No matter how good pre-service training for teachers is, it cannot be expected to prepare teachers for all the challenges they will face throughout their careers. Education systems therefore seek to provide teachers with opportunities for in-service professional development in order to maintain a high standard of teaching and to retain a high-quality teacher workforce.
Professional development is broadly defined as activities that develop an individual’s skills, knowledge, expertise and other characteristics as a teacher.
Professional development can be provided in many ways, ranging from the formal to the informal. It can be made available through external expertise in the form of courses, workshops or formal qualification programmes, through collaboration between schools or teachers across schools (e.g. observational visits to other schools or teacher networks) or within the schools in which teachers work, through coaching/mentoring, collaborative planning and teaching, and the sharing of good practices.
Source: OECD: Creative Effective Teaching & Learning Environments
Children are drawn to technology. Laptops, tablets, software and apps are the tools of learning in the 21st century, the paper and ink of the next generation.
Some benefits:
Source: https://phys.org/news/2015-09-technology-classroom.html
Pedagogy is derived from paidagogos, a Greek word meaning "teacher of children". Pedagogy concerns itself with distinguishing between what is appropriate for children, and what are appropriate ways of teaching and giving assistance to children and young people.
Source: Curriculum and Leadership Journal
In designing a curriculum, you are planning an intellectual 'journey' for your students - a series of experiences that will result in them learning what you intend them to learn.
These experiences can include lectures, group discussions, private study, projects, portfolios, formative and summative assessments and more.
Curriculum design includes consideration of aims, intended learning outcomes, syllabus, learning and teaching methods and assessment.
It also involves ensuring that the curriculum is accessible and inclusive, so that students regardless of their backgrounds or disabilities can participate in it with an equal chance of success.
Source: University of Manchester