Barrier #3
As was the case with Sarah, policymakers
are too often concerned with the ‘what’
of innovation rather than the ‘how’ of
innovation. Professional development is
development for performance (acquiring
knowledge, skills and dispositions
necessary before changes can be made)
rather than development of performance
(professional learning to support a change
in practice).
12
Barrier #4
Teacher professional development
programmes should not be a one-size-
fits-all. Rather, the design and content of
the programme must take into account
the context in which the programme
is to take place. Teacher professional
development could adopt a bottom-up
approach, where the starting point is an
internal view (arising from the teachers
themselves) of teaching rather than an
external one (imposed on them by an
outsider). Sarah’s top-down approach left
the teachers feeling that they have no real
personal investment in the programme.
Consequently, they were less committed
to it .