Professional development is a big part of any teacher’s career. It helps teachers gain confidence, build competence, and guide students toward the best learning outcomes.

A good professional development plan for teachers can bring huge benefits to schools. But what is an effective professional development plan, and how do you develop a professional development strategy for teachers?

Let’s take a look.

Why professional development is important for teachers

Professional development is a fundamental aspect of being an excellent teacher. Through regularly delivered professional development programs, teachers can: 

• Become better teachers overall
• Gain confidence and competence in the job
• Gain excellent classroom management skills
• Become continuous learning advocates
• Boost job satisfaction
• Gain qualifications, certifications, and new skills.

Teachers who engage in continuous professional development will meet these goals, become better teachers, gain the respect of their colleagues, and ultimately be able to mentor other teachers in their own professional development. They will become confident with students, excel at classroom management, and develop the kind of job satisfaction that comes with being really good at what you do.

All in all, professional development is very important for teachers. But it’s not just teachers who benefit. The main beneficiaries of a good teacher professional development strategy are students.

The impact of effective professional development on student outcomes

A good teacher professional development plan can have a huge impact on student outcomes.

Students who are taught by good teachers are more engaged, inspired, and motivated to study hard and do well. This results in a better attitude, higher grades, and an overall richer learning experience.

Students who struggle to pick up certain concepts and skills can also benefit from a teacher with plenty of professional development. That teacher may be able to build a rapport with these students more easily. They will also know the right teaching techniques to help students build the skills they’re finding difficult.

Ultimately, a good professional development plan builds great teachers. And, great teachers help students to get the best results and outcomes possible. 

How to build a great PD plan for teachers

So, how can you develop a professional development plan? Let’s take a look.

Assess the current needs of teachers

Start by looking at the current situation. What are your teachers lacking? What do they need? How can you better support them, and what professional development resources can they benefit from?

There are several ways to make these assessments. One of these is simply to ask teachers what they need. But you can also gain important insights by digging into your HR files and management systems. 

For example, your shift management software can tell you where teachers and staff members are currently concentrating their time and if you could move shift patterns around in beneficial ways. If one staff member is always on break duty and rarely gets one-on-one time with other teachers, switching things up could be great for their professional development. 

Set clear professional development goals

Knowing what you’re working towards is a big help with any professional development plan. It helps you pick the right approaches, and it’s great for motivation.

We’ve spoken a bit about professional development goals above. General professional development goals include things such as ‘Gain more job satisfaction’, ‘Build better rapport with students’, ‘Become better at teaching’ etc. But, it’s likely that individual teachers will have more specific personal goals.

Talk to teachers about what they would like to gain from a personalized professional development plan. Is there anything in particular that they’re struggling with, would like to work towards, or help others with?

Once you know what each teacher is aiming for, turn these insights into clearly defined goals that guide your professional development plans.

Choose appropriate professional development activities

Once you’ve established your goals, you’ll need to select the right type of activities that work towards those goals.

For example, less experienced teachers may benefit from mentoring by more experienced colleagues. Teachers who want to learn particular new skills, on the other hand, may find a course or seminar beneficial.

Examples of professional development activities for teachers include:

• Portfolio creation
• Reflective journaling
• Peer mentoring
• Knowledge sharing
• Training in specific skills
• Attending conferences.

Incorporate training technology and innovation

Technology can be a game-changer when it comes to professional development. There’s plenty of edtech out there that not only helps teachers track student progress and spot problematic patterns, but also gives insights into things such as teaching styles and teacher performance.

Then, of course, there are the various training tools that the digital world makes available. From online courses and webinars to training games, there’s a wealth of professional development resources on the internet.

Technology can also offer insights into a teacher’s methods and duties. For example, timesheet software can reveal when a teacher is exhausting themselves on admin. It also gives them the data they need to demonstrate to their superiors how their time is being used. They can then work together with management to find ways to reduce the admin burden and increase the time spent on professional development.

Develop a progress timeline and budget

Developing a progress timeline and budget helps you to keep your professional development plan realistic. 

Nailing your goals down to a progress timeline is not only motivational but also makes you less likely to pick extravagant goals that will be too hard to fulfill. Failing to beat goals can be disheartening, but meeting them is inspiring.

A progress timeline will make you think hard about what you can realistically achieve within the time given. It will also motivate your teachers to work towards those goals before the time is up.

Similarly, setting a budget is important for making choices about training resources, activities, and so on. Once again, technology such as budget planning software can do the heavy lifting thanks to features such as automation, analytics, and real-time updates. 

Build a supportive professional learning community

Peer support is incredibly helpful for professional development. By building a supportive professional learning community, you can empower teachers to help one another achieve their goals.

Here are some ideas for fostering this kind of supportive environment:

• Encourage collaboration wherever possible
• Make communication easy. Don’t silo teachers or staff members away from others
• Give opportunities for staff to socialize
• Build communication with parents
• Foster positive relationships between parents, staff, and stakeholders
• Reach out to other schools and educators to build a learning network.

Evaluate impact and acknowledge achievements

Evaluating impact is a big part of any strategy, and a professional development strategy is no exception. You can measure the impact of your professional development plan in the following ways:

• Monitoring teaching outcomes and student progress
• Checking up on teacher progress toward training goals
• Holding one-on-one evaluation sessions for staff
• Encouraging feedback from staff, students, parents, and other stakeholders.

When your evaluation reveals positive impacts, acknowledge this. Acknowledging people’s achievements is both validating and motivating. It makes all the hard work feel worthwhile. So, praise and uplift your teachers on their positive progress. 

Latest trends in PD activities for teachers

If you’re still not sure how to develop your professional development strategy, here are some of the latest trends in PD that you might find inspiring. 

Personalized professional development

Personalized professional development puts the emphasis on the needs of each individual rather than following a more generalized approach. This may involve working intensively with individuals one-on-one, creating goals specific to their needs, and crafting activities suited to their learning styles.

Social-emotional learning (SEL)

Social-emotional learning is all about things such as developing self-awareness, emotional control, empathy, interpersonal skills, and so on. SEL is a huge part of any child’s development, and it’s important that teachers are able to support students in this. 

Adding SEL and how to support students in SEL to teacher professional development plans can make a big difference to both student and teacher outcomes.

Culturally responsive teaching

To be as inclusive as possible, it’s important that teachers understand how to be culturally responsive. Culturally responsive teaching is all about reaching students in ways that they can relate to and respecting each student’s cultural background and experiences.

For example, a teacher could integrate a student’s first language into certain lessons, learn how to pronounce all names correctly, use visuals that every student can understand, and so on. 

Learning culturally responsive teaching methods should be an important part of any classroom communication training. 

Blended learning and flipped classrooms

Blended learning incorporates a number of learning formats, including one-on-one, the traditional in-person classroom, virtual teaching, and so on. The aim is to combine the positives of each approach for a comprehensively beneficial learning experience.

A flipped classroom, on the other hand, inverts the traditional lesson-then-homework model. Instead, students are given a topic to study and then bring what they have learned to the classroom. This can foster a more active learning experience and help students develop their own independent study skills.

Both approaches can have positive impacts on students, which is why learning how to use blended learning and flipped classrooms can be a great addition to a professional development plan for teachers.

Micro-credentials and badging

Micro-credentials are specialized skills, usually designed to help students enter the workforce. For example, getting food safety certifications can help students get jobs in catering. Micro-credentials tend not to be part of the general curriculum, but many schools offer them or support students in getting them.

Micro-credentials are indicated by badges. The process of getting micro-credentials is sometimes known as ‘badging’. In teacher professional development terms, learning to help students badge (or even badging themselves) can be very positive.

Teacher leadership development

Teacher leadership development helps teachers advocate for themselves, their students, and their school. It enables them to mentor other teachers, advance in their careers, gain competence and confidence, and guide students through to the best possible learning outcomes.

A great professional development plan for teachers benefits everyone

A good professional development plan makes all the difference for teachers, students, and schools alike. Professional development can improve everything from teacher job satisfaction to student learning outcomes.

With the right professional development strategy, the right technology, and the right motivation, professional development could take your teachers, your students, and your school to the next level. Good luck!