This comprehensive research paper from 2018 provides an overview of previous literature about the teacher's role and presents new findings from a study about Slovenian teachers’ professional identity.
Our main takeaways:
Professional development is the process of meaningful and lifelong learning
Teachers begin to create their professional identity in training
It’s important to consider a teacher’s personality because it makes up a large part of their professional identity and growth
According to the study, teachers with more experience felt better qualified to perform their duties than teachers with less experience
This blogpost explores how to create and foster a strong professional learning community (PLC) at your school. A PLC is a group of people who support each other through collaboration, reflection and growth to improve pupils’ learning.
Our main takeaways:
Everyone should share the same values and vision for the school
Working together and taking responsibility leads to greater learning opportunities for teachers and students
Starting slow, building up over time and sharing leadership is the best way to help the community succeed
This podcast gives ideas and advice to ECE teachers everywhere in short, 6-minute clips. We’re highlighting a recent one about teachers documenting their own ECE journeys and we hope it inspires you!
Our main takeaways:
As teachers, we give a lot of time to documenting students’ growth, but it’s important to document our own! Here’s how you can start:
Take photos of your work with no students in the photos
Get a teacher social media account
Helps you see your growth (and reuse what went well)
You’re supporting other people in your field
You are helping make early childhood education a more professional field
Try it for 3 months and see if you feel prouder of your work!
We recently revisited one of our own articles about Finnish teacher training so you can learn how some of the most well-trained teachers in the world grow and develop as professionals.
The highlights:
Finnish teachers must earn a university degree to teach
Teachers start to develop a sense of professionalism and self-awareness during their studies
Teachers learn how to think creatively and try new things during their training
Teachers complete three internships during their studies to get real classroom experience
Teachers explore different aspects of education and get more work opportunities when they earn a master’s degree
On Tuesday, January 25th at 3 PM GMT+2 (Helsinki time), we will host a panel discussion featuring two HEI Schools pedagogues and former kindergarten teachers with a combined 30 years of experience! Register to join us live and learn more about topics like:
How to develop a strong professional identity
Ways of working and building trust in a multi-professional team
The importance of continual professional development
Finally, we want to introduce one of our own teachers, Taiane, from the HEI Schools Diploma community. She shared her story of professional growth with us.
The highlights:
She moved from Brazil to China to pursue her passion for early education
The HEI Schools Teacher Diploma helped her put play-based pedagogy into practice
She loves the international community and recommended the program to friends!
Next month's theme is pedagogy for children under 3 years old. If you enjoyed this newsletter, you're welcome to forward it to your friends so they can sign up below and receive it too!