When people use the term “professional development,” they usually mean a formal process such as a conference, seminar, or workshop; collaborative learning among members of a work team; or a course at a college or university. However, professional development can also occur in informal contexts such as discussions among work colleagues, independent reading and research, observations of a colleague’s work, or other learning from a peer.
How does professional development in K–12 public education differ from professional development in other fields?
In public schools, effective professional development affects students. Student learning and achievement increase when educators engage in effective professional development focused on the skills educators need in order to address students’ major learning challenges.
Why do educators need professional development? Didn’t they learn what they need to know in college?
College and university programs cannot provide the extensive range of learning experiences necessary for graduates to become effective public school educators. Once students graduate, meet their state’s certification requirements, and are employed, they learn through experience. As in all professions, new teachers and principals take years to gain the skills they need to be effective in their roles. The complexity of teaching is so great that onethird of teachers leave the profession within three years and 50% leave within five years. Even experienced teachers confront great challenges each year, including changes in subject content, new instructional methods, advances in technology, changed laws and procedures, and student learning needs. Educators who do not experience effective professional development do not improve their skills, and student learning suffers. Artificial Intelligence on Learning, Teaching, and Education Artificial Intelligence (AI) is currently high on the political and research agendas around the world. With the emergence of every new technology, there is always both a lot of hype and Scepticism around its implications for society and the economy. Although acknowledging That the foundations for AI have been already around for several decades, recent technological breakthroughs are accelerating what AI could do. To appreciate the opportunities and challenges that artificial intelligence (AI) creates, we need both good understanding of what AI is today and what the future may bring when AI is widely used in the society. AI can enable new ways of learning, teaching and education, and it may also change the society in ways that pose new challenges for educational institutions.
It may amplify skill differences and polarize jobs, or it may equalize opportunities for learning. The use 104 of AI in education may generate insights on how learning happens, and it can change the way learning is assessed. It may re-organize classrooms or make them obsolete, it can increase the efficiency of teaching, or it may force students to adapt to the requirements of technology, depriving humans from the powers of agency and possibilities for responsible action. All this is possible. Now is a good time to start thinking about what AI could mean for learning, teaching, and education. There is a lot of hype, and the topic is not an easy one. It is, however, both important, interesting, and worth the effort.
Instead of a beginning of an AI revolution, we could be at the end of one. This, of course, Depends on what we mean by revolution. Electricity did not revolutionize the world when Volta found a way to store it in 1800 or when Edison General Electric Company was Incorporated in 1889. The transformative impact of general purpose technologies Becomes visible only gradually, when societies and economies reinvent themselves as Users of new technologies. Technological change requires cultural change that is reflected In lifestyles, norms, policies, social institutions, skills, and education. Because of this, AI—now often called the “new electricity”—may revolutionize many areas of life when it Is taken into use even if it keeps on driving its “one-trick” pony for the foreseeable Future. Many interesting things will happen when already existing technologies will be Adopted, adapted, and applied for learning, teaching, and education. For example, AI May enable both new learning and teaching practices, and it may generate a new social, Cultural, and economic context for education.