Recently we've had more than one CRT talk to us about their PD issues and worries and it has become clear to us that there's quite a few of you out there who don't fully understand what "professional development" is and what VIT is looking for in your submissions.
This is generating a lot of confusion amongst CRTs leading to effects such as CRTs visiting any seminar or workshop they can regardless of the value they see in it OR not having enough PD simply because they have no idea where to start.
Unfortunately the VIT website is a little "technical" in the way it supplies information which many people find obscures the intentions behind requiring you to submit your PD. Their documents, by nature, have to strictly set out what is acceptable. This is ok but it lacks any explanation of why it accepts it, it's aim in accepting things the way it does, the overall aim of requiring you to seek out PD in the first place and those other little tidbits that most people need to fully comprehend what it is they should be doing.
Unfortunately the VIT website is a little "technical" in the way it supplies information which many people find obscures the intentions behind requiring you to submit your PD. Their documents, by nature, have to strictly set out what is acceptable. This is ok but it lacks any explanation of why it accepts it, it's aim in accepting things the way it does, the overall aim of requiring you to seek out PD in the first place and those other little tidbits that most people need to fully comprehend what it is they should be doing.
Over the holidays we are going to take a little look at PD and hopefully clear up some of the confusion surrounding professional development.
For our interstate and international readers, this will largely revolve around the Victorian Institute of Teaching and what they require. If you aren't in Victoria it might not hold as much relevance to you. Keep in mind that we know you are there and over the coming weeks the plan is to make sure that most of our posts hold at least some relevance for you too!
This one is fairly simple to answer.
The face of teaching is changing all the time. There are vast amounts of research being done every year on how different students learn and effective ways to transfer your knowledge to them. New theories and practices emerge at a fantastic rate these days and requiring teachers to seek out PD keeps them up to date on these ideas, the research behind them and the types of practices they promote.
Simply put, the aim is to keep Victorian teacher practices and skills at a high level so they can provide Victorian Students with a world-class education. In short, to expose you to thought provoking maeterial that will genuinely have a positive effect on how you approach your classroom.
Why require teachers to seek out PD opportunities?
This one is fairly simple to answer.
The face of teaching is changing all the time. There are vast amounts of research being done every year on how different students learn and effective ways to transfer your knowledge to them. New theories and practices emerge at a fantastic rate these days and requiring teachers to seek out PD keeps them up to date on these ideas, the research behind them and the types of practices they promote.
Simply put, the aim is to keep Victorian teacher practices and skills at a high level so they can provide Victorian Students with a world-class education. In short, to expose you to thought provoking maeterial that will genuinely have a positive effect on how you approach your classroom.
It's not the spanish inquisition!
The logical piece of information to take away from that? To understand that VIT requiring you to submit PD doesn't mean that they are out to get you! While it is their duty to make sure that all teachers are continually improving on their practices (which is what requiring you to do PD is all about), they are very flexible and realistic about the sources of PD and the level of "proof" that they require you to supply.
You do NOT need rock-solid, third party proof for everything you do. In most cases a personal reflection on the subject matter showing your understanding of the material, what you got from it and how you intend to use it to improve your teaching practices is all that is required.
All you need to do is show them how you are upholding the above intentions behind having you seek out PD opportunities in the first place.
All you need to do is show them how you are upholding the above intentions behind having you seek out PD opportunities in the first place.
MyVIT online Portal.
Please keep in mind that I, like many others, don't have a MyVIT login yet so I can't give any fine detail on this at all. They are coming over the next few months so we just have to be patient. It's a big move that will benefit us all in the end.PD for MyVIT comes in two broad categories; "Quality Assured" (Pdi programs)and "Self Nominated". (Teacher identified PD)
Some words from MyPD
Teachers are able to identify professional development activities
that support or enhance their
knowledge and practice to improve the learning of their students.
Some examples of teacher ID professional development activities:
- Teacher professional reading sourced from the Pdi website or through professional associations
- Professional network meetings, professional learning team meetings held within or outside
- the school
- School based in-service days
- In school action research projects
- Preparation for presentation to colleagues about professional knowledge and practice
- (which will often occur on an in-service or curriculum day or as part of a team based meeting/seminar)
Quality
Assured PD is any PD that comes with a Pdi "PASS" code. These
workshops and seminars have been put through the Pdi application process and
verified as to their suitability for teachers to develop their professional practices.
"Self Nominated"
is everything else.
It is important to understand that no delineation is made between a workshop or seminar, a professional reading, collegial discussions, video, online articles, etc. Either it has a Pdi PASS code or it doesn't.
The implications here are exactly as they are above. VIT is providing you with an open and fair way to submit all of the PD you do without chaining you to certificates and material forms of proof. They are displaying a flexibility in the submission process which acknowledges that the most worthwhile method for you to become a better teacher doesn't always come with a certificate or a reciept as "proof of authenticity".
As long as you always keep the original intentions in mind it should be fairly easy for you to decipher what should or shouldn't count as PD. They DO expect you to be professional in your approach to their overall goals though. Using the occasional staff discussion that made a light come on for you? Those are excellent. Using just your in-school discussions because they fill the 20 hour quota? This is likely to be frowned upon without some pretty bulletproof reflections on your submissions. They had that old 50/50 system for a reason and you should keep that in mind even though it's now going by the wayside.
It's not about the 20 hours a year, it's about exposure to ideas that will have a positive and purposeful impact on your teaching and the outcomes of your students.
The implications here are exactly as they are above. VIT is providing you with an open and fair way to submit all of the PD you do without chaining you to certificates and material forms of proof. They are displaying a flexibility in the submission process which acknowledges that the most worthwhile method for you to become a better teacher doesn't always come with a certificate or a reciept as "proof of authenticity".
As long as you always keep the original intentions in mind it should be fairly easy for you to decipher what should or shouldn't count as PD. They DO expect you to be professional in your approach to their overall goals though. Using the occasional staff discussion that made a light come on for you? Those are excellent. Using just your in-school discussions because they fill the 20 hour quota? This is likely to be frowned upon without some pretty bulletproof reflections on your submissions. They had that old 50/50 system for a reason and you should keep that in mind even though it's now going by the wayside.
It's not about the 20 hours a year, it's about exposure to ideas that will have a positive and purposeful impact on your teaching and the outcomes of your students.
The coming weeks;
In the next 2 weeks we are going to be looking at teacher PD in a little more detail. If you would like to know what kind, simply look in the side bar of the blog. We link a lot of different kinds of resources and many different topics as "launching points" into your own search for PD. This is important to us and our next post should go quite a ways to explaining why.
Regards,
Mel.
Mel.
