What or who will you say is the greatest asset that any school has? Will it be their magnificent structures, or their curriculum which might be the American, British or Finland curriculum or is it their extra rich extra-curricular activity including golf?
Professor Hattie a leading researcher in education uncovered from his 15 years research in 2012 that teachers are the single most powerful influence on student achievement regardless of students’ social background, intake, characteristics or learning difficulties. Did you know that a student with an ineffective teacher loses one year of learning growth! Therefore, is one full year behind his peers who are taught by an effective teacher. This was the evidence put forward from a senior education policy research fellow, Hanushek (2011) .
Therefore you will agree that as a nation, as school owners and as teachers we must all be prepared to invest in the growth of the most important asset in our schools which are our teachers. If you are a teacher reading this my question is why is how will you ensure that YOU who is the most valuable asset in your school does not depreciate. The obvious answer is by adding value to yourself.
As a teacher you must be committed to your own professional development. You owe it to yourself to be the best that you can be. So, get on the bandwagon of professional development. Read a book today, register for a training, observe a seasoned teacher’s class just make sure that every quarter you have doing something to improve yourself professionally.
You have heard that the “grass is greener at the other side”. At golden links we say “the grass is greener where it is being watered”.