TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

GROUP 551023_19

PHASE OF ASSESSMENT
INITIAL EVALUATION

TUTOR:
ASTRID YANIRA LEMOS

PRESENTED BY:
NELSON HERNANDO LEGUIZAMO GARCIA
COD. 93385773

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OPEN AND DISTANCE UNAD, CEAD IBAGU

SCHOOL OF BASIC SCIENCES OF EDUCATION
BACHELOR IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
AUGUST 28th OF 2016

QUESTIONNAIRE

a. Why do you think professional development is important for language teachers?

In my opinion, I would say that people who become a profesional in any area are skilled to
develop certain tasks attached to their profesional training. The knowledge acquired along the
years of study and training offer them the possibility to face matters or issues that may be solved
appropriately by the use of strategies created to do so. In the field of teaching, its wide known
that language teachers need to be in continuous preparation because new challenges emerge
trying to uptdate, validate, modify or even replace whats been taught or said before.
Professional development is done in secuences or stages that are well defined in cycles like this: a
plan, activities, field of study and evaluation. All these secuences help language teachers to
experience the way they should transmit his/her students knowledge that cause great impact by
the use of innovating materials in a learning process. In few words, profesional development
makes teachers be updated and ready for new challenges.

b. What are the differences between teacher training and teacher development? What can
you add from your own personal expercience?

TEACHER TRAINING

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

Time-bound

Continuous learning.

Related to the needs of the course.

Related to the needs of individuals.

Pre-determined final outcomes and products.

Free final outcomes and products.

Transmission-oriented.

Problem-solving oriented.

Fixed agenda.

Flexible Agenda.

Learn theory.

Experiment and analyse.

Learn new techniques.

Learn from ourselves.

I can say that

From my own experience as an english teacher, Ive had the opportunity to attend to University
of Tolima to develop many different courses and participate in symposiums especially desgined
for english teachers with the intention to receive and use strategies to make our students see this
process as unique and worthy to be coursed. Experts on this field have advised us on how to
become more sensitive to our students needs. Aside from that, they also have warned us on the
use of modern devices (technology) to get to goals that were harder to get to in the past. With no
doubt, teacher training as well as teacher development are there to contribute the best way to
create teachers with new thinking visualizing new horizons to make teaching and learning more
attractive and less difficult.

c. What are some of the problems language teachers face in the first years of teaching?
I think the first problem a teacher faces is dealing with pedagogy. Even though a teacher is
trained for many years at university, he/she may feel uncomfortable because it takes many more
years of practice to feel he/she is doing it the right way. A teacher may know a lot about his/her
subject but almost always the first years seem to be chaotic. Another problem a teacher faces is
his/her own role in the classroom. He/she might think to him/herself: Am I a counselor? A
helper? A guide? A problem solver?. This is just because the environment in which the teacher is
assigned he/she will have to deal with many different issues that involves all kind of problems.
This could be a distractor if the teacher is not well prepared for them. One more problem a
teacher could face is dealing with the institutions commands. Itsvery important for a teacher to
have clear perceptions of what the institution he works for demands. He/she must know the rules,
the grading way, legal procedures, what its permitted and not permitted, who to attent to in case
of a single acto r performance, etc.
d. How can teacher development contribute to institutional improvement?
It can help in different ways: teachers more and well prepared to fulfill his/her duties according to
institutional designs. Teachers ready to produce immediate response to eventual issues. Teachers
who interact for the institution and students welfare. Teachers willing to conduct strategies and
plans to lead programs in a succesful way.

WEB REFERENCES

Vergara, O, Hernndez F, Crdenas, R. (2009). Profile Issues in Teachers Professional

Development.

BDigital-Portal

de

Revistas

UN./Vol.11

1.

Taken

from:

http://www.revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/profile/article/view/10557/36790

Universidad Abierta y a Distancia, UNAD. (2016). Gua Integrada de Actividades. Mdulo de

Teacher

Development.

http://campus07.unad.edu.co/ecedu06/course/view.php?id=39

Recuperado

de: