Meaning, Nature and Features of Teachers Professional Development

Meaning, Nature and Features of Teachers Professional Development

Meaning of TPD:The component of any educational system concerned with the education and training of teachers to acquire the necessary competencies and skills in teaching for the purpose of improving the overall quality of teachers working within the school system is referred to as “teachers’ professional development.”

Nature of TPD:According to Day (1999), the term “professional development” refers to “all natural learning experiences and those conscious and planned activities which are intended to be of direct or indirect benefit to the individual, group, or school” and “which contribute, through these, to the quality of education that is being provided in the classroom.” In other words, “professional development” encompasses “all natural learning experiences and those conscious and planned activities which are intended to be of direct or indirect benefit to the individual, group, or school.” The Teacher Professional Development (TPD) program is an innovation process in which the feedback of the teachers is regarded as significant for the purpose of providing an improved product, service, process, business models, or policies in an existing context or adapting them from one context to another in order to achieve the desired impact. This feedback is regarded as significant for the purpose of providing an improved product, service, process, business models, or policies in an existing context (Botha & Herselman, 2018). TPD courses are offered in schools for teachers to take so that they may increase their creative talents as well as their teaching abilities; this has resulted to an obvious improvement in classroom practice. TPD courses are created so that instructors can strengthen their ability to teach (Botha, 2014). Implementation of high-caliber professional development programs is a central element of almost all of today’s proposed strategies for enhancing education, and so features prominently in the majority of these strategies (Guskey, 2002).

According to the Department of Higher Education, the process through which a teacher improves their talents, knowledge, competence, and other professional behaviors is referred to as professional development (DoE, 2007). According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the roles and functions of every school in many countries include ensuring that teachers receive adequate professional development and that the content covered in teacher professional development (TPD) programs can be effectively implemented for improved student performance. This responsibility applies to ensuring that the teachers receive adequate professional development (2005). It is expected of teachers that they will teach in increasingly multicultural classrooms in such a way that they will: place a greater emphasis on integrating learners with special learning needs in their classrooms; make more effective use of information and communication technologies for teaching; engage more in planning within evaluative and accountability frameworks; and do more to involve parents in schools (OECD, 2005).

Features of Teachers Professional Development

  • Professional development transforms teachers into better and more apt educators by enabling them to create relevant and tailored course instructions for today’s students;
  • Helps to create better learning outcomes;
  • Good implementation plans;
  • Teachers learn better ways to teach;
  • Teachers develop better organizing and planning skills;
  • Teachers gain more knowledge and other insight; and
  • To create lifelong learning for teachers
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