UNIVERSIDAD CATÓLICA DE LA SANTÍSIMA CONCEPCIÓN

FACULTAD DE EDUCACIÓN

“Professional Development”

Ingrid Bello Acuña,

Paulina Escobar Aguayo.

Introduction

The following research is about “Professional development”. Nowadays this

concept is considered relevant for most professional thus, it is totally important in

the professional development process not only in order to increase their knowledge

but also in order to be more competent; in simply words in order to improve their

performances.

The aim of this research is to compare the interviewee’s answers with the

theory and how close the point of view of the interviewee is with the ideas of the

authors.

For these reasons in this research the researchers interviewed a professor

who teaches Phonetics and Phonology. Besides the researchers asked the professor

seven questions about “professional development and how important is this for

teaching English as a foreign language and so on”.

In addition in this research has been including different points of view and

opinions from various authors such as, Penny Ur, Joanne Pettis, and Harold B.

Allen about what professional development is.

Finally, as a result of this research we found some differences in terms of the

meaning of the concept “professional development”, the aspects that a teacher has to

manage and the importance of the work environment which we are going to explain

in the analysis of this research.

Research Question

This is the research question in which the research is based and also the

answer given by the interviewee.

Is professional development important for teaching English as a foreign

language? Why?

The answer given by our interviewee is absolutely close with the opinion provided

by the authors because the interviewee said “that in our case is more essential

because in language teaching, first of all I think we need to keep up with the

language itself and also you should be concern about new development in

technology in teaching and theory so is something that you need to do on daily

basic day, particularly the language development” And According to Joanne Pettis

professional development is important for English teachers as a foreign language

because: as educator we must make a personal commitment to our own ongoing

professional growth. Both, the interviewee and the author suggest that professional

development is our responsibility not only because we work with the language but

also because we have to grow up in the others areas such as technology, new

tendencies of education, and new skills in order to improve the performance into the

classroom.

Theoretical framework

On one hand, in order to define what professional development is, Penny Ur

defines a “professional” as the following: “A professional is broadly speaking,

someone whose work involves performing a certain function with some degree of

expertise” in the case of people such as doctors, teachers and lawyers “whose

expertise involves not only skill and knowledge but also the exercises of highly

sophisticated judgement and whose accreditation necessitates extensive study, often

university-based as well as practical experience” (we could interpret it as a possible

definition for professional development) On the other hand Joanne Pettis gives us

the following definition, “Development of teaching competence is our

responsibility, and we can undertake a wide range of activities in fulfillment of this

obligation. As Crandall (1996) pointed out in her Keynote address at the TELS,

Canada Conference, there are courses to take, journals to read, colleagues to talk

with and observe, classroom research to conduct, textbooks to review, and

workshops to attend. The author tries to explain that there is not excuse to stop

professional development and that sometimes is not necessary to take courses,

teachers also can be feed by their colleagues.

In terms of the aspects that a teacher has to manage Joanne Pettis suggests

that “The knowledgeable teacher who is also skillful is a powerful educator”

Consequently she proposes that a teacher needs both technical knowledge and

others skills. However she gives a greater importance to the technical language

because she points out that “skillful teachers, who have amassed and effective array

of activities and techniques that they can and do employ, but who have not

developed a parallel level of knowledge, limit their effectiveness. Also, according

to the paper called “Continuing your teacher education” and according to how

much time an educator has to spend in his or her professional development the

paper says that “one of the most invigorating things about teaching is that you never

stop learning” and “Every time you walk into a classroom to teach, you face some

of those issues, and if you are growing teacher, you learn something. You find out

how well technique works, how a student processes language, how classroom

interaction can be improved, how to assess a student`s competence, how emotions

enter into learning, or how your teaching style affects learners. The discoveries go

on and on- for a life time” these ideas have been adapting for Pennington

(1990:150) and clearly propose that professional development is a process that

never ends. In addition Harold B. Allen (1980) suggests that there are some

characteristic not that a teacher has to manage, for example competent preparation

leading to a degree in TESL, a love of the English language, critical thinking,

cultural adaptability, professional citizenship and so on. Moreover, in the same

paper, there is a table which shows some good language-teaching characteristics as

technical knowledge, pedagogical skills, interpersonal skills and personal qualities.

In conclusion these authors try to explain that a teacher needs both technical

knowledge and other skills such as pedagogical, interpersonal, etc.

There is other important factor in the professional development that we have

to consider, Pettis says that “we are a community. We are an identifiable group,

whose members are interested in interaction with one another for the sake of

learning, and also for the enjoyment of exchanging experiences and ideas with

sympathetic colleagues” Teachers never work alone they always among of a

community.

Analysis

According to the answer provided by our interviewee about what professional

development is, she considered that professional development is more than taking courses it

is every action that a professional takes every day in order to improve the performance

which is really close with the ideas proposes by Pennington (1990) who suggest that a

teacher never stop learning and every time a teacher enter into a classroom learns

something. Both think that professional development is a daily process that continues

throughout life.

Another aspect that the researchers would like to highlight is what qualities,

knowledge and skills a good language- teacher should have to manage. Our interviewee

said that the most important aspect is technical knowledge because the more you know

about what you are teaching the better you can teach. Also she said that the rest of the skills

are not as important as the knowledge because she suggest that these skills can be

developing and acquired with the experience.

Whereas Joanne Pettis reaffirms that “knowledge and principles without skills or

conversely, skills without knowledge or principles, are professionally unacceptable states”

She considers that “the knowledgeable teacher who is also skillful is a powerful

educator”. That is to say that both aspects are important the technical knowledge and the

skill such as pedagogical, interpersonal, personal qualities which is the opposite that was

said by our interviewee.

Another issue is the reasons why a teacher stop training (specially school teachers),

which according to the answer provided by the interviewee are the following: “a) school

teacher are exhausted because they work many hours and they do not have time to take any

courses b) they have to spend their free time to take a course which is usually on weekends

that is the only time that they have to be with their families or to take a rest c) they do not

get extra money and everybody work for money and d) there is no incentive what do they

get it some a better teacher” Which is opposite with the opinion given by Pettis who says

that “employers and professional organizations may support our pursuit of professional

development by funding us to the occasional conference or organizing a workshop” the

researchers consider that the situation is not the same for example in our country because in

Chile, the government does not support the professional development process of the teacher

therefore teachers have to pay their own training courses, obviously with their own money

and this is one of the most important reasons why teacher stop training.

The last point that the researchers would like to mention is the importance of the

work environment in the professional development process, Crandall (1996) says that not

only you can learn by taking courses but also teachers can learn talking with their

colleagues is not always necessary to be in a formal course environment. In addition, Pettis

proposes that the teachers are a community and they can feed one another contributed with

their knowledge and skills, as a feedback which is similar with the answer of our

interviewee who said that “it`s essential to be in an environment which is reach in terms of

diversity” she gives a very great importance to their colleagues because she said that she

learns from them a lot of thing and also she highlight the advantages to work at the

university because “you have colleagues of your which are experts in other fields which are

always sort of feeding you other types of information” Both the authors and the interviewee

consider the work environment essential.

Conclusion

The researchers can conclude that the professional development has more

than one element to consider in the professional life, if you want to be a competent

professional you need to improve your knowledge but also you need to be skillful.

Other important issue is to be aware about the decisions and actions you take in

order to improve yourself each day in your performance.

The most relevant aspect is the professional development is a process and as

a teacher we never stop learning, we learn every time and every day not only taking

formal courses but also talking with our colleagues who are a precious treasure that

we have to appreciate and from who we can learn both knowledge about the

language and life experiences which can help us to grow up as a professional and a

human being.

References

Ur Penny, “Professional Development” Section 16, Chapter 39 “The

English Teacher as a Professional” Pages 386-391.

Pettis, Joanne “Professional Development” Section 16, Chapter 40

“Developing our professional competent: some reflections” Pages 393-396.

Pennington (1990) “Lifelong learning” Part VI, chapter 23. Page 426.

Allen, Harold B, (1980) “Lifelong learning” Part VI, chapter 23. Page 429.