Plenary given at the Braz-TESOL Brasília-Goiânia One-Day Seminar, October 3, 2014

1. TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
ALL IT CAN BE
Isabela Villas Boas – Casa Thomas Jefferson, Brasília
Isabela Villas Boas – Casa Thomas Jefferson, Brasília

4. WHAT IS DEVELOPMENT?

5. WHAT IS PROFESSIONAL, OR
TEACHER, DEVELOPMENT?

6. HOW DOES TEACHER
DEVELOPMENT DIFFER FROM
TEACHER TRAINING AND TEACHER
EDUCATION?

7. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR TEACHER
DEVELOPMENT?

8. WHAT “COUNTS” AS TEACHER
DEVELOPMENT?

9. WHAT SHOULD BE THE MAIN FOCUS
OF TEACHER DEVELOPMENT?

11. I can say:
“I’m going to develop my
ability to…”

12. But can I say:
“I’m going to develop
your ability to…” ?
or…
“I’m going to develop
you” ?

13. People cannot be developed; they
can only develop themselves.
Development is primarily
one’s own responsibility.

15. Allwright, D. (1999). Three major processes of teacher development and the appropriate design criteria for developing and using them. ‘Research and Practice:
Voices from the Field’ Conference. Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition University o f Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA.
Training:
Acquisition
of practical
skills
Education:
Acquisition of
knowledge
Development:
Acquisition of
understanding
action
change

16. Learning
how to
use digital
tools.
Learning
how digital
tools can
enhance
learning.
Selecting the
appropriate
digital tool to
achieve a
learning
outcome and
reflect on its
effectiveness.
Training
Education
Development

18. .
Training and education can be
presented or managed by
others;

19. Development is something that can
be done only by and for oneself.

20. The growth
mindset is based on
the belief that your
basic qualities are
things you can
cultivate through
your efforts.
A matter of
mindset
Dweck, C. S. (2012). Mindset: How You Can
Fulfill Your Potential. Constable &
Robinson Limited. Kindle iPad version.

21. Language teacher
development …

22. is a bottom–up process;

23. values the insider view
rather than the outsider
view;

24. is independent of the
organization but often
functioning more
successfully with its
support and recognition;

25. is a continuing process
of becoming;

26. is a process of articulating
an inner world of
conscious choices made in
response to the outer
world of the teaching
context;

27. is wider than professional
development and includes
personal, moral and value
dimensions;

28. can be encouraged and
integrated in both
training and education
programs.
Mann (2005). The language teacher’s development. Language Teaching 38, 103–118.

29. Innovation and change
are necessary parts of
teacher development
(Bailey 1992; Willis & Willis 1996, as cited in Mann, 2005)

30. “CPD is a planned, continuous and
lifelong process whereby teachers try
to develop their personal and
professional qualities, and to improve
their knowledge, skills and practice…”

31. “…leading to their empowerment, the
improvement of their agency and the
development of their organizations and
their pupils.”
Padwad and Dixit (2011) . Continuing Professional Development: An Annotated
Bibliography. British Council

32. Professional development is a personal journey; you can read
travel guides, watch travelers and consult tour operators, but
eventually you will have to undertake the journey yourself if you
actually want to go anywhere.

33. But it is also true that this personal
journey becomes easier if we have
travel guides, fellow-travelers, tour
operators and road maps, i.e. various kinds of support.

34. Teacher development is
independent of, though much
better with, support from the
organization, school or system.
Underhill, A. (1999). Continuous teacher development. IATEFL Issues 149, 14–18.

35. Traditional
professional
development
Top-down decision-making
A fix-it, prescriptive approach
Lack of ownership
One-size-fits-all techniques
Fixed an untimely delivery methods
Visionary
professional
development
Collaborative decision-making
A growth-driven approach
Collective construction
Tailor-made techniques
Varied and timely delivery methods
Diaz-Maggioli, G (2004) Teacher-centered professional development. Alexandria, Va.:
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

36. Support

37. Self-
Esteem
Recognition

38. Perhaps our professional development is like a
tree that is born from a seed and which needs
to be watered to grow.
Each branch is like a new skill; We know we
cannot predict the direction it is going to take,
but we also know that it can only grow if that tree
is watered and nurtured.
Vinicius Lemos – Knock, Knock
http://supervisionopenchannel.edublogs.org/
2014/09/15/knock-knock/

39. Effective professional development is:
Ongoing
Collective
Job-embedded
Results-oriented
Most effective in schools that function
as professional learning communities
DuFour (2014). Harnessing the power of PLCs. Educational Leadership Vol. 71 no. 8.

40. Effective leadership to nurture
learning/development
Personal mastery
Shared vision
Mental models
Team learning
Systems thinking

41. WHAT COUNTS?

43. Read deeply
Do action research
Write articles
Write materials
Collaborate
Teach a new course
Give workshops
Keep a teaching journal

44. Become a mentor
Use PLNs
Participate in conferences
and courses
Learn a new language
Look at developments in
other fields
Learn from great educators
Examine critical moments

45. The importance of reading
Teacher Development: An interview with Dr. Willy
A. Renandya (Academia.edu)

46. courses conferences workshops articles
blogs books webinars MOOCs
instructional videos collaborative projects
foreign language courses action research
reflective teaching ELT Chat Twitter
Facebook groups teacher websites
changing personal habits to improve teaching
developing materials improving your English
teaching a new age or level psychotherapy
teaching an online course peer mentoring
Exploratory practice
sharing lesson plans widening knowledge about the
world

47. Teacherpreneurship

48. Development:
Acquisition of understanding

50. ELT pics @Raquel_EFL

51. Energy for teaching derives from the
way our own professional growth
propels the growth of our students.
(2014) Tomlinson, C. A. Classroom-based professional learning. Educational Leadership Vol. 71 no 8.

53. If your goal is to reach a particular destination,
decisions about the route must come after
identifying that destination.
Guskey (2014). Planning professional learning. Educational Leadership Vol. 71, no 8

55. Creative tension
Commitment to create the
desired results:
“Here is the choice I make.”
Based on Robert Fritz’s model, in Senge (2012) Schools that learn. New York: Crown Business

56. “You may never realize
the exact details of your
vision, but you will
realize something
powerful that makes
you hold it.”

57. “There are many stories of people who achieve
extraordinary results with extraordinary visions –
where the results happen to be different from their
original intent.”
(Senge 2012: location 1810)

59. isabela.villasboas@thomas.org.br