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Types of professional development

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Professional development includes activities and practices which contribute to a teacher’s professional competence and enhance the quality of teaching and learning.

Types of professional development

  • Job-embedded opportunities, eg. professional learning communities or collaborative teams onsite – staff and/or team opportunities for collaborative learning. The focus of these opportunities is part of an inquiry cycle of self-improvement grounded in student work samples and monitoring evidence of student progress in classrooms.  Teachers determine an element of practices to improve, learn, action and reflect to grow their knowledge and skill with impact measured in student evidence or reflective journaling
  • Workshops, seminars, conferences, short courses offered by consultants/providers
  • Contribution to education system initiatives, pilots, trials, and projects
  • School-based and/or employer-provided professional development in response to identified priorities, including professional development days, guest speakers
  • Syllabus, curriculum, and assessment development provided by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), education associations, and professional associations
  • Training for participation in national and state test marking, ACARA, and school-based assessment procedures
  • Preparation for and development resulting from formal presentations to colleagues on topics related to improving student learning outcomes.
  • Leading school-based curriculum and or policy development
  • Preparation for and development through providing collegial professional support for preservice or beginning teachers or peers as part of a supervising/mentoring role
  • Practitioner inquiry/action research projects, and case studies
  • Reading of educational publications, journals, discussion papers including critical analysis and impact on professional experience
  • Formal study leading to a qualification in education or a field related to the teaching area
  • Participation in work shadowing, collegial visits, learning communities, and other collaborative learning activities
  • Participation in online learning activities including web conferences, webinars, self-paced learning programs, networks, forums, and discussion groups