Эссе на тему «Стратегии развития учителя»
Strategies of teachers' professional development.
There are many strategies for teachers’ professional development: The nature of teacher education, Workshops, Self-monitoring, Teacher support groups, Keeping a teaching journal, Peer observation, Teaching portfolios, Analyzing critical incidents, Case analysis, Peer coaching, Team teaching, Action research. In the book “Professional Development“ by a writer Richards Jack Farrell Thomas I have read about two interesting strategies which can help in teaching. The keeping a teaching journal and action research. There are the questions for these topic. Which one seems more appropriate for new teachers? Which one is easier to organize? Which one looks more efficient for you? To answer these questions we need to compare these two strategies.
On the one hand, the Keeping a teaching journal helps new teachers to become more organized. They don’t have to memorize what the students did the last two lessons because it is written in the journal. Moreover, it is easier to plan the lessons. For example, teachers can write in what time to do some activities. The lesson is 45 minutes. 10 minutes on checking the answers of homework. 10 minutes on explanation of the new material. 15 minutes on practicing some exercises, last 10 minutes on doing a test. What is more, in the journals the teachers can write out the weak points of the students, their marks, behavior, attendance, academic performance.
On the other hand, doing action research is also good strategy because it helps to understand where the problems are and thanks to that to solve them and to choose appropriate tasks for the students. During my study at American college, some teachers gave us research papers with the questions. There were such types of questions: “What is your name? What do you expect from the course? Is English the second language for you? How long have you been studying English? What are your weak points in English? What would you like to practice/improve? What is your level of English? Do you have a job? Do you have children? Do you live with your parents? What do you do for life? How many subjects do you study in a college? Is anything important which teacher must know about you?” I remember when in the middle of the course I got the e-mails with anonymous survey about teachers. It was written there:” Please, evaluate your teachers or write a feedback about the course”.
Talking about which strategy is easier to organize, I strongly believe that the strategy the keeping journals is easier to organize than action research strategy because anonymous research must be composed correctly with the permission of the headmaster. What is more, if there are written many negative anonymous comments about the course, the teacher can have the problems. In action research strategy is better not to do anonymous survey. Instead of it, it is better to give the students the worksheets with the questions.
If I were a teacher, I would keep the teaching journal. I would also give the students the worksheets with questions but not anonymous.
