Continuous Professional Development Courses for Teachers

Continuous Professional Development courses for Teachers

INTRODUCTION

The vital part in every organization is to keep the staff to remain well trained and

prepared in every aspects and challenges especially a field which requires us to face

up with the public frequently The type of field is suggestively refers to educational

field

Professional development for teachers is now recognized as a vital component of

policies to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in our schools Consequently

there is increased interest in research that identifies features of effective professional

learning Considerable funds are allocated to a wide variety of professional

development programs from a variety of sources As investment increases

government policy are increasingly asking for evidence about its effects not only on

classroom practice but also on student learning outcomes They are also looking for

research that can guide them in designing programs that are more likely to lead to

significant and sustained improvement in studentsrsquo opportunities to learn

1Teacher development can be seen as having two aspects One is the input of new

theoretical ideas and new teaching suggestions The second is trying out evaluation

and practice of these new theoretical and teaching ideas over an extended period of

time in a collaborative situation where the teachers are able to receive support and

feedback and where they are able to re1113117 ect critically Both are important if all

three aspects of teacher developmentmdash personal professional and social

developmentmdashare to occur

(Linda Evans 2002)

The Research Unit of Ministry of Education Malaysia is seeking an approval from the

Secretary of Education regarding on the implementation of Continuous Professional

Development courses for Teachers which involving teachers with critical needs in

order to match the necessities of the current policies as the Ministry imposed

1 Oxford Review of Education Vol 28 No 1 2002

The interpretation of teacher development incorporates consideration of its having a

range of applicability that extends from an individual to a profession-wide level It

may be applied to variously formed professional groups or units such as individual

teachers the staff of an institution or a department in an institution teachers who

hold a common role (eg primary head teachers mathematics teachers further

education (FE) teachers) and the profession as a whole

As an area of study teacher development is dominated by examination of issues

while methods on the other hand are comparatively underexamined In this respect it

is quite distinct from most other key areas of educational study The studies of special

educational needs (mainly in Malaysia known as Pendidikan Khas) education

leadership and management primary education and assessment for example as well

as subject-based specialisms all include extensive examination of methods which

indicates how Special Educational Needs (SEN) children or primary school children

ought to be taught how schools and their staff ought to be managed how assessment

ought to be carried out The method is keep evolving according to the changes

occurred in which required globally The fact is the changes of information

technology and accessibility might mainly transforms the thinking ability of children

nowadays

The need of this stand shall be referred as the recent problems we had encounters and

received from various types of reports including problems rose from the

administrational task teaching and learning and even the curriculum assessment

Getting things to be remain constructively active we shall highlight the needs of

having this stand is also related to several sudden changes in the education policy

which is regardless of the several teachers which is below the ability and with their

limited knowledge in resources handling to execute the task proficiently Thus the

paperwork for the stand shall remain as relevant as to the evolvement related to the

educational policies and affairs

THE RATIONALE

We see teachers as more then lsquovariablesrsquo that needed to be changed in order to

improve the educational system according to the Ministryrsquos vision but for all of the

people they should regard the teachers as the most significant agent in order to see

some of the transformation which came out from the Ministry that is likely to have

some of different new approach in education system especially in the assessment

systems and the curriculum

Recently we found out some of the serious matters regarding to some school with

teachers that are lacks of some vital professional skills especially in information

communications technology as well as other resources handling

The concern is partly focused on how do teachers needed to do to match the higher

expectations from the administrator as well as the policies which designated targets

for schools or institutions that is mandatory to be met Higher expectations do always

require higher skills and intelligently executed The situation might refers to all

qualified teachers in their ability to evolving or transform in order to placed their

professionalism and ability to respond the surrounding changes as well as effectively

performs in the classroom

The recent correlated issues such us globalizations and the recent introductions of the

new curriculum should be a strong reason pertaining to have the program for the

teachers Professional development for teachers is a key mechanism for improving

classroom instruction and student achievement It create variability of teaching

applications as well as accordingly to the current evolvement of the educational field

mostly

Recognizing the short supply of high quality professional development for teachers

the National Education Philosophy formulated in 1988 mandated that teachers receive

such learning opportunities through the emphasizing of establishing education in the

country

ldquoEducation in Malaysia is an ongoing effort towards further developing the potential

of individuals in a holistic and integrated manner so as to produce individuals who

are intellectually spiritually emotionally and physically balanced and harmonious

based on a firm belief in and devotion of God Such an effort is designed to produce

Malaysian citizens who are knowledgeable and competent who possess high moral

standards and who are responsible and capable in achieving a high level of personal

well-being and being able to contribute to the betterment of the family society and

nation at largerdquo

Teachersrsquo professional development was recognized as a means to enhance the

teaching profession Some of the recommendations put forward by the committee

were

Teachers should be encouraged to attend in-service courses

Teachers should be encouraged to further their education

Opportunities should be given to teachers for study visits overseas to study

current developments in education

Induction programmes be given to teachers appointed to new posts and with

new responsibilities

Management courses be provided to those teachers who have been promoted

to head teachers

Staff rooms should be subject-based

Teacher centres should facilitate the professional development of teachers

they should be built in strategic locations equipped with modern technology

fully funded and adequately staffed

Under the governmentrsquos initiations of establishing teachers training centers we shall

aware that teachers shall not only being equipped by the current teaching certs and

degrees but a continuous development training We see the infrastructure can be

benefitted by all teachers all over nationwide and the manpower for the training

courses can be some expertise internally or by outsourcing through the collaborations

from other government agencies or corporate bodies

Another issues is the recent introduction of the new curriculum activity the Kurikulum

Standard Sekolah Rendah (KSSR) and Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Menengah

(KSSM) The curriculum is actually creating massive changes towards the teaching

approach rather then the current curriculum It is identified that the most demanding

part to be continuously focus on is to train the assessor and evaluation methods for the

teachers as the standards are actually did not clearly shows how achievements are

measure for the students Clearly it is to be stated that assessment is the most vital part

to end a journey in the school learning process through a standardized curriculum

There are some hightlights in the problems which mainly in our radar There are a

number of reasons why implementing the SBA in this way is unlikely to succeed and

these are discussed below

1 Lack of Knowledge To ask the teachers to follow the descriptors above is to

require the same knowledge they would need to become assessment designers

2 Modular Structure The KSSR syllabus describes its modular structure as

ldquoorganising the curriculum standards under five modulesrdquo which means that

skills related to reading are grouped together In order to ldquoread simple texts

with guidance however learners need to speak listen talk and respond

which are categorised under the Listening amp Speaking and Language Arts

Modules This also applies to reading skills when undertaking competencies

within the writing module as ldquoskills integration is exploited strategically to

enhance pupilsrsquo development of specific language skillsrdquo

To go through the KSSR and reorganise it would also require knowledge of language

and teaching methodologies that many teachers would not have even if they had the

time required to do this

3 Missing Descriptors Finally and partially because of its modular structure

some texts are very fully described by their competency descriptors while

others are less so For example the KSSR syllabi make repeated references to

reading and writing non-linear

Why Continous Professional Development

Teacher Preparation

The best teacher-preparation programs emphasize subject-matter mastery and provide

many opportunities for student teachers to spend time in real classrooms under the

supervision of an experienced mentor Just as professionals in medicine architecture

and law have opportunities to learn through examining case studies learning best

practices and participating in internships exemplary teacher-preparation programs

allow teacher candidates the time to apply their learning of theory in the context of

teaching in a real classroom

Many colleges and universities are revamping their education schools to include an

emphasis on content knowledge increased use of educational technologies creation

of professional-development schools and innovative training programs aimed at

career switchers and students who prefer to earn a degree online

Teacher-Induction Programs

Support for beginning teachers is often uneven and inadequate Even if well prepared

new teachers often are assigned to the most challenging schools and classes with little

supervision and support Nearly half of all teachers leave the profession in their first

five years so more attention must be paid to providing them with early and adequate

support especially if they are assigned to demanding school environments

Mentoring and coaching from veteran colleagues is critical to the successful

development of a new teacher Great induction programs create opportunities for

novice teachers to learn from best practices and analyze and reflect on their teaching

Ongoing Professional Development

It is critical for veteran teachers to have ongoing and regular opportunities to learn

from each other Ongoing professional development keeps teachers up-to-date on new

research on how children learn emerging technology tools for the classroom new

curriculum resources and more The best professional development is ongoing

experiential collaborative and connected to and derived from working with students

and understanding their culture

The Role of Teachers Educational Department (TED)

The Teachers Educational Department is another resources that can be benefitted by

the ministry for not just recruiting and training new teachers but also involves in

continuous development training for professional teachers We can see how TED

carries out its various operations with the help of the Planning and Policy Unit which

plans and determines the direction of teacher education By the role of TED we

believe by manipulating such an department we could manage to reach our goals of

reaching the high quality of a developed countries nation of education by upgrading

the knowledge as well as establishing a center of excellence for all teachers around

the country

We could see how we can benefit the government policies pertaining to the teachers

development program The professional development programme is designed to

provide in-service training for serving teacher trainers as well as primary and

secondary school teachers so as to upgrade their professional skills and competencies

academically and professionally in their respective fields We might recognize this as

an in-house training programme conducted by fine experts within the organizations

The goal is in order to meet the requirement of the policies as well as challenges

which prospectively in the highlight of the educational field

THE ADVANTAGES OF CONTINOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

FOR TEACHERS

We can see how does the continuous professional development for teachers can

actually provides some of advantages for their career path as to be referred

i) acknowledge teachers who are good in their field or subjects

ii) to improve the quality of teaching

iii) be a role model to other teachers

iv) to enhance school excellence by utilising the experience and expertise of

the ET

v) expand the horizon of promotion in educational services

vi) promote teachers without their leaving teaching behind or changing to

administrative duties

This is as to refers the Ministry of Education acknowledgement towards the necessity

of being trained continuously for the reason

Somehow we as well as they as a teacher they might look into a deeper situations as

they might positively responds to what they gained from their colleague or the trainers

as well Firstteachers who work together are more likely to have the opportunity to

discuss concepts skills and problems that arise during their professional development

experiences Second teachers who are from the same school department or grade are

likely to share common curriculum materials course offerings and assessment

requirements By engaging in joint professional development they may be able to

integrate what they learn with other aspects of their instructional context Third

teachers who share the same students can discuss students needs across classes and

grade levelsFinally by focusing on a group of teachers from the same school

professional development may help sustain changes in practice over time as some

teachers leave the schools teaching force and other new teachers join the subjects of

teachings Professional development may help contribute to a shared professional

culture in which teachers in a school or teachers who teach the same grade or subject

develop a common understanding of instructional goals methods problems and

solutions

By having such an advantages teachers might giving their best to the students as well

as primary pupils as their attributes which recently developed from the continuous

development program such as their pedagogical strategies their capabilities

encountering critical students or pupils their ability of manipulating resources in the

classroom or the one possessed by themselves their high competency in managing

ICT resources and as well as their ability to using physiological effectiveness in order

to deliver the subjects taught by them

The example of the activities also vary in the specificity of the changes in teaching

practice that are encouraged Some activities focus on helping teachers use particular

curriculum materials such as new textbook new application software for teaching a

particular subjects new standards of curriculum and etc

THE TARGETED AUDIENCE

We believe it is quite likely that the teacher development process shares some stages

in common with what we have identified as the process whereby individuals achieve

job fulfillment presented as a model and explained in detail elsewhere The audience

should be selected according to these stages This involves three stages including

Stage 1mdashawareness of an imperfect job-related situation

Stage 2mdashformulation of remedial action strategy and

Stage 3mdasheffecting remedial action

(as Cited form Linda Evans)

We see this as he targeted audience shall refers to what Linda Evans has modeled the

stages which mainly suggested to be imposed to all teachers in the nation By saying

that we are only reaching in the early stages of implementing a new curriculum the

models might be ideal for several audiences

Stage 1

Some teachers are not in a suitable position in the school where mainly they are not

graduated to teach some particular subject Example a Science teacher who teaches

English Language We might later suggest that the officers might need to do some

monitoring activity to identify teachers who is not in their common stream of

executing the task

Stage 2

Sending teachers to courses for just one week might not letting them to execute the

policy effectively The idea of this stand is to ensure efficiency towards task

delivering by the teachers towards the students A continuous workshops should be at

least to conjure the understanding yet to appreciate the value of the recent curriculum

which introduced but the Ministry of Education in 2009

Stage 3

By the point of remedial the teachers should also were given a special attention by

the ministry of ensuring everything regarding by the curriculum is successfully

executed However in this stage it is to mend or somehow to rectify a few mistakes

and yet to identify problem which can be measured the vulnerability of the policy

through a post-mortem

We have seen so many problems regarding such as despite the repeated and

continued attempts to pursue the former strategy of training teachers to become

assessors and evaluators this approach consistently fails Even with extensive and

targeted training teachers consistently prove to be poor assessment designers

regardless of whether they are designing traditional tests or school-based assessment

materials The reasons for this failure relate to knowledge and culture Somehow these

reasons might let us into a state of vulnerability thus encountering the public

awareness of the issue

Another problem which actually critically needed to be in the radar as noted teachers

(and assessment designers) have some freedom in determining what evidence is used

to demonstrate completion of each Band Descriptor They have NO freedom

whatsoever to change the Band Descriptors themselves

CONCLUSION

The issues surrounding nowadays are the most vital influence in order for us to do

changes which actually regard as the factor to do with Implementing is as simple as

saying it in front of the media and the press conferences but the most important

people in the educational world of diving the policies to be placed rightly is the

teachers

We need to overcome some of the public complaints and the internal issues by

manipulating every internal resources we had orderly as well as creating a much more

encouraging environment of letting the teachers to express themselves on inquiries

and complaints We have to admit is as they have their rights to do with it Even the

teachers are actually too busy with clerical jobs and somehow reluctantly to be stated

the clerical jobs are actually forced them to abandon the teaching task such as

preparing lesson plans and remedial classes for critical students From the proposed

idea in this paper we shall look into several ways of making things better for the

teachers and most likely the students

REFERENCES

Simone Evans PhD (May 2012) RELTmax Implementation of the KSSR Standards-

Based Assessment

Garet Michael S (2001) What Makes Professional Development Effective Results

From a National Sample of Teachers

Evans Linda (2002) What is Teacher Development Carfax Publishing London

Kwang Suk Yong et al (2007) Reviewing the evidence on how teacher professional

development affects student achievement Regional Education Laboratory At Edvance

Research Inc

Hazri Jamil et al (2011) Teacher Professional Development in Malaysia Issues and

Challenges Universiti Sains Malaysia

The interpretation of teacher development incorporates consideration of its having a

range of applicability that extends from an individual to a profession-wide level It

may be applied to variously formed professional groups or units such as individual

teachers the staff of an institution or a department in an institution teachers who

hold a common role (eg primary head teachers mathematics teachers further

education (FE) teachers) and the profession as a whole

As an area of study teacher development is dominated by examination of issues

while methods on the other hand are comparatively underexamined In this respect it

is quite distinct from most other key areas of educational study The studies of special

educational needs (mainly in Malaysia known as Pendidikan Khas) education

leadership and management primary education and assessment for example as well

as subject-based specialisms all include extensive examination of methods which

indicates how Special Educational Needs (SEN) children or primary school children

ought to be taught how schools and their staff ought to be managed how assessment

ought to be carried out The method is keep evolving according to the changes

occurred in which required globally The fact is the changes of information

technology and accessibility might mainly transforms the thinking ability of children

nowadays

The need of this stand shall be referred as the recent problems we had encounters and

received from various types of reports including problems rose from the

administrational task teaching and learning and even the curriculum assessment

Getting things to be remain constructively active we shall highlight the needs of

having this stand is also related to several sudden changes in the education policy

which is regardless of the several teachers which is below the ability and with their

limited knowledge in resources handling to execute the task proficiently Thus the

paperwork for the stand shall remain as relevant as to the evolvement related to the

educational policies and affairs

THE RATIONALE






















mostly




country











were








to head teachers








































Teacher Preparation





































the country










FOR TEACHERS







the ET





















solutions

























Stage 1





executing the task

Stage 2






Stage 3


















CONCLUSION





teachers










REFERENCES


Based Assessment






Research Inc



THE RATIONALE






















mostly




country











were








to head teachers








































Teacher Preparation





































the country










FOR TEACHERS







the ET





















solutions

























Stage 1





executing the task

Stage 2






Stage 3


















CONCLUSION





teachers










REFERENCES


Based Assessment






Research Inc













were








to head teachers








































Teacher Preparation





































the country










FOR TEACHERS







the ET





















solutions

























Stage 1





executing the task

Stage 2






Stage 3


















CONCLUSION





teachers










REFERENCES


Based Assessment






Research Inc






























Teacher Preparation





































the country










FOR TEACHERS







the ET





















solutions

























Stage 1





executing the task

Stage 2






Stage 3


















CONCLUSION





teachers










REFERENCES


Based Assessment






Research Inc







































the country










FOR TEACHERS







the ET





















solutions

























Stage 1





executing the task

Stage 2






Stage 3


















CONCLUSION





teachers










REFERENCES


Based Assessment






Research Inc












the country










FOR TEACHERS







the ET





















solutions

























Stage 1





executing the task

Stage 2






Stage 3


















CONCLUSION





teachers










REFERENCES


Based Assessment






Research Inc




















solutions

























Stage 1





executing the task

Stage 2






Stage 3


















CONCLUSION





teachers










REFERENCES


Based Assessment






Research Inc















Stage 1





executing the task

Stage 2






Stage 3


















CONCLUSION





teachers










REFERENCES


Based Assessment






Research Inc



















CONCLUSION





teachers










REFERENCES


Based Assessment






Research Inc





REFERENCES


Based Assessment






Research Inc








Research Inc



Documents

Continuous Professional Development Courses for Teachers