Conflict with work schedule: Research in the field has come up with this common reason for teachers to not attend any professional development programs as teachers are not only engaged in teaching but there is much administrative work that consumes their time.
• Family responsibilities: All teachers start their career to have work life balance and to spend some time with Family and after school hours.
• Affordability: There are very few teacher professional development workshops in India, few that are available are either very expensive or many a time teachers are not aware of these programs.
• Lack of employer support: Teachers seek support/ encouragement from the School management to participate or complete these programs. There is no motivation to do such programs.
• Did not have the prerequisites: Very few school systems in India do the recruitment based on the professional development programs attended by the teachers. Even today, teachers are hired based on the Bachelor’s degree that is needed to be a teacher.

Even though all the above reasons are true, there are various benefits of Professional Development programs.

• Better Learning Outcomes for Students: Research Studies show students taught by the teachers who attended the Professional development program for the teachers had higher scores in all subjects as compared to the students who are taught by the teachers who were not able to attend any formal Professional Development program.
• Teachers Develop Better Skills in Organizing and Management:  Teachers learn the art of managing the time and stay organised making them efficient in their work and spending extra time to focus on student’s development.
• Teachers Gain Knowledge and Insight into Industry: Teachers are no longer only content givers but students expect them to be subject matter experts and help them understand the subject with utmost ease. The teacher who undergoes more PD develops the knowledge and insight of the industry and updates themselves with the current trends.

At Aditya Birla Education Academy, we are exactly able to identify the challenges faced by the teachers and the dire need of the time to keep teachers updated with the current situations. There are various programs offered by ABEA, where teachers can easily enroll into the program and keep themselves updated. Also there is opportunity to meet like-minded teachers, interact, discuss on the subject specific topic and become a part of the ever developing community. More information on the workshops can be checked at /workshops
 
Also read: Interested in training teachers? Find out how you can teach the teachers at ABEA
With the pandemic, what changes have come in teacher training workshops?