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Home > Institute of Excellence Home > Professional Development
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| Professional Development |
Professional Development is the ongoing process of gaining, updating, expanding and applying knowledge, skills, competencies and expertise in one’s profession. It is a lifelong adult learning process and is equally important for all who work within the field of early childhood education.
Research links higher qualifications of early childhood teachers to better learning environments and outcomes for children. For this reason, early care and education practitioners are increasingly required to obtain more and more training and education in order to provide high-quality children’s programs and prepare for changing requirements in the field.
Teacher education, training, and professional development opportunities must be of high quality, valuable and relevant to the practitioner. Access to high quality professional development opportunities needs to be available to all teachers throughout their careers.
Center directors play a key role in motivating staff to pursue additional training and education. Directors can encourage staff to take responsibility for their professional development by providing information and resources about professional development opportunities. High quality centers belong to professional associations and have professional publications available for their staff. Participation and membership in professional organizations creates additional avenues for both teachers and directors to grow personally and professionally.
The Institute of Excellence in Early Care and Education supports the practice of professional development for child care providers throughout Palm Beach County by providing a calendar of training opportunities, tuition and book scholarships for college-level training, payment of registration fees for conferences and workshops, and by career counseling at all educational levels.
To find current research on professional development and other related topics visit: Early Childhood Research and Practice
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