A Staff Development ProgrammeA comprehensive staff development programme would try to help all staff (i.e. teaching and non teaching) in three main ways:
The assumption is that a good staff development programme will greatly help staff members to enjoy their work through becoming better motivated, more committed and more professional. The staff development programme would encourage staff to reflect on how they presently do things so as to identify their strengths and weaknesses and thus target areas for improvement. For teaching staff this would include upgrading subject specific knowledge and skills, teaching methods and assessment practices. Mentoring, classroom supervision, teacher self-review and reflection and appraisal are words used to cover some of the activities that might take place. The work of running a school includes a lot more besides classroom teaching. The staff development programme should allow teachers to be aware of the range of these activities and to participate actively in their planning, implementation and evaluation. The tasks might include being a form teacher or a head of department, running clubs and societies, being a member of various committees, and being involved with the various aspects of school administration. Delegation and participation are words used to cover some of the activities that might take place. It is often said that the best teachers are those who are also well rounded, mature, caring human beings. The ultimate purpose of a staff development programme would thus be to help individual staff members to become such human beings. Beginning teachers still have a lot to learn about the profession. As they gain more experience in the profession they become more mature in dealing with situations and problems. This is covered in the sections above but is mentioned again here to reinforce the idea that a teacher is also an ordinary person and there is sometimes a need to help him/her to focus on the areas of interaction between their professional commitments and their personal life. People change as they get older and go through life’s various stages e.g. leaving home, getting married, having a first child, death of parents, getting divorced, losing a spouse or child, children leaving home, becoming arthritic. These and many other events are unrelated to the staff member’s official work but they can be traumatic and can seriously affect that work. A friendly and supportive atmosphere in the staff room would possibly be sufficient to support teachers passing through these stressful situations, but some kind of more or less official counseling service might also help. At a more general level this might involve having staff training sessions which consider the maturation process with its stages and traumas while, at a more specific level, there might be special people appointed and trained as counselors. |