11.2.5 Creating conducive environments and incentives

Creating conducive environments and incentives

Changing behaviour must be rewarded. Teachers and practical instructors are often paid for the number of contact hours with students; i.e. hours spent teaching. New roles means that, apart from teaching/instruction, teacher performers also need a different remuneration system. This does not mean pay hikes in salaries, although that might be necessary if teacher salaries are not competitive enough to attract the right professionals. Teachers need to have time for their new roles, which means that salaries cannot be based exclusively on contact hours for teaching.

The most important skill today – and in the future – is learning to learn, as well as developing an attitude of lifelong learning. Activating learners by creating a conducive environment for learning includes leaving space for creativity. This can provide energy and happiness, make learners feel part of a community in which they participate and contribute, which in turn strengthens recognition and belonging and creates trust, so that leaners feel safe. These principles can be applied to teachers as facilitators of learning, and as learners in their own right. Feedback and follow-up is important, to ensure learners’ ongoing commitment.

 

Effective continuing professional development is defined at the grassroots level and closely related to training needs, improvements in teaching and learning, and better outcomes for students and employers. Decisions on appropriate continuing development approaches should therefore also be defined at the lowest possible level. Long-term progress is often linked with decentralisation and empowering training providers.

A climate of educational reform, a high policy profile, new information technologies, generous donor funding and international exchange of practice can all support and inform improvement. The challenges in Partner Countries are to re-engineer key elements of continuing professional development systems, such as the contribution of schools, businesses and local authorities, and to empower the teaching profession in its own development, while coordinating the CPD system with the changing educational and social environment.