The State of School and University Teacher Self-Development in Georgia

Abstract

In conditions of continuous education reform teacher self-development is indispensable to provide high quality of teaching as well as simply to maintain the job. The goals of the paper are to analyze the intrinsic and extrinsic motives for teachers to be engaged in self-development, to show the difference between the terms “development” and “change”, “professional development” and “professional (re)training”, and to find the state of the matter of professional self-development in Georgian schools and universities. School / university policies concerning professional training and development will be discussed. Such approaches to self-development as introspection (journals/diaries/self-recording and observation), self and peer assessment, technology use and getting new experiences of teaching will be presented. The reasons of great popularity of ICT as a tool for self-development will be viewed: being free of charge, flexible in time, getting practical ideas and theoretical knowledge, also developing some skills, and almost limitless variety of offers. A study involving Georgian school teachers and university lecturers will be offered, comprising interviews and a questionnaire.  The questionnaire will try to find out who (age, experience, computer literacy) are involved in teacher self-development, how often they take practical measures to do so, and in what way the teachers prefer to realize self-development. Besides, reasons why some teachers (almost) are not involved in self-development will be analyzed. In conclusion an effective model of teacher self-development will be suggested.