Teachers at work: early experiences of professional development

Abstract

Professional development is expected to be a career long feature of teaching. The establishment of positive attitudes to professional development might be expected to be central to the early experiences of new teachers. The Scottish Study of Probationers (1988 - 1991) found that, during their probation, teachers reported spending more time proving they could do their jobs than they spent developing their practice. That increasing numbers of teachers begin and, in some cases, complete their probation on temporary contracts is likely to threaten the developmental potential of these early years in post. One-hundred-and-ninety-three teachers who completed probation during the period April 1995 to March 1996 rated their levels of satisfaction with their professional development experiences during probation, their clarity about assessment procedures and how far they had developed as teachers by the end of probation. Overall, respondents seemed more satisfied with their professional development experiences than had probationers 5 years before. However, those on broken employment patterns reported much lower levels of satisfaction although they did report high levels of development. Two contrasting interpretations are offered for these findings: that uncertain disrupted employment is a trial by fire which enhances development; or that disrupted employment leads to narrower views of teaching and more limited perceptions of the teacher's professional task. Implications for teacher education are identified.