The Benefits of Teacher Career Development
The modern system of enhancing the qualifications of teachers is claimed to develop very rapidly. Nowadays, the teaching and learning process is guided by and is based on the teachers’ energy, which in its turn depends specifically on their career aspirations, professional goals and personal needs, enthusiasm, and devotion to one’s mission. Career development is necessary and, perhaps, crucial for every ambitious and motivated specialist who intends to achieve significant heights in his or her career path. But in the arduous process of paving the way to career advancement every teacher may encounter the following challenge: what I can do to really fulfill my goals to be a demanded specialist of the field.
This post was written by our ITTT graduate Sona N.
From my personal standpoint, a successful and fruitful pedagogical performance predominantly depends on the professional skills and competences of teachers who are able to focus their own efforts on systematic intellective implementation, to rationally build the efficiency of their performance, to effectively manage their emotional and behavioral state, and last but not least, to put into action their huge potential and evince an incredibly creative activity. In this regard, however, special attention should be paid to teachers’ motivation for professional development and career advancement, self-realization, permanent professional self-development and self-fulfillment, and most importantly for the acquisition of new knowledge and professional skills. Career growth will be possible only if the teacher strives to acquire new competences, move to the next level of professionalism and, accordingly, to a higher level of commitment and responsibility.
It is worth mentioning that the educational sphere provides wide opportunities for the realization of career advancement perspectives and goals. In particular, the career of a teacher can be considered as a unique opportunity to become an unequaled expert in a specific field. It is the teachers’ aspiration and enthusiasm for self-improvement, adaptation to the changing conditions of society, and self-education that can contribute to their career growth. Developing the ability to view one’s own career in the ever-changing context of today’s labor market becomes a necessity, which means that the capacity of self-development should be manifested and evolved on a regular basis.
As a specialist who has managed to gain enough teaching experience at local and international levels, who is dedicated to her job and immensely loves it, who strives to gain more knowledge and competences, who is open to share her professional experience with others, I strongly believe that for every teacher who honestly loves and believes in what he or she does, career development should be the ladder of personal and professional success to climb. Teaching is a calling, it is a vocation which can be achieved through continuing professional education and self-improvement. Continuing professional education is the key to career development as it aims at achieving higher levels of individual and professional development, providing necessary professional and personal qualities, forming one’s world view, a wide range of knowledge and competences, enabling the achievement of a recognized professional status. All these constituents enormously contribute to teachers’ successful intellectual and professional activities.
After all, pedagogical activity is a highly qualified execution and accomplishment that is valuable for the whole society and requires profound knowledge and special professional skills from teachers. Teachers should not just teach, they have to be the embodiment of wisdom and high personal qualities students endeavor to achieve. Teaching is the one profession that creates all other professions and teachers carry this huge responsibility and calling of educating future generations. And as Henry Brooks Adams said, “Teachers affect eternity; no one can tell where their influence stops”.
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