We expect educators to perform so many roles: leaders, mentors, social support, educators, and far more. There’s also intense pressure to provide excellence at all times.

That’s why professional development is so important in education. 

With so much resting on instructors’ shoulders, they deserve the highest quality professional development training. They must be empowered to do the job they love to the best of their ability.

Here’s how you can support educators (and students) through professional development in education.

What is professional development in education?

Teachers know better than anyone that learning is a lifelong pursuit. There’s always something new to learn or skills to develop. Teacher professional development applies that principle to educators themselves.

Harvard defines professional development as ‘gaining new skills through continuing education and career training after entering the workforce’. 

Essentially, professional development is any form of education or training that teaches new skills and provides knowledge that improves professional performance. Continued professional development is required in many different fields, including healthcare and law, and it’s particularly important in education.

Professional development in education isn’t strictly confined to instructors. Any education personnel, especially those who work directly with learners, can benefit from improving their skills and knowledge base.

Educators must deploy an enormous range of skills in their everyday working lives. These include social skills, being subject-matter experts, understanding the mechanisms of learning, and recognizing learners at risk.

All of these skills are ideal teacher professional development topics. Training can support educators in areas they find difficult, develop areas of strength, and even introduce new ideas or priorities, such as self-care.

Here are some of the most common teacher professional development topics

  • Classroom management
  • Sensitivity and anti-bias
  • Community engagement
  • Stress management and wellbeing
  • Trauma-informed practices
  • Mental health awareness
  • Cybersecurity and data protection
  • Technology integration
  • Curriculum-based training

Professional development in education covers all aspects of a teacher or educational professional’s job, including teaching, admin, social interactions, technology, and personal well-being.

Why professional development is so important in education

Instructors start their careers with a lot of knowledge and skills that they refine through years of experience. It’s not unreasonable to ask how professional development improves teaching. Luckily, there’s a lot of evidence to show the benefits of professional development in education.

Here are some ways professional development can improve the educational experience for both teachers and students.

Higher retention rates

Teaching isn’t a stress-free job. In 2021, an Education Week survey found that 60% of teachers described their work as ‘frequently’ or ‘always stressful’. Places like the UK are facing retention crises, with 32.5% of teachers quitting the profession within their first five years. 

Teacher professional development is an essential tool for improving retention rates. Instructors are suffering from stress and burnout, but training and collaboration can improve confidence and reduce stress.

Professional development gives educators the skills to handle frustrating or difficult parts of their work, but it goes a step further than that. By investing in their staff’s future, employers are showing that they value educators and want them to succeed.

Professional development also helps to build strong networks within the profession, allowing educators to support each other. This strong sense of community helps increase retention rates and staff satisfaction.

Attracting better talent

The best teachers are eternal students. They want to do the best job they can, and that means they want professional development opportunities.

Highlighting the professional development your organization offers is a sure-fire way to attract the best and brightest. This is especially true for early-career instructors focused on gaining experience and showcasing their skills.

Better learning outcomes for students

So far, we’ve focused on what educational institutions and instructors get out of teacher professional development, but student outcomes will always be the most important success metric in education.

Professional development allows instructors to take advantage of the latest developments in education. They can move beyond outdated assumptions or tools and embrace evidence-based, effective strategies.

Improved cultural competence

Cultural competence is one of the key skills that allows educators to understand their learners and create an inclusive, welcoming learning environment. It’s also one of those occasions where you don’t know what you don’t know.

Developing instructors’ cultural competence highlights aspects of learners’ lives that might not otherwise be apparent. This reduces the risks of misunderstanding and allows everyone to feel safe and respected within the classroom.

It’s also a great way for teachers to model lifelong learning to their students. When students see their teacher talking about what they’ve learned recently, it emphasizes that learning and growth can be positive parts of their lives well into the future.

Better collaboration between educators

We’ve already touched on this idea a bit. Although teaching is inherently social, educators are in a different social category than those they’re teaching. This can leave educators feeling isolated and wondering who to turn to for advice and suggestions.

Great teacher professional development courses help educators build relationships with their peers and create their own support networks. This can lead to sharing ideas, a collaborative approach to problems, and increased confidence.

Collaboration between instructors in the same organization can also contribute to a feeling of community and continuity of approach for students. Having a consistent set of rules and expectations allows students to thrive.

Types of professional development institutions can offer

Professional development in education doesn’t have to be one-size-fits-all. With such a variety of teacher professional development topics, it’s unsurprising that there’s a similar variety in how to deliver that training.

Here are some of the different approaches to delivering professional development training in education.

Online learning

Online learning is a great way to fit professional development into instructors’ busy lives. Online courses allow teachers and educators to choose the topics that are most relevant to them and study them whenever and wherever they have time.

Online learning courses often provide bite-sized training to capitalize on this adaptability.

Peer mentoring

Many of the problems teachers face are complicated and nuanced. Often, the best place to turn for advice is someone who has faced similar situations and understands the different pressures and challenges.

Peer mentoring allows educators to share what has worked for them, seek support, and creates a strong collaborative environment.

Classroom observation

Classroom observation can benefit both the teacher being observed and the observer. By watching each other conduct classes, instructors can reflect together on which techniques were most effective and why.

Workshops

Workshops are typically interactive opportunities for teachers to learn new skills and techniques. During a workshop, trainers will usually offer an in-depth focus on a narrow subject area, and attendees will be able to practice the described methods. This makes them a practical, engaging option for professional development.

Seminars

Where workshops are typically practical, seminars usually take the form of a lecture or short presentation from an expert. Seminars provide the strong theoretical understanding that is often required for further development.

Some seminars are one-off sessions, while others are offered as part of a seminar series. Online seminars allow teachers to learn from world-class experts, regardless of location.

Using the right LMS can improve your teacher’s professional development

In education, ongoing professional development is essential for teachers, benefiting educators, learners, and institutions. Making this development an integral part of teachers’ daily routines ensures they remain equipped with the latest skills, methodologies, and resources. Educational institutions can deliver streamlined, personalized, and efficient professional development with a learning management system (LMS) like Moodle Workplace.

Moodle Workplace offers several features that simplify and enhance professional development. One is Dynamic Rules, which allow administrators to automate parts of the learning journey. For example, when a teacher completes a foundational training module, a dynamic rule can automatically enroll them in the next stage of their learning pathway or assign a task aligned with their progress. This automation saves managers time, promotes continuous learning, and minimizes the need for manual oversight, allowing educators to focus on personal growth.

Another valuable tool in Moodle Workplace is the Activity Completion feature, which lets course creators set specific criteria for completing each learning activity. For instance, teachers might need to view a particular resource, achieve a designated score, or engage in forum discussions. This feature empowers faculty to track their own progress and ensures they interact thoroughly with each module before advancing, fostering a comprehensive and meaningful learning experience.

Moodle Workplace’s Programs feature also allows institutions to design structured, multi-course learning paths. These pathways can include prerequisites, completion requirements, and specific group assignments, enabling targeted development for various roles within the institution. For example, a university could create a tailored new faculty onboarding program that covers mandatory training and optional courses on innovative teaching techniques. By establishing clear pathways for development, Moodle Workplace helps institutions efficiently support and nurture their educators.