ON CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (CPD)
MA. LIEZL R. DELA CRUZ
The Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC) has recently been making waves in the field of education because of its CPD requirements for license renewal. The feat in itself is faced with several queries and issues from various sectors. While the implementation of this policy remain to be evaluated through time, it is proper to analyze the wisdom behind such idea.
Knowledge can change. What may be true today may not be true tomorrow. Skills also upgrade. Lesson planning before may not really be the same as lesson planning several years back. All of these changes are influenced by many factors that are outside our control as teachers; for instance, the implementation of a new curriculum like K-12 or the signing of a piece of legislation. Teacher cannot be stagnated with what they know. Teachers would always clamor that students now are very different. They do things differently. Thus, it is quite illogical to maintain the same manner of teaching given the type of students that we have. Society has changed the type of learners that we have. Therefore, if we want to teach the values that we believe are important, we should know how to communicate with students. On way by which we can do this is by attending seminars, conferences, and trainings. Treat it as part of our responsibilities being to teachers to ensure that we are still relevant to our students.
By attending continuing professional development programs, we introduced to new strategies and models that we can use in the classroom. This can update the knowledge that we have to share with our students. We can gain new perspectives in analyzing things. Further, we also meet fellow teachers to whom we can share our ideas. Others may repress that there is already so much work to be done in the classroom to leave it and attend these conferences. The truth is, we will never run out of things to do. Besides, we do not have to attend these seminars every day or even every week. Attending a seminar every semester can already spell a lot of difference. The key is to find a seminar that really suits your needs and not simply one that you plan to use for your performance evaluation.
— oOo— The author Teacher I at DepEd/ Doña Asuncion Lee Integrated School