A Thank You Speech, then Staff Devel
PAUL PREUSS
"self-motivation"
among teachers (I would say all educators) and uses the example of a medical
professional (his wife) who engages in self-learning via journals and other
sources.
While I agree in part - I must disagree in other regards.
First of all - there are many examples of individual professionals as well
as corporate employees who undergo rigorous training on a regular basis. A
waiter trainee (my son) was "trained" for two solid weeks on how to seat
patrons at a pizza restaurant before he was allowed to work on his own. I
compared that to the typical "training" provided to new teachers at the
start of school. Secondly - I also note in my many trips to conferences -
that in the next conference room a group of accountants is learning the
latest on tax law or some similar subject while across the hall a group of
media professionals is being trained on the latest in electronic wizardry.
Finally - I am aware that corporate America spends billions on in-house
training of staff.
I agree that the "culture" of school needs to be changed in order to promote
greater self-responsibility for learning on the job but at the same time
this will no doubt require "structural" changes in how schools are
organized, run, and scheduled. This might include the typical contract
stipulated pay schedule which remunerates educators based upon the number of
graduate or in-service hours accumulated over a life-time.
One final thought - aren't we really talking about two related but different
things - one the degree of intrinsic motivation within educators to maintain
currency and the other is the modality of how that takes place. Reading
a journal or attending a workshop are just two examples of different
modalities. What matters is the degree of intrinsic motivation underlying
either occurrence.
Paul Preuss
Herkimer BOCES
Herkimer, NY
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