Page 65 - Štremfel, Urška, and Maša Vidmar (eds.). 2018. Early School Leaving: Training Perspectives. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut.
P. 65
teachers’ professional development
improve teacher education, continuing professional development in educa-
tion, and the teaching profession’s attractiveness. In relation to continuing
professional development (CPD), relatively large proportions of teachers in
all age groups, and irrespective of their experience and school subjects, ex-
pressed a moderate or high level of training needs in areas that would al-
low them to develop more appropriate, diversified and innovative teaching
practices (European Commission, 2015).
Thus, the role of a continuum of educators’ professional development
consisting of initial teacher training and CPD should be endorsed so as to
keep up with the demands. One of these demands incudes tackling early
school leaving (ESL). The Council of the European Union (2015) highlights
the CPD of all educators as one of the most important approaches for re-
ducing ESL.
The aim of this paper is therefore to investigate the definitions and
models of educators’ professional development and to analyse the relation-
ship between educators’ professional development and the possibilities for
preventing and reducing ESL.
Methodology
We conducted a review of the literature by searching in the ERIC,
SpringerLink, Wiley, Sage, Proquest, and Science Direct search engines for
information about educators’ professional development, professional devel-
opment models, characteristics and their relationship to ESL. We included
four types of documents: scientific papers, scientific monographs explain-
ing the theoretical background, scientific research reports along with EU
documents and reports on the subject matter.
Defining professional development
Definitions of teachers’ and educators’ professional development general-
ly vary widely. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) (2015) defines pro-
fessional development as the development of competencies or expertise in
one’s profession; the process of acquiring the skills needed to improve per-
formance in a job. The first mention of the term professional development
according to the OED (ibid.) dates back to 1857, although the concept of ed-
ucators’ professional development has only started to develop since the 20th
century. The earliest mentions of the need for school staff’s professional de-
velopment came to the forefront in the 1960s in the USA (Murphy-Latta,
65
improve teacher education, continuing professional development in educa-
tion, and the teaching profession’s attractiveness. In relation to continuing
professional development (CPD), relatively large proportions of teachers in
all age groups, and irrespective of their experience and school subjects, ex-
pressed a moderate or high level of training needs in areas that would al-
low them to develop more appropriate, diversified and innovative teaching
practices (European Commission, 2015).
Thus, the role of a continuum of educators’ professional development
consisting of initial teacher training and CPD should be endorsed so as to
keep up with the demands. One of these demands incudes tackling early
school leaving (ESL). The Council of the European Union (2015) highlights
the CPD of all educators as one of the most important approaches for re-
ducing ESL.
The aim of this paper is therefore to investigate the definitions and
models of educators’ professional development and to analyse the relation-
ship between educators’ professional development and the possibilities for
preventing and reducing ESL.
Methodology
We conducted a review of the literature by searching in the ERIC,
SpringerLink, Wiley, Sage, Proquest, and Science Direct search engines for
information about educators’ professional development, professional devel-
opment models, characteristics and their relationship to ESL. We included
four types of documents: scientific papers, scientific monographs explain-
ing the theoretical background, scientific research reports along with EU
documents and reports on the subject matter.
Defining professional development
Definitions of teachers’ and educators’ professional development general-
ly vary widely. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) (2015) defines pro-
fessional development as the development of competencies or expertise in
one’s profession; the process of acquiring the skills needed to improve per-
formance in a job. The first mention of the term professional development
according to the OED (ibid.) dates back to 1857, although the concept of ed-
ucators’ professional development has only started to develop since the 20th
century. The earliest mentions of the need for school staff’s professional de-
velopment came to the forefront in the 1960s in the USA (Murphy-Latta,
65
