Some thoughts from the past week

   Over the past week, I had the opportunity and pleasure of working with three different groups of teachers in professional development activities. Though all of the groups were comprised of teachers of EFL, the teaching contexts of the groups varied. e.g., elementary school, junior high school, high school. One of the groups consisted of educators working in multiple contexts, and the other two of educators working in a single context and, actually, at the same schools. One thing that impressed me about each of these groups, despite their differences, was a feeling of excitement about teacher development in general, and their own development, in particular.
   The literature points out the importance of teacher motivation in the development of expertise (Schempp et al., 2002; Varella, 2000), and in my work with teachers, I get the impression that those who are committed to becoming better teachers usually do. I also have the feeling that development, like successful learning experiences, tends to gain and maintain its own momentum: Once you have had a taste of success in the classroom, which was the result of some sort of teacher development activity, you want to try a little more, and so on. Work on motivation in adult learners seems to support this type of thinking, e.g., Wlodkowski (2008). I am wondering if others have experienced similar feelings or thoughts when it comes to your own professional development as teachers. I look forward to your comments.