Understanding Professional Development for Educators

Abstract

Professional development refers to different educational experiences related to an individual's work. Doctors, lawyers, educators, accountants, engineers, businessmen and people in a wide variety of professions participate in professional development to learn and apply new knowledge and skills that will improve their performance on the job. For teachers and leaders to be as effective as possible, they continually need to expand their knowledge and skills. Professional development is the only strategy institution systems have to strengthen educators' performance levels and also the only way educators can learn so that they are able to better their performance and raise student achievement. Many misunderstandings exist about professional development. Through in depth literature review and deep observation, this paper is aims to answer fundamental questions about professional development for educators so as to inform and engage more people in understanding that strengthening the quality of professional development for educators is crucial for making professional development effective.

Resilience in Higher Education in Times of Crisis

“…Despite the lack of consistent, stable support, the participants noted a clear sense of community, especially within their departments, built not only by the administration but by various functionaries at the college, particularly heads of departments. The findings reinforce the literature regarding the role of the head of the department in leading joint projects, encouraging connections, and creating hope among staff members (Baporikar, 2015;Dückers et al, 2017;Islam, Karmaker, & Paul, 2019;Knight & Trowler, 2000).…”

“…Nandy et al (2021) found that faculty members struggled with sharing their difficulties with their peers and asking for assistance during COVID-19 pandemic. Academic culture in general encourages autonomy and academic freedom, which can easily be translated into social isolation (Baporikar, 2015). In the face of the pandemic and the lockdowns, when working from home instead of on campus, this isolation could undermine resilience, while working with colleagues as a community can become a cornerstone of resilience (see: Sharma, 2020, who suggested the development of online peer communities).…”

“…Furthermore, a director has the ability to create an atmosphere that markets employees' accomplishments. The head of a department can inspire faculty members to be respectful of one another, and to express mutual appreciation of colleagues who share their knowledge and experience with others (Baporikar, 2015;Black, 2015). It seems that institutional resilience can be developed by encouraging to express appreciation and respect, by the managers, but also by colleagues.…”

The economic and sustainability priorities in the United Arab Emirates: conflict exploration

“…On the other hand, entrepreneurship helps economic growth and innovation and increases society's wealth by producing more goods and services and providing additional job possibilities in GCC countries (Debus et al, 2017;Sabella et al, 2014;Facchini et al, 2021). Government assistance is applied to entrepreneurial initiatives through entrepreneurial development projects: the Qatar Science and Technology Park, Saudi Arabia's Knowledge Economic City, Oman's Knowledge Oasis and Dubai's Mohamed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Foundation (Baporikar, 2015a(Baporikar, , 2015b, thereby attempting to create the entrepreneurial climate and to incite different employment opportunities (Al-Sokari et al, 2014). On the other side, most GCC countries' hierarchical governmental structures limit private investment opportunities as the success of state-owned enterprises in the GCC is largely due to government support in the form of large capital surpluses and unique governance mechanisms (Hartog et al, 2010).…”

“…The UAE developed highly ambitious development goals, which are at risk due to the UAE's enormous reliance on natural resources in economic development and growth (Zaidan et al, 2019). Additionally, as a result of insignificant progress in building entrepreneurial policies and bringing entrepreneurial businesses into the national economy (Al-Economic and sustainability priorities Sokari et al, 2014), the UAE requires institutional support for entrepreneurial activities (Baporikar, 2015a(Baporikar, , 2015b, thereby encouraging sustainable economic growth through various stakeholders, such as private companies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) (Baporikar, 2015a(Baporikar, , 2015bHyder and Lussier, 2016;Shrivastava et al, 2020).…”