How to Meet the 21st century Teaching Demands

How to Meet the 21st century Teaching Demands

Glušac, Tatjana

The 21st-century classroom is an increasingly changeable environment in which teachers are required to update their knowledge and skills constantly. However, professional development opportunities that are available to teachers are more often than not inadequate with respect to the content presented, the format of the presentation, venue or price. Moreover, existing professional development activities are one-shot events and, as such, they cannot meet different teachers’ needs or aid them in their professional pursuits. The 21st-century education calls for the introduction of continuous professional development (CPD) for teachers. As introduction of CPD entails numerous amendments to the entire educational system, it goes without saying that it requires a long time to be implemented. In such a situation, teachers are left on their own to bridge the gap. The paper is based on the results of a yearlong research project in which 10 English language teachers attempted to resolve their teaching issues by transforming their personal knowledge into a collective, shared and cohesive professional knowledge by the means of peer coaching. The aim of the paper is to indicate to the need for teacher cooperation for overcoming classroom challenges, improving their teaching practice and their students’ learning. The results obtained clearly indicate to the fact that peer coaching yields desired changes related to the improvement of teaching practice and students' knowledge even though it is a lengthy process entailing extensive logistics.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2012-05

1017