With the school holidays fast-approaching, I can’t think of a better thing for the teachers than a refresher course.

Our changing goals for learning, coupled with shifts in curriculum emphasis and a deeper understanding of teacher learning and student thinking, calls for a compulsory teacher professional development. Good teachers form the foundation of good schools, and improving teachers’ skills and knowledge is one of the most important investments of time and money both local and national leaders can ever make. 

Truth be told, knowing what to teach is one thing but knowing how to teach what you know is another. Assuming you are perfect at both, things have changed and you need to update the changes. Even those who have long standing successful experiences in teaching should not be left out in this course. In the words of Albert Einstein, "If you keep doing business today as you did it yesterday, do not hope to stay in business tomorrow.”

This is not to insinuate that our universities are not doing enough. The reality is that university programs cannot provide the extensive range of learning experiences necessary for graduates to become effective educators.

Once students graduate, requirements, and are employed, they learn through experience. As in all professions, new teachers and principals take years to gain the skills they need to be effective in their roles. The complexity of teaching is so great that some teachers leave the profession within a few years. Even experienced teachers confront great challenges each year, including changes in subject content, new instructional methods, advances in technology, changed laws and procedures, and student learning needs.

The question therefore is not whether or not we should have these trainings but what we should do in the trainings. Professional development training should teach teachers to understand student learning, curriculum materials and delivery, as well as subject-matter content. It should improve teachers’ knowledge of the subject matter that they are teaching, and enhance their understanding of student thinking in that subject matter. Truly, aligning substantive training with the curriculum and teachers’ actual work experiences is vital for academic success.

What this means is that professional development can influence teachers’ classroom practices significantly and lead to improved student achievement when it focuses on: how students learn particular subject matter; instructional practices that are specifically related to the subject matter and how students understand it; and strengthening teachers’ knowledge of specific subject-matter content. For example, a teacher who has attended a professional development workshop is likely to pose complex problems to students, listen to the processes students use to solve these problems, and encourage them to seek different methods of finding answers. By contrast, teachers who have not received the training are likely to emphasize basic fact recall, getting answers quickly, and working alone rather than in groups.

If we want to realize great achievements and consistent growth in students’ basic and advanced reasoning as well as problem-solving skills, professional development is the way to go. It is the best way to share with teachers how students learn and how to gauge that learning effectively. This suggests that if professional development is rooted in subject matter and focused on student learning, a significant impact on student achievement can be realized.

In addition to the above, such trainings enhance socialization. When teachers meet, they share their experiences and learn new things from each other. Sometimes this is all the therapy a teacher needs to keep on- the knowledge that you are not alone. New teachers for example, juggle an overwhelming number of unfamiliar issues, such as classroom management, instruction, curriculum, school culture and operations, test preparation and administration, parent relations, and interactions with other teachers. Left to themselves, they may develop counterproductive behaviors. With extra support, however, new teachers learn more effective practices to apply to daily challenges. In such meetings, the experienced teachers can mentor the new ones in focus groups.

When all is said and done, colleges do a spectacular job in training teachers. However, refresher courses are inevitable from time to time. They not only reawaken the teachers’ passion for teaching but also help them to adjust to the changes in the curriculum. Professional development is the only strategy school systems have to strengthen educators’ performance levels.

The writer is a lecturer at The Adventist University of Central Africa