Week 5 Application : Expanding My Knowledge and Continuing My Professional Development

A large and ever-growing body of research shows that teacher expertise is what matters most in helping every child develop and learn. Developing your expertise as a professional who works with children and their families is a career-long pursuit and its importance cannot be emphasized enough. You may already have realized that, as in most professions, the more you learn, the more you recognize how much more there is to learn. And the further you move along the “novice-to-expert” development continuum, the more profound your impact will be on the children with whom you work, and the better prepared you will be to collaborate with, support, and learn from families, colleagues, and other professionals. What are the key components to ongoing professional growth? At any point in time, and in any order, the processes of reflection, inquiry, problem solving, and self-assessment are invaluable.