“Innovation in strengthening and expanding a diverse education workforce is critical to improving education.”(The Learning Generation, Investing in education for a changing world – The International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity)
“If we leave the current young generation without adequate schooling, we doom them and the world to future poverty, environmental ills, and even social violence and instability for decades to come.” (UNESCO GEM report, September 2016)
The vital role of teachers both in education and wider society is self-evident, but there is growing recognition among governments and international organisations that there needs to be more emphasis on supporting teacher development.
During this presentation we will look at the evidence for investing in teacher development, and what good professional development looks like. We will consider the roles of policy-makers, school leaders, and teacher educators, but focus on how teachers themselves can be effective in identifying and responding to their own development needs.
The British Council’s Continuing Professional Development framework for teachers represents our global understanding of, and expertise in, teaching and teacher development, and is a key tool for teachers trying to assess their own needs. We will look at how to use the framework, discuss the needs of the audience, and consider a simple development planning template.”
About the lecturer:
Damian Ross leads support in implementing the British Council’s approach to teacher development, Teaching for Success, for British Council teams across the globe. He is a specialist in education and English language development management, with 16 years’ experience of teaching, training and educational project management in various locations across Europe, the Middle East, and Central and Southeast Asia.
After several years teaching English in Europe and Asia, Damian joined the British Council as a Teacher Trainer in Jordan in 2006. He had various management and training roles at British Council teaching centres before taking up a regional role in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, working with national governments and training institutions to support teacher education and development. He then moved to Indonesia, where he led both teacher development and English language development programmes across the country.
In his current role with the British Council global team, Damian is responsible for the ensuring that British Council Teacher Education and Development work leads to a lasting, sustainable difference to student learning experiences and achievement. This involves making sure British Council teams have the skills and tools to understand their context, to analyse needs within education systems, to identify the right development activity to respond to those needs, and to learn from and share those experiences.