Thinking and reflecting on what we have been doing as a training unit, the other day, I came across with a thought provoking post entitled ‘I’d like to think that I help people to learn English’ by Richard Whiteside. Reading the post was like receiving a letter in which some of the questions that were wandering in my mind were touched while at the same time some remained untouched.
When we look at business organizations, we see that Human Resource departments are responsible for “employee selection, training, evaluation, rewards and compensation, and termination” (Fatehi, 2008, p. 578) as well as for maintaining an adequate level of manpower strength, in terms of both quality and quantity, needed to achieve institutional goals (Selmer and Chiu, 2004). Studies have shown that the most productive employees are those who get extensive training (Fatehi, 2008); therefore, many organizations have put great emphasis on training employees.
Undeniably, today, training is essential for professional development, be it in a business organization or in academia.
After some years of teaching, you may find out that students may have difficulty understanding some concepts and concentrating on your lessons. We may blame our students for lacking interest and not listening to the lessons. Let’s face it! What we bring into class might have worked previously, but might be old fashioned for that particular generation… and what they bring might be new to us.
It’s not the students who have to change; it’s, we- the educators- who have to adapt the methodology to the “learning trend“ set by the students. Educational settings are dynamic places with students coming and leaving with different tastes, interests, and intelligences as well as different abilities. All these require ongoing change in the curriculum as well in the methodology and technology we use. We need training to refresh and develop as much as people in business organizations do. Whiteside says, “[d]evelopment is a personal thing, you can’t be developed, you can be trained…” (Whiteside, 8 March, 2011,¶3), which I definitely agree with.
Then, my question is…How could we better promote teachers for professional development? Should some training programs be optional, and some compulsory? Why, why not? I would love to hear your ideas.
References
Fatehi, (2008). Working Virtually: Managing People for Successful Virtual Teams and Organizations.
Selmer, J & Chiu, R. (2004). Required human resources competencies in the future: a framework for developing HR executives in Hong Kong. Retrieved July 10, 2008 from Science Direct. doi:10.1016/j.jwb.2004.08.001
Whiteside, R.( March 9, 2011). ‘I’d like to think that I help people to learn English’. Retrieved March 9, 2011 from http://richardteachesenglish.blogspot.com/
#1 by CoffeeAddict on March 13th, 2011
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Hi Nesrin,
You are certainly right to say that we all need to develop, learn and keep up with all that is new, for our students are growing children. However, I don’t think development can be forced. You can lead a horse to water but you canot make him drink…
Many schools in Turkey (private schools) ask so much of their teachers that they have little (if any) energy left for PD when their (very long) teaching days are over. Also the schools prefer “cost effective” PD to PD that is chosen by individual teachers. By cost effective PD I mean full faculty sessions on some “general” subject (for instance differentiated learning) which is OK but usually, since you’ll have teachers from all levels and subjects present, not spesfic enough to show the individual teachers how they can improve their own practice. Sessions like that change little.
PD that I feel that I have benefitted from has always been chosen by me, for instance the online courses I have taken to learn Moodle and about Learning Technologies (the BC one – it is excellent). Sadly, that kind of PD is expensive and schools may not want to pay for it. Do you think teachers (often seriously underpaid in Turkey) should bear the cost of such useful PD?
Schools also make it difficult for their teachers to take an interest in PD. I received no support during the blogathon for instance. It was (and is) considered a “hobby” that ı decided to involve myself in. Winning the IATEFL scholarship wasn’t all roses either: I had to apply for the days off to attend the conference and I got permission only because I will share whatever I learn there with my colleagues upon arrival – I will have to give several after-school workshops. Also I had to arrange for all of my lessons that week to be covered by my colleagues (yes, I had to do that myself and it involves swapping lessons – so I’m not getting “out of” any…). I am ready to go to Brighton now, but I don’t think I will try for any other scholarships in the future – It is just too much work!
Well, in summary then; all PD is not useful or effective and even the PD that is can be too much work and trouble to be worth it. Teachers are human and not superheroes – even though it doesn’t seem like that all the time
#2 by Nesrin Eren on March 16th, 2011
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Dear Karin,
What a wonderful, long reply! I really appreciate this. Tack Karin
I fully agree with you that learning cannot be forced; it can only facilitate learning if one feels the need. But, does this really mean that we should make training optional?
I have attended numerous trainings both voluntarily and also because I had to. While the ones I attended of my choice were truly more rewarding, I also remember I got a lot of things form some sessions that we were requested to attend as part of our program’s PD.
You are right in that schools may schedule training sessions after a long teaching day, which may sometimes be a challenge for the teachers. This does happen in our school as well. However, the only possible way of offering training to teachers is either after class or at the weekends as teachers have classes during the week. In the past years, we used to have Wednesday afternoons allocated for training or any other events, which was not felt as a burden at all but more as a happy hour in which teachers could leave aside everything for a while and switch to a different mode. However, we later realized that taking off a half day from the curriculum led to other drawbacks. It would actually have been great if we had a half day allocated for teaching and half day to training; however, this may not always be possible due to school’s limited budget as well as to the curriculum which we have to follow.
In regard to your question whether I think teachers should bear the cost of such useful PD, I would say that schools may not be able to offer such courses to everyone as it may be quite costly; however, it would be good to at least provide such trainings to a number of teachers per term, like we do at Bilgi. Teachers are offered various online courses each quarter (every 10 weeks), and they are free to pick the one that suits their need. As you state, taking online courses is an excellent means for PD- I have also benefited a lot from online courses. I have taken courses from ConsultantsE, which I would highly recommend to anyone who would like to further “develop”. Such courses are great in that teachers can be flexible and arrange their time accordingly. It is also good in that one has to discover the things oneself, which is probably the best way to figure out and learn about new methods, concepts, tools, etc. Nonetheless, I also believe that face-to-face training can contribute to greater results because of the instantaneous feedback as well as it can offer a live model to tasks or the methodology used.
I have particularly been interested in how, I, as a trainer, can facilitate a smooth transition process and have instructors get to know about the general changes. As there are many instructors who have been employed for more than five years, along with some new instructors, it is challenging to have everybody focus on the same things as the old instructors (when I say old, I mean teachers who have been employed more than 3 years) may already know what is presented, which may cause resistance to training. Therefore, 2 years ago, I decided to delve into this topic in order to find out how to better cater for teachers’ needs. Upon sharing the results and my proposition to the management (which was also one of my assignments for my master’s degree), we have implemented a new training syllabus with various options for PD, which has worked pretty well so far. (I am planning to share this in a later post).
#3 by CoffeeAddict on March 23rd, 2011
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Dear friend,
Selv tack!
Today I’ve been involved in the kind of PD that I mentioned above as not being super-rewarding. Admittedly I’ve picked up a few things (I blogged about one activity I found useful) but on the whole I think it is a waste to spend an entire working day and only be left with a few tips … I can get more out of a half hour search on the net or by reading a few blogs… I hope tomorrow’s session will be better. The topic is writing and scaffolding so I’m very hopeful.
So, you’re a teacher trainer? What sorts of courses do you do?
#4 by Willy C. Cardoso on March 29th, 2011
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Great post!
What I would like to see more is a version of learner-centeredness in teacher training, more and more teachers are asked to loose control and foment learner autonomy, but the training they receive is still too top-down, where is teacher autonomy in regards to their own development? Teacher trainers talk too much in my opinion, no ofence, I am one of them.
#5 by Nesrin Eren on March 30th, 2011
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Thanks for the reply Willy!
You are right in that teachers should be given some amount of autonomy; however, I think novice teachers and new teachers to an institution should be offered more guidance and direct approach. Research indicates that most teachers start a new job frightened at having to learn not only the content of the job but also the corporate culture (Greenberg & Baron, 2008). Thus, I believe it is important to provide direct training so as to facilitate a smooth transition especially for the newly employed teachers.
When it comes to PD in general, I would completely agree with you that teachers, with the help of some direction form TT, should decide what they should focus on. No matter how much you stress on the need, change can only happen if teachers believe in it.