How Do Professional Development Programmes Help Teachers?

February 11, 2021

The world is changing more rapidly than ever. To be able to respond to the changes and be able to survive, a new mindset, knowledge, and skills are needed. This applies especially to teachers. Teachers are specialists in learning and teaching. That’s why it’s crucially important that they keep themselves updated on the newest learning concepts, theories, and methods.

Teachers’ professional development programmes aim at updating and increasing the teachers’ capacity to work as teachers. We in Finnish Global Education Solutions have defined five major advantages of how the programmes benefit and help teachers to develop themselves.  

Professional development programmes help teachers to increase their:

1. Pedagogical skills

All teaching starts from the pedagogy: What is learning? How do students learn? Even teachers themselves would have a strong experience in teaching and learning. It’s important to reflect these questions regularly. If a person has only recently become a teacher, it’s even more important that they 1) reflect the principles of latest pedagogical research and practices on their own teaching and 2) analyze how to support students learning even better in everyday classroom situations.

2. Methodological skills

‍New teaching methodologies develop all the time. It’s important to keep up to date on the latest teaching methodologies. The world is full of different methodologies and teachers can pick the most suitable one for their students.  

3. Understanding their own teaching and its influence on the students

All students are different and so are teachers. Our background, own experiences, values and attitudes influence us as human beings. For teachers, this influence also determines what kind of teachers they are. The development programmes offer teachers a possibility to reflect on their own background, and to make visible the influence of one’s background in teaching. Thus, this develops them as teachers.  

4. Communication with each other

‍As the best way to learn is to learn together with other people, teachers’ professional development programmes enhance the importance of the communication and cooperation with other teachers and actors. What is even better is when the programmes include groupwork and  reflections during which the teachers are able to experience the power of co-learning and co- creation.

5. Motivation

‍What is even better is when the programmes include groupwork and  reflections during which the teachers are able to experience the power of co-learning and co- creation. Without motivation there is no change. Co-learning and sharing experiences increase teachers’ motivation as well as the feeling of success. An important part of teachers’ professional development programmes is to motivate the teachers to develop their own teaching practices and to give tools to do so successfully.

Finnish Global Education Solutions´ teachers’ professional development programmes aim at increasing all of the five aspects mentioned above. Read more about our programmes visiting our services.