TeachingEnglish: Focus on professional development

Take control of your professional growth by exploring the wide range of development opportunities available to you as a teacher and discover how to maximise their impact through collaboration and reflective practice. Enrolment for Focus on professional development is closed. Find resources connected to the course contents on this page, and sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date on when our courses open.

Group of teachers discussing professional development.
TeachingEnglish
Engagement
9–12 hours
Start: 03/10/23
End: 30/10/23
Certificate
Workbook
Online community

Enrolment for Focus on professional development is closed. Sign up for our newsletter, and we'll keep you updated when enrolment will open next. In the meantime, if you’re interested in learning more about Focus on professional development, you can view helpful resources here.


What resources can you access at any time?

  • A free workbook with extra learning content and resources connected to the course contents
  • A dedicated Facebook community of course participants with up-to-date insight, resources and innovative teaching ideas for you to try out (Facebook account required)
  • Learning content related to our courses on Facebook and YouTube
  • Live events and recordings with course tutors and language teaching experts on Facebook and YouTube
  • Teaching resources on the TeachingEnglish website
  • Sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date on when our courses open

What are the self-study modules in Focus on professional development?

Module 1 – Understanding professional development

The aim of this module is to introduce you to the concept of professional development and how it applies to you in your teaching career. You will define the term 'professional development', identify the most appropriate professional development tools based on your teaching and learning context as well as write a professional development plan based on your short-term goals.

Module 2 – Engaging with reflective practice

The aim of this module is to increase your understanding of reflective practice; the process of thinking about, evaluating, analysing and reviewing what takes place in the classroom. You will explain what reflection is and how to do it, select reflective tools appropriately to help develop your teaching practice as well as write a reflective action plan related to your own professional development.

Module 3 – Engaging with peer observation

The aim of this module is to increase your awareness of the importance of peer observation as a professional development tool and how you can use it effectively. You will recognise the importance and value of peer observation in your own professional development, describe the skills involved in peer observation as well as begin to plan a peer observation.


Course reviews

What have other teachers said about how Focus on professional development helped them?

"I've tried the pop in observation method and peer observation method which was a great push for me and my colleagues to try to improve our teaching skills, It has put us into the right path."

Course participant, Egypt

"I am conducting a research on teachers' self assessment so I found very important information about reflective teaching . next week I am going to visit many teachers for their professional development so the module about observation is very beneficial. thanks to  British Council, I am a lifelong learner. Thank you"

Course participant, Morocco

"I started peer observations with my colleagues to model and get used to this type of observation. I hope next year each teacher will choose their partner and the way they want to do it"

Course participant, Paraguay


Do you have more questions?

Please see our FAQs or access further support through our Help button.


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Comments

Submitted by areejbanat on Thu, 10/27/2022 - 21:11

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Hi
Every single time I try to find the course, but it always opens my profile page. I try toclick on "my courses" but still it disappears. I even saved the page as a bookmark, but it will always be very difficult to find the page. I can see every one here has the same complaint. Please help!

Hi areejbanat

Sorry to hear you are having problems accessing your course page. Have you tried logging out of your TeachingEnglish account on all devices and browsers, and then logging in again? Then click on "My Portfolio" in the menu bar at the top of the page. You can also try clearing the cache on your browser and try logging in again. If you are still having problems, please let us know.

Thanks,

Cath

TeachingEnglish Team

Submitted by Hala Sakr on Fri, 10/07/2022 - 13:22

I can't return to my course. I have already finished the first stage but I can't find anyway to return

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 10/09/2022 - 14:01

In reply to by Hala Sakr

Hi Hala,

Sorry to hear that and hope that the following advice 'does the trick' :)

Log out of TeachingEnglish on all devices, then log back in. You should see “MY PORTFOLIO” as an option in the menu at the top of the page. Click on “My courses” to access your training. If you can't see MY PORTFOLIO, click on the course that you’re enrolled on and follow the steps under “How do I sign up for the course?”, or follow this link to take you directly to the course page: https://open.teachingenglish.org.uk/Home/ExploreProgrammes 

Hope that helps!

Anne

TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by Cath McLellan on Thu, 10/20/2022 - 14:07

In reply to by CarlaGonzalezR

Hi Carla,

Have you logged in to the site and gone to My Portfolio - My courses?

You can also click on / tap this URL to find your courses: https://open.teachingenglish.org.uk/Home/MyProgrammes

If you are still having problems, let us know.

Thanks,

Cath

TeachingEnglish Team

Submitted by Rajia_Araibi on Thu, 10/06/2022 - 13:10

I am so glad to be working with you on this course. Thank you for sharing this course with us

Submitted by Циганова Марина on Wed, 10/05/2022 - 10:07

I enrolled to this course several days ago but do not see any My Profile/ My Courses button under Home button. How should I attend the course?
Thank you!

Hi,

Thanks for your interest in our courses. Make sure you are logged into your TeachingEnglish account, and you should see “MY PORTFOLIO” as an option in the menu at the top of the page. Click on “My courses” to access your training. If you can't see MY PORTFOLIO, click on the course that you’re enrolled on and follow the steps under “How do I sign up for the course?”, or follow this link to take you directly to the course page: https://open.teachingenglish.org.uk/Home/ExploreProgrammes 

Happy studying!

Philippa

TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by Hassanahmed on Wed, 10/05/2022 - 05:06

I am very glad for participating in this course. I thank British Council to give us this opportunity, I am sure we will benefit from it.
Hassan from Erbil - Iraqi Kurdistan Region.

Submitted by Yassir Haroun on Tue, 10/04/2022 - 11:52

Thank you for giving us this opportunity, I am really interested in learning who to teach English Language in a very professional way. I believe this is going to be a great chance where i will learn new concepts and models of teaching English Language .
Thank you once again for this chance.

I am looking foreword to learn from you

Submitted by IBOURKMustafa on Mon, 10/03/2022 - 19:28

Thanks for sharing

Submitted by Fazil Ahmad Faizy on Sat, 10/01/2022 - 08:41

Thank you so much for making such a great effort and contributing to and making arrangements for an excellent "Professional Development Pathway" course focused on professional development. I hope I can enrich and boost my knowledge in this area professionally.

Thank you in advance, and see you soon,

Submitted by Salma Waheed on Fri, 09/30/2022 - 12:20

Professional growth is one of the most important aspects of teaching. We need to equip ourselves not only with the latest trends but also modern techniques and this is only possible if we keep on striving and polishing our professional skills.
Hopefully this course will help us all to achieve this goal.

Submitted by Elham M.Helmy … on Thu, 09/29/2022 - 12:02

I do not know how to register for this course " Focus on Professional Development".
Any help?

Submitted by Philippa on Fri, 09/30/2022 - 06:59

In reply to by Elham M.Helmy …

Hi Elham,

Thank you for your interest in our courses. First, you need to be logged in to your Teaching English account. Then go to this page: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/professional-development-pathways-focus-professional-development and follow the steps under "How do I sign up for the course?". 

Happy studying!

Philippa 

TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by Chika Ositadinma Obi on Wed, 09/28/2022 - 07:05

Looking forward to the training is

Submitted by Zindhaanam on Mon, 09/26/2022 - 19:30

This is good as it will help us teachers to professionally develop and help us teachers to further their knowledge. To improve ourselves.

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