{"id":16095,"date":"2020-02-25T12:54:05","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T18:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.teachersoftomorrow.org\/?p=16095"},"modified":"2020-02-25T12:54:05","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T18:54:05","slug":"professional-development-teachers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.teachersoftomorrow.org\/blog\/insights\/professional-development-teachers\/","title":{"rendered":"Professional Development for Teachers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every day is an interesting day in education research – two studies on teaching demonstrate the need for high quality teacher professional development. The first is a Gates Study, Teachers Know Best<\/a>,<\/p>\n

All told, $18 billion is spent annually on professional development, and a typical teacher spends 68 hours each year\u2014more than a week\u2014on professional learning activities typically directed by districts. When self-guided professional learning and courses are included, the annual total comes to 89 hours.<\/p>\n

Yet by many measures, including the views of teachers themselves, much of this effort and investment is simply not working. In interviews, teachers say that too many current professional development offerings are not relevant, not effective, and most important of
\nall, not connected to their core work of helping students learn.<\/p>\n

More specifically:
\n\u25cf\u25cf Few teachers (29 percent) are highly satisfied with current professional development offerings.
\n\u25cf\u25cf Few teachers (34 percent) think professional development has improved.
\n\u25cf\u25cf Large majorities of teachers do not believe that professional development is helping them prepare for the changing nature of their jobs, including using technology and digital learning tools, analyzing student data to differentiate instruction, and implementing the
\nCommon Core State Standards and other standards.
\n\u25cf\u25cf Professional development formats strongly supported by district leadership and principals, such as professional learning communities and coaching, are currently not meeting teachers\u2019 needs.
\n\u25cf\u25cf Principals largely share teachers\u2019 concerns about the efficacy of professional learning.<\/p>\n

At the same time a new study on Teacher Merit Pay showed promising results – especially if it was linked to professional development<\/p>\n