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Towards an Effective Teachers Professional Development in DFLSP – CFL – VNU

Module by: Tran Hien

Summary: This paper plans to focus on the concepts of professional development, factors that determine effective teacher career growth and improvement, characteristics of effective teacher professional development, etc and the applications of them to build an effective teacher professional development program for teachers of ESP at Department of Foreign Languages for Specific Purposes, College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

Towards an Effective Teachers Professional Development in DFLSP – CFL – VNU

INTRODUCTION

In education, teacher professional development is an indispensable aspect in human resource management & development. Teacher professional development is especially important for teachers of ESP at Department of Foreign Languages for Specific Purposes, College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi as their teaching career aims at developing the use of language skills in the subject matter such as Economics, Law, Information Technology, Telecommunications and Engineering, etc.
Every year, teacher professional development programs are implemented in Vietnam National University, Hanoi (and also in other universities all over the world) in order to help teacher sustain high quality performance in their teaching career and encourage them to pursuit life-long learning which is vital to their professional development. As a matter of fact, some programs are successful while some others are not because of a number of reasons. Obviously, it is really impossible for human resource managers to build a strategic plan of teacher professional development without a fully understanding of its nature, factors related to teachers’ career advancement, etc.
According to Donnelly, Dove & Morales (2002), in spite of its long history, notion of teacher professional development was not a concern of human resource management and development in education until thirty years ago. By the middle to the late of 1970s, movements of transformation and innovation in education had brought great changes in education managers, teachers and other educators’ attitude. Since then, together with teachers’ seeking for their professional growth and improvement, opportunities available for their professionalism have increased significantly.
As a matter of fact, professional development is one of the key issues in human resource management and development in education as today’s education policies require education managers to ensure a meaningful and effective education will be delivered to every citizen in society. Obviously, it is inadequate to talk about education and learning outcomes without mentioning teacher development, training, evaluation, etc because researches have shown that teachers’ success in professional development enhance the results of students’ learning (Lockwood: 1998). In other words, at the core of the training process, teachers play a key role in determining students’ outcomes.
Every year, teacher professional development programs are implemented in universities all over the world. These programs are held to serve the purpose of providing teachers tools and best environment to develop their profession. They deal with teacher professional development from different perspectives; such as a program conducted by Wisconsin Center for Education Research (Carpenter & Franke: 1998) which stresses on teachers’ engagement in inquiry as a fundamental part of their teaching practice, namely they must sustain their learning continuity ‘both with their colleagues in professional communities and with their own students inside classroom’; while Rosebery & Waren (1998) successfully help their teachers of English-language learners gain their professional development through analysing video tapes of their teaching lessons, etc.
However, annual education workshops, conferences, researches conducted in both developing and developed countries also report that not all of the teacher professional development programs are carried out successfully and effectively (Eleonora: 2003). It may be because of the human resource managers’ improper evaluation and preparation that lead to the fiasco of the programs. It may also because of teachers, who do not actively involve in their career advancement. The failure of those teacher professional development programs can as well blame for external factors such as natural disasters, political concerns, financial issues, etc.
At VNUH, the fiasco of teacher professional development program can partly be explained by the lack of human resource department. We only have personnel officials but we have no HR officials to care about and plan for teacher advancement in their teaching career. Therefore, this paper brings its author a good chance to work with theories framework of teacher professional development as a key factor in human resource management and development in education. These theories, subsequently, are hoped to contribute to the improvement of teacher professional development and human resource development at her university in particular and other universities in Vietnam in general.
Obviously, to successfully deal with teacher professional development issues, educational human resource managers are expected to prepare and provide best conditions for teachers to fully improve and develop their occupation. In order to do that, they, policy-makers, teachers and other educational officials need to have profound knowledge of teacher career advancement. It is very necessary for them to be clear about all the things related to teacher professional development such as what it is, why it is essential, to whom it addresses, how to build or apply models of teacher professional development, when teachers should start their professional advance, etc. A thorough understanding of inter-related issues concerning teacher professional development will help educational human resource managers, teachers and other educational officials obtain significant and successful teacher professionalism.

CONCEPTS OF TEACHERS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

“Professional development, in broad sense, refers to the development of a person in his or her personal role” (Eleonora: 2003). Surely, professional development enhances competence of all members in a learning community to pursuit their life-long learning.
In educational setting, reflecting itself as an important trend in the growth and improvement of any educational institution, teacher professional development becomes a milestone in teachers’ continuum of life-long learning and career progression. So far, many scholars have attempted to define teacher professional development in terms of a high-quality, meaningful and effective teacher enhancement. According to Bolam (1993) teacher professional development refers to “any professional development activities engaged in by teachers which enhance their knowledge and skills and enable them to consider their attitudes and approaches to the education of children, with a view to improve the quality of the teaching and learning process.” From the view of teachers’ commitment, Glatthorn (1995) asserts that teacher professional development is what a teacher attains as a result of obtaining experience and exploring his or her teaching systematically. Looking at external factors, Horsley (1996) defines teacher professional development as “opportunities offered to educators to develop knowledge, skills, approaches and dispositions to improve their effectiveness in their classrooms and organizations.”
Although definitions and concepts of teacher professional development may be somewhat different as scholars might approach it from different perspectives, they all share a common view that teacher professional development can be brought to teachers as opportunities to upgrade or apply their knowledge or it can be what teachers need and try to obtain or explore by their experience. In other words, the term “teacher professional development” goes beyond the meaning of “staff development” or “in-service training”; it includes both formal and informal means of helping teachers master new skills, widen their knowledge, develop an innovative insight into their pedagogy, their practice and their understanding of their own needs since a teacher’s professional development is an aspect of his or her personal development as a whole.

THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Anytime dealing with teacher professional development, educational human resource managers should bear in mind the questions of to whom and for what teacher professional development addresses and why it is important. Simply, teachers themselves, their students, their schools and the education system are the ones who benefit from teacher professional development which ultimately aims at students’ learning outcomes.
Apparently, teachers are at the core of any teaching and learning process and teacher professionalism must increase if education is to improve. Researches have shown that teacher professional development has a noticeable positive impact on teachers’ beliefs and in turn their practices both inside and outside their classroom as teachers’ grounding and improvement have large influence on identifying teachers’ goals for their students and these goals in turn, affect teachers’ performance in their classroom and schools (Kettle & Sellars:1996; Kallestad & Olweus:1998). Besides, as teacher professional development plays a key role in changing teachers’ skills and teaching methods, it does have an influence on students’ learning and achievement. Evidences from researches all over the world have proved an encouraging relationship that links the improvement of teachers’ education with the levels of students’ accomplishment (Borko & Putnam; 1995; Meiers & Ingvarson: 2005). In my opinion, teacher professional development is also very important to their schools as their career growth vitally contributes to their schools’ teaching quality, diversity and reputation. It is my strong belief that there is a two-way, inter-related relationship between teacher professional development and their schools’ advancement.

FACTORS THAT AFFECT TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

As it is stated above, in order to meet the demands of higher standards, increase students’ quality, human resource managers are mainly in charge of planning and providing professional development activities for teachers. They, therefore, need to be knowledgeable in dealing with factors affecting teacher professional development effectively.
As stated by Fullan (1987), four crucial factors for successful teacher professional development are as follows:
  • Redefinition of staff development as a process of learning;
  • The role of leadership at the school level;
  • The organizational culture at the school level; and
  • The role of external agencies, especially at the local and regional level.
In their later research, Hult, Olofsson and Rönnerman (2003) assert that factors affecting teacher professional development include teachers, students and colleagues. Teachers themselves are considered in terms of their cognition, their awareness of their education and their commitment to their teaching and development, etc; students are also an important factor to their teachers’ career development as students’ challenging questions and special needs will pose a great impact on teacher future teaching; colleagues and peers also influence teacher career advancement much because teachers better their profession in a learning communities; participating in collaboration, discussing and exchanging information help teachers enhance their profession.
In today’s ever changing and reforming education, the list of variables influencing teacher professional development will surely become an endless one. However, I am strongly convinced that issues affecting teacher professional development may vary and differ from one another because different scholars might approach them from different points of views in diverse situations and locations. It is educational human resource managers’ job to identify the most influencing issues applying to their own cases because in this school, to that teacher performance appraisal is important but to others teachers, students, their colleagues or salary is more significant; or even to the same teacher these factors are not similar at different time in his or her life. Changes happen every minute of time and these matters are not stay the same so intelligent and experienced human resource managers in education need to be ready to picture these factors as a whole and choose key elements for their pictures depending upon their thorough analysis of their SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), their own pros and cons.

CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE TEACHER PROFESIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Over years of research, academics and researchers have affirmed that teachers’ enhancement in their career is “a process along a continuum of learning” and that is about “ongoing professional growth and support.” (Craig, Karft & Plessis: 1998). They also state that teacher professional development have several characteristics:
  • “It is based on constructivism in which teachers are treated as active learners;
  • It is perceived as a long-term process as it acknowledges the fact that teachers learn over time;
  • It is perceived as a process that takes place within a particular context;
  • It is intimately linked to school reform;
  • A teacher is conceived of as a reflective practitioner;
  • It is conceived as a collaborative process; and
  • It may look and be very different in diverse settings.”
(Eleonora: 2003)
Furthermore, researchers also investigate on what comprises successful professional development. Hawley and Valli (200s) suggest that effective teacher professional development:
  • “is integrated with district goals to improve education;
  • is guided by a coherent long-term plan;
  • is driven by disaggregated data on student outcomes;
  • is designed according to teacher-identified needs;
  • is primarily school-based;
  • provides a strong foundation in subject content and methods of teaching;
  • is informed by research on teaching and learning;
  • is designed around collaborative problem-solving;
  • enables teachers to work with colleagues, in and beyond their school building;
  • is continuous and ongoing, providing follow-up support for further learning;
  • incorporates principles of adult learning;
  • provides sufficient time and other resources; and
  • is evaluated ultimately on the basis of its impact on teacher effectiveness and student learning.”
(Hawley & Valli: 200s)

MODELS OF TEACHER PROFESIONAL DEVELOPMENT

So far, a number of models have been built up and applied to encourage and support teacher professionalism from the beginning of their career until their retirement in different countries around the world.
In her literature review of teacher professional development, Eleonora (2003) groups models of teacher professional growth into two sections: organizational partnership models which require inter-institutional corporation in order to be effective and small groups or individual models which can be implemented on a smaller scale. However, I understand that there is not an absolutely clear cut between these two groups of models since some models of the second group can be employed as techniques for models in the first one. Principally, organizational partnership models include professional-development schools, other university-school partnerships, other inter-institutional collaborations, schools’ network, teachers’ network and distance education; on the other hand, presenters of the second group are supervision: traditional and clinical, students’ performance assessment, workshops, seminar, courses, case-based study, self-directed development, cooperative or collegial development, observation of excellent practice, teachers’ participation in new roles, skill-development model, reflective model, project-base model, portfolios, action research, use of teachers’ narratives, generational or cascade model and coaching/ mentoring.
Literature review is only a part of this essay so its author finds it impossible to introduce all the models mentioned above due to word limit of the assessment; she, in stead, chooses to work with a model that she finds most appropriate to her and her organization. It is self-directed professional development model.
The word “self-directed” does not mean that teachers themselves learn and obtain development without any help from other people and resources; it indicates that the learning of teacher-students is actually self-directed adult learning in which they “come into contact with books, educational broadcasts and computer programs … for the purpose of facilitating skill development and knowledge acquisition” (Brookfield: 1985)
In their research, Pierce and Hunsanker (1996) describe self-directed professional development as a model of “professional development for the teachers, by the teachers and of the teachers” which requires teachers’ actions in this model are:
  • “to agree on how they like the school to look and be;
  • to complete a needs assessment involving administrators in the process;
  • to decide on who will be the experts (from within the school) on the topics chosen to work on and elect people as team members who will participate in peer coaching;
  • the team of experts develop a module to address the needs and topics chosen by all those involved; and
  • to measure students’ outcomes versus objectives.”
(Pierce & Hunsanker: 1996)
It, therefore, can be interpreted that involving in this model, teachers need to set one goal that is considered important to them. They, then, work either individually or as a team member to plan and realize the goal. In this situation, within their school context, teachers are responsible for their own development with guidance and support from administrators and supervisors.
Personally, I only agree with Pierce and Hunsanker about teacher professionally development in terms of actions taken by teachers. Surely, teachers know what they really need and they are required to actively involve in their career advancement but teachers alone cannot implement it effectively without a detailed plan built up by human resource manager, discussions with their colleagues, peer, administrators, etc. More especially, teachers’ professional development is only a part for themselves but mainly for their students, their schools and the education system as a whole. Certainly, students’ achievement is the ultimate goal of teachers’ development in their profession. It is unimaginable if a teacher claims that his or her own career development is for himself or herself only. In fact, teachers work hard in upgrading their knowledge, mastering new skills, changing their practice to ensure their students can achieve a higher learning benchmark.
Above all, I am of the opinion that models of teacher professional development are built up and described separately but the most successful professional development initiatives should be the ones that effectively combine the above models and this combination must vary from setting to setting.

STAGES OF TEACHER PROFESIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Teachers’ teaching career requires constant upgrading, improvement and development in their job. Thus, teachers’ needs may differ from one stage to others in their life-long learning continuum. Huberman (2001) defines and identifies five stages of teacher professional development from the beginning to their retirement as follows:
  • Career entry (1-3 years in the profession): Teachers try to survive and discover their job;
  • Stabilisation (4-6 years in the profession): Teachers show their commitment;
  • Divergent period (8-18 years in the profession): Teachers explore themselves and develop new methods of teaching;
  • Second divergent period (19-30 years in the profession): Some teacher relax and assess themselves, others criticize the system, administration, colleagues, etc
  • Disengagement (up to 50 years of experience): Teachers gradually separate from their profession; some other teachers find it a time of bitterness.

TOWARDS AN EFFECTIVE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM FOR TEACHER OF ESP IN DFLSP – CFL – VNU

The context and SWOT analysis
All of the teachers in DFLSP – CFL – VNU have graduated from College of Foreign Languages – Vietnam National University. They have been all trained to be teachers teaching general English at high schools and some universities.
Strengths
  • All teachers in DFLSP – CFL – VNU have graduated with excellent results at the university; they are well-qualified teachers and they have to pass many hard tests before being teachers in DFLSP – CFL – VNU.
  • Teachers in DFLSP – CFL – VNU are all young with the average age of 24.
  • They are eager and open to broad their knowledge and further their studies.
Weaknesses
  • Teachers in DFLSP – CFL – VNU are not experienced in teaching English since they are young. Moreover, they have not been trained how to teach ESP.
  • They lack knowledge of the subject matters (Economics, Law, IT, Engineering, etc.)
Opportunities
  • Teachers in DFLSP – CFL – VNU have more chances to approach a new aspect of teaching English: that is teaching ESP.
  • Their knowledge of the subject matters will be improved together with their time of teaching and studying.
  • It is also easier for teacher in DFLSP – CFL – VNU to find part-time jobs related to their specialised fields e.g. teaching English for IT for IT companies, translating law documents for law firms, etc.
Threats
  • If teachers do not work hard to equip knowledge of the subject matters, they may be trapped in their teaching career. (They may be unconfident in teaching, they may be embarrassed when teaching a lesson or a concept that students know well about, they may be confused when some naughty students insist that what the teacher has told is not true, etc.)
  • If they spend all of their time studying subject matters they will have no more time to teach at language centers, extra classes or some other universities to enhance their teaching skills and experience.
Suggestions on professional development program for ESP teachers in DFLSP – CFL – VNUH
The first thing should be considered to have an effective professional program for ESP teachers in DFLSP – CFL – VNUH in particular and other teachers at VNUH is that a/ some human source manager(s) mast be assigned to design and implement professional development programs.
Admittedly, educational human resource managers play a key role in teacher professional development since they are in charge of providing opportunities for teachers to take part in their career progress, building up plans and programs of teacher professionalism, implementing these programs in different scales with different staffs and in different time. The success or failure of the programs and implementation process much depend on the educational human resource managers’ knowledge of the matters and their analysis of their schools’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, etc. They should design effective and flexible teacher professional development programs and activities that concern all aspect of teacher professional development, teachers’ professional needs and their personal and professional interests. It is also necessary for human resource managers in education to ensure that teachers are motivated and supported to advance and they are naturally put into effective learning communities in which teachers are encouraged to collaborate with other teachers, their administrators, their students and of course, with their human resource managers. Especially, educational human resource managers are supposed to be aware of factors relating and affecting teacher professional development since these factor are diverse and vital to the successful accomplishment of any professional development programs. For example, teacher performance appraisal is, much of the time, not appreciated by teachers but if the human resource managers can employ it efficiently it can contribute a positive impact on teacher career advancement. More importantly, human resource managers ought to understand that objectives of any teacher professional program need to be in alignment with those of the curriculum.
In the case of DFLSP – CFL – VNUH, ESP teachers, whether they like it or not, they still have to study to know, in some extent, a certain knowledge, areas and issues of the subject matters. Therefore, human resource managers should design a program that not only improves their skills and knowledge of English teaching but also meets their needs of furthering their knowledge of the subject matters.
It is also a good consideration that a teacher professional development for ESP teachers in DFLSP – CFL – VNUH should be in a circle so that teachers could actively and positively involve in the program to maximum their benefits from the program.
Figure 1
Figure1: A proposed professional development program for teachers of ESP in DFLSP – CFL – VNUH

CONCLUSION

Teacher professional development is a life-long and continuous process in which teachers are expected to upgrade their knowledge, master new skills and change their practices since advancement in their teaching career is finally for their students and education reform. Besides, teachers and their professional development must be seen as an investment so it is necessary that schools not only apply appropriate teacher professional development and human resource development policies but also ensure the means of their executions through efficient management and leadership.
Obviously, only skillful and knowledgeable teachers can form a foundation of good schools with high quality students. Therefore, enhancing teachers’ teaching career is considered the most important and strategic investments of time, money and efforts that human resource managers make in education. (Holland: 2005) These investments must be well prepared and conducted since teacher professional development acts as a key indicator in education human resource management and development. Most of all, investments on teacher advancement ultimately result in improving achievement of all students.

REFERENCES

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