@Miranda, Yes.

In India PD is a integral part of one's service as teacher. This is applicable for both higher and school education.

For school teachers, training sessions are organised during summer vacations.

In higher education, refresher workshops for a week are organised at national and state levels. These workshops also help to get promoted.

Yes, if a teacher or lecturer does not subscribe to lifelong learning, then the lessons or lectures will quickly become stale, outdated, irrelevant and even dangerously wrong.

Thanks Ahed and Ian. It seems that few Research Gate members respond to questions on PD. Rather strange, any idea what could be the reasons?

Few RG members "subscribe" to the professional development topic, because it is mainly teacher related, and not researcher, chemist, engineer etc related. Also they do not know about it. That is one problem with RG, the high walls of the silos.

The areas of professional development that should concern the professional the most are those that have changed the most since graduation. For example, for the teacher, the shift to E-learning.

Yes, Ian. I actually found out about a few areas within RG by exploring your page, Michael's and Ahed's pages. Perhaps RG can make it easier for us by telling us their existing 'silos' and the ones still under construction.

@Prof Kamal, thanks. So these things are carried out at your university, right? I wonder if most colleges and universities do this, and what type of activities are done for Medical, Engineering, Science professors etc....

Here in Greece the Professors are life-time professors, ie until their retirement, despite of their lifelong contribution or not. The first hiring process is also the last evaluation for them. Once a Professor, always a Professor!...

Miranda, teaching in the Philippines has been professionalized (licensed through the Professional Regulations Commission) I think more than a decade ago. The PRC requires teachers to earn professional development points annually through seminars, conventions, conferences, additional courses, etc. With this system, a teacher who wants to grow professionally has to be concerned with professional development. Ed

Miranda, at our University of Connecticut (US), the phrase "professional development" usually denotes development in the sense of new research (if not development of a new course). The university can set aside limited funds to help a faculty member "develop" in a new direction (usually in the case of research: library fees or travel for in situ research In archives, etc.). The ideal situation would be what my friend Kamal proposes, institutionalization of PD. To that end, our university has what it calls the "Graduate Research Foundation." All this is optional and unfortunately not mandatory as in Eddie Seva See´s system.

PD is certainly a pre-requisite for a successful teacher. It would be achieved by both the individual and institutional levels.

Personally I hate this turn to video based webinars. They usually last for an hour and included information is usually possible to read in a partition of time.

Thanks you friends, for your posts. @Nelson, you have composed a beautiful summary!

@Patrick, thanks for 'If he is wise he should better subscribe to learning and growing and is actively involved n his or her professional growth'. It agrees with Mohammed's 'PD is certainly a pre-requisite for a successful teacher'

@Demetris, now I know that 'in Greece the Professors are life-time professors, ie until their retirement, despite of their lifelong contribution or not'

@Ed, thanks for 'PRC requires teachers to earn professional development points annually through seminars, conventions, conferences, additional courses'.

@Tomy, do you mean that webinars are the usual means employed for PD? What other methods are used?

@Miranda, educators need professional development. There are different ways to organize and perform. Here is a good paper on issue!

@Ljubomir, thanks. I will get to read the paper tomorrow. Mobile internet has some constraints, but the good advantage is that it teaches me to be patient. I went to check out the portable wifi, but the coverage doesn't include my house area, only the college area will get reception.

Sent from mobile.

@ Miranda: I am talking just about my experiences and the requirements on me are rather hard. It simply means to know answers ahead if possible, or to be able to find them in extremely short time.

Video webinars are slowly replacing presentations/white papers, which were usually the newest information source in telecommunication area, containing usable information.

Other materials can have extent of anytning from 15 pages up to several hundreds, case and purpose dependent.

@Miranda, Yes.

In India PD is a integral part of one's service as teacher. This is applicable for both higher and school education.

For school teachers, training sessions are organised during summer vacations.

In higher education, refresher workshops for a week are organised at national and state levels. These workshops also help to get promoted.

It sounds like a good system!

Dear friends, thanks for your posts :))

Ljubomir, I quote from the paper you sent us. 'When educators engage in professional development at their schools with their colleagues, they can learn from each other, support one another, and hold each other accountable for applying what they learn. '

It seems to be just like what We are doing on RG, the place of Great Collaboration :)))