On March 25 and 26, the Center for Animation, Development and Educational Research for the 21st Century (CADRE21) and the National Carrefour for Professional Integration in Teaching (CNIPE) organized their second Professional Development Summit in Education in Quebec (DP Summit). For the occasion, more than 200 participants from all walks of life gathered at the Saint-Hyacinthe Convention Center with the primary objective of looking at the professional development of teachers through four interrelated perspectives: the teaching profession, support, leadership and university training.
These themes emerged from the four major findings made during the first edition of the event :
- the process of professional development for teachers must begin during initial training;
- the autonomy of teachers in drawing up their professional development plan is essential;
- the leadership of the school principal is a key success factor;
- better collaboration between university researchers and school staff is an essential condition for the establishment of a true culture of professional development in education.
Beyond the findings
It is therefore from this assessment of 2018, serving as a premise, that the second version of the DP Summit in education was going to begin with the specific intention of going beyond these observations. Indeed, the search for concrete actions and tangible means to apply these observations was to be at the center of all the discussions. And with some twenty speakers and facilitators with rich and varied backgrounds, the opportunities to promote constructive and positive exchanges were going to multiply.
A look at two days where professional development was at the center of an active process of desire for change for those who accompany, who offer, who watch, who live, who study and who decide on education.
A question of perspectives
The DP19 Summit offered its participants the chance to participate in four unique moments where professional development was viewed from distinct but complementary perspectives. Twelve speakers and experts in the education sector therefore shared their vision of the teaching profession, support, leadership and university training with a common perspective of personal and professional growth.
Of Monique Brodeur, Dean of the Faculty of Education at UQAM, who mentions that "the university must develop a culture of professional development among teachers from initial training" at Eric Tremblay, a teacher at the CS de la Capitale, who says that "the day you feel good, you stop learning", several significant moments have left their mark on people's minds.
So there is a lot of lucidity and solutions, but also inspiration and optimism that emerge from these exchanges. You will have access to all the content of the presentations in the participant's kit.
In short, the four perspectives raised during these workshops are constantly in interaction and maintain a reciprocal relationship: university training is the foundation of any teacher who wants to develop his teaching practices and foster his mentality of growth. This same teacher, faced with various realities throughout his career, will need support to be able to adopt an optimal posture in the face of the challenges that will arise. This teacher will then develop leadership in his community and will, in turn, be able to foster a culture of professional development by guiding his peers towards updating their skills.
The wheel of education turns, so we must continue to multiply the bridges connecting the various stakeholders so that the latter never stops moving forward ...
Source: DP Summit
To take action
Several case studies were presented to the participants in the afternoon. It was therefore the moment to take action, to apply the reflections of the morning to plausible situations of teachers who have professional development needs, all relating to different issues. Mélanie, Youssef, Tanya, Jean-Guy, Julie and Allan (fictitious teachers, but embodied to perfection) then introduced themselves to the participants, divided into six groups for the occasion, so that they could guide them in a development process. professional who would take into account the specificities of each.
Exchanges of ideas, each more relevant than the other, effective and enlightened solutions, well-defined and precise plans, realistic and concrete deadlines ... The six protagonists now had all the tools in hand to invest in a process of professional development that resembles them and optimizes their skills.
I invite you to consult the profiles of the six teachers named above and to take note of the summary produced downstream.
Source: DP Summit
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