CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHERS AND QUALITY OF EDUCATION

Dr. V. K. Pathak

Dr. Surat Pyari Pathak

                                                                 

                                                  ABSTRACT                                                 

            Like all other professionals, the profession of teachers is also placing new dimensions on their competencies. The teacher has to play different roles of significance which inherent the quality of education. In the contemporary context, the role of teacher has expanded from transmitter of knowledge to reflective practitioner, class-room manager and a life-long learner. Professional Development of teachers is a major component for improving the quality of education. This paper presents the need of Professional development of teachers for quality education. Besides addressing the steps taken for professional development of teachers it is discussed why it has to be continuous. While suggesting measures for professional development the authors have also presented how they can be effective for professional development.

            In the present scenario of education the three words which are attracting the attention of the educationists are globalization, vocationalization and privatization. We think that students will certainly be benefitted if education is arranged and organized on these patterns.

            To meet out the increasing demand of the present society, educationists with progressive outlook have emphasized the need off privatization and E learning. But did we think these are bane or boon? Somewhere in the heat of hurry we are forgetting the axis of one’s life – that is the place of a teacher.

            In today’s commercial world education has become an investment. It demands the skilled and equipped output (students) to promote the rate of technological development and economic strength and in this light today we have forget the status of teacher in quality education.

            “Pedants sneer at an Education that is useful”, Alfred North Whitehead observed. “But if it is not useful, what is it”? One of the central assumptions of education is that the learner should perceive learning as useful – to himself and to society perceive learning as useful to himself and to society. In this condition the role of teacher has become the prime priority for today’s students.

            But our institutions are lacking in providing the base of the society because no doubt e-learning has emerged as one of the fastest moving trends in education but the transformation that the society is going through warrants a change in the way we teach and what we teach.

            Thus the prime concern of quality education should be to direct the capacities, attitude interest into the most desirable cranes and for this the teacher holds the central position. He has to move himself from a facilitator to the founder of the society by inculcate the qualitative education values.

            Professional competence of teacher determines the quality of education directly. NCTE observed that, “In service education is as good as the pre-service education, even better for quality improvement”.

Professional Development of teachers for Quality Education

            Professional development indicates updating, strengthening and sharpening of the competencies and developing insight and understanding of different dimensions of that particular profession.

            Teacher education is a life-long professional development process beginning with initial preparation of a teacher throughout his career. The teacher must continue to build knowledge and skills to inquire into the teaching learning process throughout his career and this proves as a mile stone for quality education. Joyce and Showers 1980 examines, “professional development emphasizes it’s principle purposes as being the acquisition of subject or content knowledge and teaching skills”.

Fig. Relation between Professional Development of a teacher and Quality Education

 

   

            Need of Continuous Professional Development of Teacher

            Initial teacher education cannot contain all that prepositional knowledge that is needed for the time. Therefore continuous professional development of a teacher is must. Target of the initial teacher education program is always create teacher with minimum essential teaching competencies. But, at any point of time it is needed for teachers to strengthen and sharpen their professional competencies with reference of changing demands of curricula, emerging trends of the society latest changes in pedagogy and technological advancement. It does clarify and justify the need for constant updating and development of skills on the part of teachers.

            Continuous professional development leads to job satisfaction and enhancement of self-esteem among teachers which leaves the qualitative effect on the attainment of students.

Steps taken for Professional Development of Teachers

            We cannot deny from the fact that still systematic profession development of teacher is needed. Yet country has taken significant steps in this field through different in-service training programmes. Remarkable changes came in teacher education through the National policy on education 1986 by giving emphasis on need of pre-service and in-service education of teacher.

            At the national level institutions like the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), National Institute of Education at Planning and Administration (NIEPA), National Council for teacher Education (NCTE), Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages (CIEFL) Centre for Cultural Resource and Training (CCRT) are providing support to district and state level educational institutions.

            By adopting the decentralized approach DPEP has extended its training programmes for in-service teachers to block and cluster levels and Block Resource Centres and Cluster Resource Centres are working for it.

Few Suggestions for Profession Development of Teachers

            Professional development is not an event but it is an ongoing systematic growth process for an individual to improve teaching performance to maintain the quality of education. A few suggestions are offered for the purpose:-

·         Teachers’ in-service education should be available to all of them on a continuing basis at regular intervals. By making in-service education institutionalized and also be adopting distance mode we can reach to a larger goal.

·         Organization of variety of activities as extension lectures by experts of different areas, staff meetings, group discussions may also prove a rich source of professional development of teachers.

·         Opportunities should be provided to the teachers to conduct experiments in their institutions and best should be disseminated for the benefit of others.

·         Initiatives should be taken for awarding teachers for their innovative and performances at grass root level.

Conclusion

            At last it can be concluded that teacher’s professional development is widely recognized as an essential pre-requisite for improving quality of education. In-service education of teachers is only one, most important factor for their professional growth, and it should be related directly to student performance standards and quality of education.

References:

·         Day Christopher (1999). Developing teachers: The Challenges of Life-long Learning.

·         Holey E. (1980). Professionalization and deprofessionalization in education.

·         Joyce B. R. and Shower (1980). Improving in-service Training: The message of Research: Education Leadership.

·         NCTE, (1998)  Competency-based and Commitment-oriented Teacher Education for Quality School Education: Pre-service Education. New Delhi.

·         Panda Pranti (1999). Teacher empowerment: Research Trends and Future Perspective.

·         Rajput, J. S. (1999) Education in a Changing World: Fallacies and Forces. New Delhi: Vikash Publishing House Pvt. Limited.