We asked ELT experts Craig Thaine, Penny Ur, Scott Thornbury and Silvana Richardson for their reactions to the State of Teacher Development survey results, looking specifically at average hours spent on teacher development, support areas and even which ELT experts they would like to invite to dinner!
Average amount of time spent on teacher development
Scott Thornbury said that people tend to see professional development as a formal activity to be measured. In reality, though, any form of development is an ongoing process… which makes it very difficult to calculate an exact length of time.Silvana Richardson expressed that it would be nice to know exactly what those 7 hours consist of! She felt there is often a misconception that teacher development is an activity that you do in a classroom. So, much like Scott, she thinks that there’s a lot of informal teacher development that’s not labelled as such. This lead her to conclude that 7 hours just doesn’t sound high enough!
Reasons why people don’t carry out teacher development
When we told Penny Ur that 37% of teachers didn’t do as much teacher development as they would have liked because they don’t know where to find it, she thought this was a bit of a cop-out. Teachers who really want to develop will find resources and places to visit on the internet. Ultimately, Penny feels that teacher and institutional initiative is crucial.
Are institutions offering enough support?
When Silvana was told that 34% of institutions offered little support, she expressed that this is a big problem. If a school doesn’t offer professional development, it produces teachers who lack excellence. In turn, the students don’t receive excellent learning which, ultimately, means that the school itself is not excellent. Craig Thaine expressed great sadness at this too. He thinks that schools are perhaps willing to invest in technology and resources, but they’re reluctant to invest in their teachers.
Which ELT expert would you take to dinner?
Scott and Penny were both very flattered to be told that they are two of the top people who you’d love to go to dinner with! Scott’s always keen to talk to practicing teachers: “you can never learn enough about the different conditions in which teachers teach“.Penny told us how ecstatic she is that her talks, articles and books are resonating with teachers around the globe. She explained that hearing such positive feedback gives her that motivation to carry on.
To listen to the reactions in full, click below!
For more reactions and full results to our survey, make sure to visit the State of Teacher Development hub.