Teachers gain the most from personalizing their development

New paper from Oxford University Press finds that professional development is often more relevant, meaningful, and sustainable when English teachers determine their own path

All teachers should have, and can benefit from, a self-directed professional development plan, according to a new, global position paper from Oxford University Press (OUP), the world’s largest university press. The paper, ‘Self-directed professional development in ELT’, observes that teachers who take control of their own development, without waiting for direction from their employers, can empower their teaching, create new opportunities, and focus on their professional needs.

The paper finds that teachers’ motivation and curiosity to learn bring great potential for them to determine their own development plan according to their needs, professional context, and available opportunities. By doing so, teachers learn new knowledge and skills which contribute positively to wellbeing and confidence. However, the institution still has a critical role to play in developing a highly successful teaching team by offering support, resources, and time to assist a teacher’s self-directed professional development plans. The whole culture of an institution can be positively affected by a teacher’s continuous learning.

Leading researchers and practitioners in education contributed to this paper, collating current thinking and research on teachers’ professional development. It recommends that teachers follow a framework of steps and principles to help develop an effective, personalized plan.

The insights follow from earlier research by OUP. ‘Using technology to motivate learners’ illustrates the critical role of a teacher in successfully selecting, adapting, and implementing technology. Teachers can therefore benefit from defining a professional development plan to incorporate technology into their teaching and motivate their students to learn a language.

Ben Knight, Head of Language Content, Research and Pedagogy at OUP, said: “The pandemic has moved a lot of professional development opportunities online, which are therefore more accessible to a much wider range of teachers, on a self-serve basis. This paper highlights how teachers need to plan their approach to make the most of this increased accessibility.”

Sarah Mercer, Professor of Foreign Language Teaching at the University of Graz, Austria, commented: “Our hope is that this paper will broaden general notions of what professional development opportunities are and that it will empower and inspire educators to explore this exciting landscape in ways which suit them at any one moment in time. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to professional development, and when it is self-determined, it is likely to have the best fit of all.”