Teacher educators for teacher professional development

Abstract

Professional development refers to the development of a person in his/her professional career. More specifi cally, teacher development is equated with professional growth. For years, ‘staff development’ or 'in-service training, workshops, short term training courses' were only considered as the form of professional development. It is only in the past few years that professional development is considered as a long term process. Not only teacher’s professional development can reform the education system but also the professional development of teachers educators has been considered as an important element. The factors needed for professional development are: a culture of support from school and education system, the role of context, stages of development of a school and education system level. Teacher educators need time both for their professional development and daily work. Financial resources are equally important. Recently, the use of technology in classroom has become a challenging practice. The role of teacher-educators has a strong infl uence not only on the work of teachers but also on research and their institutions, how to work in teams and collaborate in their work.