Ways to continuing professional development | Teaching English | British Council | BBC

Ways to continuing professional development | Teaching English | British Council | BBC:

"Lifelong learning and continuous professional development in my opinion are much the same thing. I doubt if many people would say that learning throughout one’s life is not a good aim to have. However, as far as CPD (Continuing Professional Development) goes, I have always been disheartened to see how some teachers are happy to go on much as they always have done, doing a reasonable job but not developing to any great extent. Meanwhile, others strive to push their boundaries and actively create challenges for themselves, learning from their experiences and adding to their skills and their self knowledge, often in their own time.

Many of us are somewhere in the middle. We want to develop professionally, and while we are mindful of maintaining a healthy work-life balance, we are prepared to find the time we need within our working lives to learn, develop and thereby improve our practice.

I recently did some research for a conference presentation via an email questionnaire to experienced teachers, to find out about their CPD. Most of the 34 teachers who responded had been teaching for ten years or more, in private language schools, universities and colleges. One question asked if they considered their CPD opportunities to be good, adequate, inadequate or non-existent;"