Teacher Professional Development: The Heart of Classroom Success

Teachers at the Heart of SDG4

Thembelihle Vezi, a 26-year-old primary school teacher in Ixopo, KwaZulu Natal, found that over time, without training on how to implement play into her teaching, she struggled to know how to do it and lessons failed to capture the interest of her learner. "I was hungry for new skills to implement teaching through play because with time some skills or approaches sometimes become boring to yourself and the learners,” she explains.

Teachers like Thembelihle are essential to achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 which commits to ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education for all by 2030, but they must have the right support to be able to fulfil their role. The inaugural Global Report on Teachers sounds the alarm on increasing attrition rates among teachers and existing global teacher shortages. In the report's recommendations, there is a call for transforming teacher education and professional development to make the profession not only more attractive to join but also to ensure teachers enjoy and remain engaged in their role and are supported in their professional development.

The role of teachers as knowledge producers and the use and exchange of their pedagogical solutions should be at the centre of the transformation of education, according to the report. For VVOB, this is something we are already seeing have positive results across our projects such as those in South Africa and Vietnam.  

Teachers Professional Development through Play-based Learning

For Ms. Lo Thi Dao, a dedicated Grade 4 teacher at Dien Lam Primary School in Vietnam, many of her learners came from ethnic minority backgrounds and struggled to engage with her lessons due to language barriers and low confidence. These hurdles often left Thi Dao feeling unsure of how to reach her students and help them succeed. Although Vietnam’s General Education Curriculum 2018 (GEP 2018) emphasises active learning and engagement, how to achieve it remained a mystery to her. “I struggled to engage them”, Thi Dao recalls. For Thi Dao, learning from other teachers became a key step in her journey. By sharing experiences and learning from one another, she continuously improved her teaching practice.  

When Ms. Lo Thi Dao joined the iPlay teacher professional development programme, she learned valuable new methods that transformed her approach to teaching, especially through play-based methodologies. Initially, she was hesitant and doubted whether her ethnic minority learners, who were often shy, could engage with this teaching method. However, through the programme, she gained new insights and developed practical strategies to ensure her lessons would be hands-on for her learners.  

For example, in a science lesson on “protecting a clean atmosphere,” she used group activities where students played the role of “I am a propagandist” where they exchanged opinions within their groups on an image. Rather than telling them what to think, Thi Dao let them carefully study the content of the pictures and discuss among themselves. This way, every learner had a chance to practice, work, understand the group’s content and requirements, and express their opinions.

Previously, Ms. Lo Thi Dao would have called on the same learners - the most academic and confident learners – to speak in front of the class. Now, with games like these, she calls on all learners, seeing how the group work instils confidence. Her new motto is to believe in all students, even if they’re quiet and shy at first: “always believe in your students’ abilities, give them the opportunity to experience and express themselves; and understand their psychology to equip them with a solid foundation for their future.” This is the message she shares with fellow teachers, too, as she wants to stress the importance of being open to change with her peers: students can change when their teachers change.

Peer Learning Across Continents

The importance of peer learning in education can be seen across contexts and continents. In South Africa, VVOB is working with the government to establish and strengthen professional learning communities in early childhood education through the Funda Udlale Nathi (F.U.N.) project. These communities centre on strengthening the professional development of early childhood education teachers, focusing especially on play-based learning approaches. Planned targeted teacher support and ongoing professional development, enhances teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical skills. This was also highlighted as a recommendation in the recent Global Education Monitoring Report Spotlight on South Africa.

Professional Learning Communities in F.U.N. have brought centre-based (private early childhood development teachers) and primary school-based early childhood development teachers together.  This has supported conceptual and practical understanding for the two groups in relation to the continuum between the two curricula applied at this level –  the National Curriculum Framework and the Grade R Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements. In this way Professional Learning Communities can contribute to both improved continuous professional development, dynamic classroom practice and strengthening the early childhood development sector overall.

For Thembelihle , the professional learning communities in her professional development have been a source of inspiration in many ways. “I have learnt that playing has much more impact in teaching, more than any other thing”, she says. These insights have enriched her teaching and resulted in a more vibrant learning environment for her students.

For both Thi Dao and Thembelihle, the journey toward creating engaging, playful classrooms has been filled with challenges but also growth. Despite the differences in their cultural and geographical contexts, continuous professional development opportunities and peer learning has proven an effective solution.  

The Global Report on Teachers stresses the importance of making quality continuous professional development available to teachers at all stages in their careers. This aligns with the vision of shifting professional development into a continuum of lifelong learning that links initial training, induction programmes, and ongoing professional development throughout a teacher’s career. Research shows that ongoing professional learning opportunities can improve a teacher’s motivation and well-being.

For Thi Dao, peer learning and exchanging ideas with her colleagues has motivated her to refine her teaching methods. For Thembelihle, well-being must also be emphasised through self-care and staying positive in the face of obstacles. "Give yourself time to breathe," she advises other teachers adding that learning never stops for teachers too. “The lifelong learner role never ends so you are at an advantage of knowing new things almost every day, you are kept on your toes.”

Transforming Education

By investing in professional development for educators, teachers can improve their skills and create more innovative and engaging learning environments, that benefit teachers and learners alike. The format of professional development can take many shapes. Recent research and initiatives such as VVOB’s multi-country BLEND project, supported by the LEGO Foundation, demonstrating that a shift to online professional development can be an innovative and cost-effective solution for teacher professional development and addressing teaching shortages.  

The growth of educators, through training and peer collaboration, is crucial in ensuring that classrooms remain dynamic and adapt to the needs of every learner.