essay about professional development of teachers

The Importance of Professional Development for Teachers Research Paper

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How Professional Development for Teachers works

Importance of career development for teachers, teacher’s professional development to cater for students with special needs.

Well informed teachers make great students. Although students are required to put in more efforts in their schoolwork, teachers are like their fuel to their greatness. This means teachers should have the dexterity to bring out the best in students.

Teachers should have the techniques to convince students to read, and also show the students where to read on top of other important issues required for the all-round development of students (Speck & Knipe, 2005).

This means the task of teachers goes beyond the usual activity of making a lesson plan based on the assigned curriculum, and talking in front of the class. As a result, a teacher must be adequately prepared through career development.

Learning is a lifelong process for teachers. Most regions make it a requirement for teachers to undergo some training on specific issues during certain periods of their career; mostly during the vacation period.

Teachers from the kindergarten up to the 12 th grade normally undergo various training during the year to develop their career. This training is part of career development. Career development for teachers are normally done through seminars, workshops, and training courses.

During the training, which normally takes place during the school holidays, teachers are introduced to the latest trends, and strategies in education. They are also introduced to various methods, and techniques to combat classroom challenges (All Education Schools, 2010).

The idea behind career development for teachers is to improve the teachers’ knowledge to help them serve students better. The occasion gives teachers the ability to focus on what they ought to fine tune during classroom practice. Before a teacher commences his or her career, he or she is given a certificate of operations.

Depending on the state, the law requires that the license be renewed every year. Before the license is renewed, the authority has to ratify if the teacher has undergone some career development process. For instance, in Kansas State, a teacher operates under the original license for about five years.

During the five-year period, the teacher is required to undergo various courses as part of professional development. After five years, the license is renewed based on the professional development the teacher has gone through. Provisions are made for vocational learning and workshops for teachers.

Apart from license renewal, teachers undergo professional development because of incentives involved. For instance, in Kansas State, a teacher is promoted after the first five years of service.

The promotion is based on the performance in examination and career development done during the period (Kansas State Department of Education, 2010).

Career development forms an important event in the teachers’ career. Given the dynamic nature of teaching strategies and curriculum design, career development is undertaken by teachers to update themselves with the changes taking place in education sector.

Professional development enables teachers to achieve certain skills to deal with emerging situations. Professional development gives teachers the chance to set their objectives or goals. Through a schedule for seminars and vocational training planned per year, a teacher can set goals to achieve certain objectives.

For instance, in Kansas State, teachers get a promotional certificate after taking some professional development courses for five years (Kansas State Department of Education, 2010).

This means the teacher has the opportunity to set goals for his or her career development whereby he or she aims to achieve a desired certificate after a certain period.

Professional development gives teachers a chance to overcome and manage past classroom problems. For instance, if the classroom has been experiencing extreme cases of failures, a teacher can correct such issues through professional development.

Thorough professional development, a teacher will be exposed to courses, such as classroom management, thereby enabling him or her manage failures in the classroom.

Professional development involves expansion and growth. The teacher gets the necessary skills to overcome an existing problem, and moves forward with new methods.

Career development is useful for fresh teachers. It gives them confidence by equipping them with skills to be better teachers. Professional development generally improves the performance of students, thereby boosting teachers’ confidence.

Professional development for teachers is essential for students with special needs. Although students in the same class are assumed to be in the same category of cognitive abilities, there are always a few cases with special needs.

As a result, a teacher is better placed to handle students with special needs if he or she has undergone the process of professional development. There are various special courses, seminars, and workshops organized for teachers to handle children with special development.

One common professional development involves workshops for math solution in an inclusive classroom. In most cases, many students fear mathematics. As a result, a math teacher is given an opportunity to help such student through professional development workshops.

Through the workshops, the teacher is equipped with special skills, such as adopting mathematics lessons to cater for diverse learners, and applying flexible methods of teaching to suit diverse needs in the classroom (Davies, 2012). This means that professional development benefits students as well as teachers.

Teachers are equipped and being made more professional and confident of handling challenges in their profession whereas students with special needs gets the desired attention.

All Education Schools. (2010). Teacher Certification and Licensure Information. Web.

Davies, C. (2012). What is the Importance of Professional Development for a Teacher? Web.

Kansas State Department of Education. (2010). Professional Development Information. Web.

Speck, M., & Knipe, C. (2005). Why can’t we get it right? Designing high-quality professional development for standards-based schools. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press.

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The importance of professional development for teachers.

Continuous professional development is vital for both teachers and students to grow. Read how to establish a strong CPD strategy.

Students never stop learning – and the same is just as true for teachers. Continuous professional development (CPD) helps teachers improve their understanding of how to deliver effective education, and ensures they can adapt to the changing needs of students.

However, at a time when many teachers are under time pressure, and when the development needs of each teacher can vary substantially, it can be hard to understand how best to provide a professional development service for teachers. This blog explores the importance of professional development, the benefits of CPD, and how to create a professional development plan for teachers.

What is professional development?

In short, continuous professional development consists of the strategies deployed by schools and education bodies to ensure that their staff always improve, from the beginning of their careers to the end. These strategies often involve groups of teachers working together, in much the same way that their students would, to collaboratively solve problems and explore the best way to deliver effective student outcomes.

A key part of successful CPD is to ensure that it fits alongside teachers’ existing schedules and commitments. While some parents may feel that teachers taking time away for CPD is inconvenient, the improved student results that can subsequently be demonstrated underlines its value.

Why is professional development important?

CPD is important because both educational needs and the wider world are changing all the time. This can involve both the ways in which teaching is delivered (for example, the increased use of digital devices) and the skills that students need for their careers and in their adult lives. CPD gives teachers the techniques and expertise they need to keep up with these changing priorities.

It’s also important to put a CPD strategy in place because many teachers aren’t currently checking their performance management progress regularly: according to research undertaken by TeacherTapp, only 15% of teachers do so at least once per half term.

What are the benefits of CPD for teachers?

Professional development helps teachers renew existing skills, which can be especially useful for supporting pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). According to BESA , 88% of school leaders say initial teacher training doesn’t prepare them for helping SEND pupils, so CPD can help bridge this gap.

When CPD is done right, teachers and students alike stand to benefit from:

• Better learning outcomes: as teachers gain a better understanding of what’s required
• New teaching methods: helping teachers connect with different students better
• Stronger organisational skills: enabling teachers to manage their time and complete their duties more efficiently.

Planning CPD for teachers

It can be hard to know where to start when creating a good continuous professional development plan. We recommend following this six-step process:

• Assessment: establish where a teacher is at the current stage of their career, what they have done recently to develop, and whether they are meeting their own expectations
• Identification: give teachers the time and space to work out what they want from their career in the future, and what success would look like in the short- and long-term
• Planning: work out what a teacher’s current skill set is, look for areas of upskilling, and set up a plan that encompasses job-embedded, strategic and ongoing development
• Timeline: establish a timeframe that balances achievement of annual targets and opportunities with the time constraints of the teacher in question
• Evaluation: ensure teachers can keep notes of their progress in their Professional Development Plan, and ensure the goals and timeframe in place are realistic
• Measurement: regularly assess progress against the defined targets, and consider how new targets and goals can be set as priorities change

However, all this should be put into the context of what’s right for the individual teachers and school, as priorities will vary significantly. For example, the TeacherTapp research found that 63% of schools rated inadequate include Effective Teaching in performance management reviews, compared to 51% for good or outstanding schools. What will best suit those school-specific characteristics should therefore be kept in mind.

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Creating Meaningful and Productive PD

These ideas for creating effective professional learning help ensure that participants, and their students, reap long-term benefits.

When I ask teachers to join me for a professional learning experience, it’s important that I value their time by providing tools to impact practice and increase student learning. My goals are to model strategies, bring a sense of efficacy, and provide them an opportunity to build skills they can use immediately in their own classrooms.

Many of the ideas below work for professional development sessions and transfer over to coaching partnerships and facilitation moves in professional learning communities.

Plan With Intention

Developing a professional learning experience begins by devoting a block of time to careful, purposeful planning. Just as I do with lesson or unit planning for students, I begin with the end in mind, focusing first on the following questions:

• What is the goal for teacher learning?
• What is the goal for growing as a community? 
• What will success look like and sound like?

When I’m clear on the focus, I can prioritize and streamline the content with an appropriate amount of new learning and practice. Giving opportunities to practice new learning is of huge importance. The transfer of new ideas to instruction occurs when teachers have time to plan, rehearse with each other, and/or synthesize by applying the learning to their own context. 

Next, I consider agreements for the experience: What are the norms we are going to strive for during the session(s)? Depending on the group and the length of time we will spend together, I opt to either codevelop the agreements with the group or provide agreements and ask for participants to give a thumbs-up if they feel the agreements match the learning objectives and circumstances.

I also determine if we need to delve deeply into an agreement or two to brainstorm what it would sound like and look like in practice. Next, I decide if we will use roles to support any agreements. For example, if we’re focusing on using asset-based language, will we have one or more people responsible for reminders throughout the meeting?

While planning, I consider how I can reflect back to the group any prior feedback and steps I’ve taken to improve. For example, if teachers indicated that we went too fast at the last session, I can share with them that I’ve slowed down the pace and allowed more time to process information at this session.

 I also plan for a way to gather feedback at the end of the session, selecting from a variety of ways to share feedback, such as a Google Form, sticky notes on a “gots and wants” poster, etc. It’s important to gather feedback on both the process and content.

The final step of planning is to design the space to meet the collaboration and content goals.

• How will I invite people into the space?
• How will they sit?
• Will seating be assigned or random, and do I have a reason behind the decision? How will I communicate this decision to be transparent and intentional?
• What visuals will I use around the room to scaffold learning, and what materials will I bring to support the objectives?

During the Session

Beginnings matter. I show up early to the learning space to set up and prepare myself. I consider the energy level I need to bring to the session and strive to get myself fully focused to listen deeply, respond effectively, and pivot as needed during the session. I try to greet people as they arrive if possible; this helps me connect and get a sense of the energy level people are bringing.

When we begin the session, I set the tone by smiling, projecting enthusiasm, and offering an explanation of the goals so they know what to expect.

When presenting, I try to model facilitation moves that teachers can use in their classrooms. I point out the strategies by pausing, moving to a different space, and describing the what and the why of the strategy. When I physically move to a different space, teachers know I am shifting gears. Then I return to my original spot and continue modeling.

This strategy also works when I make language shifts. None of us is perfect, and we will make mistakes when we present. If I use unclear or negative language, I can pause, move, pause again, and then use language that clarifies what I meant to say.

It’s important to give participants time to process information. Here are some ideas for this: turn and talk to a neighbor, do Numbered Heads Together (participants talk with each other, then I call on one person per table to share out), create a poster to summarize learning, fill out a graphic organizer to summarize main points.

Intentional use of visuals, modeling, and gradual release is important during a professional learning opportunity. When providing gradual release, I show how to do something; then we do it together as a group before I have partners practice and then possibly individuals.

Endings matter. The ending is often what people remember when looking back at an experience. Depending on content and context, I often aim to add on a positive note, so that people feel celebratory and energized. I strive to leave time to close in a meaningful way. This can include reflecting on what we learned, how we will measure the impact on student learning, or the ways teachers feel efficacy.

When I work with children, I plan lessons with objectives and the student experience in mind; the process is very similar when I plan for adults. As an instructional coach, I consider it a privilege to work alongside teachers and to learn alongside them. Their time is valuable, so I need to show up prepared with strategies and learning opportunities they will find immediately useful.

Planning for meaningful adult learning takes time and focus, but it’s time well spent if teachers find it useful and it impacts student learning.

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• Teacher Education and Professional Development

Teacher Education and Professional Development  Blogs Home

• 14 Nov 2023

In the realm of education, two concepts stand out as pillars for educators: Teacher Education and Professional Development. At their core, both emphasise the importance of continuous learning for educators. This dedication to learning isn't merely a pursuit of personal growth; it's a commitment to honing the craft of teaching. By investing in their own education and development, teachers are better equipped to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of educational methodologies and technologies.

Moreover, as society progresses and student needs shift, the demands on educators diversify. Teacher Education lays the foundational knowledge and pedagogical skills for aspiring educators , ensuring they enter the classroom well-prepared and confident. On the other hand, Professional Development caters to established educators, offering avenues to update their knowledge and teaching methodologies, adapting to evolving student requirements and staying abreast of advancements in education. This continuous learning process enables seasoned educators to enhance their effectiveness in the ever-changing educational landscape.

The Changing Education Landscape:

The education landscape is undergoing continuous transformation, shaped by dynamic forces such as social changes, technological advancements, and global influences. The needs of 21st-century learners differ significantly from those of previous generations, necessitating a corresponding evolution in teaching methodologies. As technology becomes increasingly integrated into education, educators are faced with both challenges and opportunities. Embracing innovative technological tools and methods opens new avenues for effective teaching, but it also demands adaptability and a proactive approach to address potential hurdles. In this era of rapid change, educators play a crucial role in navigating these shifts to ensure that education remains relevant and impactful for the ever-changing needs of students.

Components of Effective Teacher Education:

• Deepening Subject Matter Knowledge : A robust understanding of the subject is essential for educators.
• Pedagogical Training : Equips teachers with effective teaching methods.
• Classroom Management Strategies : Creating a positive and focused learning environment.
• Incorporating Diverse Learning Styles : Adapting teaching methods to cater to unique student needs.

These components ensure educators are well-prepared to shape brighter futures for generations of learners.

The Significance of Professional Development

Professional development is the cornerstone of an educator's growth trajectory. It serves not just as a refresher, but as an avenue for educators to stay updated, innovative, and effective.

Here's an insight into its significance:

1. Stay abreast of new educational trends and research.

2. Address any gaps or areas of improvement identified in their teaching practices.

3. Build and nurture a network with other educators.

4. Maintain their enthusiasm and motivation.

Teaching is a rewarding profession, but it's not without its challenges. Given the rapidly changing educational environment, burnout is a real concern. Continuous professional development can rekindle a teacher's passion for their profession, introduce them to fresh perspectives, and provide them with new tools to handle classroom challenges. The Azim Premji Foundation regularly offers programs and workshops aimed at rejuvenating the spirit of educators, ensuring they remain passionate and motivated.

Various Formats of Professional Development

For educators dedicated to lifelong learning, the avenues for professional development are diverse, each with its unique advantages. Here's a deeper exploration of these formats:

1. Workshops and seminars:

These are interactive sessions where educators often get hands-on experience, role-playing, group discussions, and practical exercises. They are typically facilitated by experts in specific fields.

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERTs) periodically conduct workshops on various themes, from curriculum design to innovative teaching methodologies.

2. Online courses and webinars:

With the digital age in full swing, online courses offer immense flexibility, allowing educators to fit learning into their busy schedules. They can range from short modules to extensive courses.

The Government of India's SWAYAM platform offers numerous online courses tailored for educators. These courses cover a range of topics, from pedagogical techniques to subject-specific content. Moreover, platforms like NPTEL ( National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning ) provide online courses, primarily for those in the higher education sector.

3. Peer mentoring and observation:

This involves a collaborative approach to learning, where educators observe their peers in action, share feedback and learn from each other's strengths and areas of improvement.

Teach For India, a non-profit organisation, promotes a culture of peer mentoring, where educators share their best practices and insights, and learn collaboratively.

4. Attending educational conferences and symposiums:

These are gatherings of educators and experts where cutting-edge research, methodologies, and best practices are shared. They also offer a valuable networking opportunity.

Challenges in Teacher Education and Professional Development

Teacher education and professional development encounter significant challenges, as evident in the Indian context:

• Time Constraints: Educators face the difficulty of finding time for extended training due to their demanding responsibilities, exacerbated by large class sizes and an intense workload.
• Financial Limitations : Despite initiatives like RMSA (Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan launched in March 2009) and SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan launched in 2001-2002) in India, high-quality professional development often comes with a fee, posing a financial barrier for educators in rural or underprivileged areas.
• Navigating Resources : Platforms like DIKSHA, launched by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in India and operating since September 2017, aim to assist teachers, offering a curated platform for teacher resources. Yet, the challenge remains for teachers to discern which resources align best with their personal and professional growth needs.
• Practical Application : Translating theoretical knowledge into practical classroom application faces hurdles in schools where entrenched teaching methods require not just training but also a conducive environment.
• Lack of Tailored Content : A one-size-fits-all approach to professional development may not effectively address the diverse challenges in India's educational landscape, requiring localised and specific content.
• Inadequate Recognition and Incentivisation : While the government links promotions to professional development, more tangible and immediate incentives are needed to boost educator participation and dedication.

The Future of Teacher Education and Professional Development

The educational sector, like many others, is undergoing significant transformations driven by societal, technological, and pedagogical shifts. As we gaze into the future, several clear trends come into focus:

1. The Rise of Micro-Credentials and Digital Badges:

Micro-credentials offer bite-sized learning opportunities, allowing educators to focus on specific skills or knowledge areas.

Relevant Fact: According to a report by the Centre for Education Innovations, the modular nature of micro-credentials aligns well with the demands of the modern workforce in India, making them an attractive option for educators looking to upskill without taking prolonged breaks from their profession.

2. Personalised Professional Development Paths:

Recognising that teaching and learning are profoundly individualised encounters is driving the creation of increasingly customised opportunities for professional development.

Relevant Fact: Platforms like DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing) in India are leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) to offer personalised content recommendations for educators, based on their previous interactions, preferences, and identified areas of improvement.

3. Emphasis on Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning:

The interconnectedness of today's global challenges necessitates a teaching approach that transcends traditional subject boundaries.

Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), some of the premier engineering institutes in India, are increasingly integrating humanities, arts, and social sciences into their curriculum, recognising the importance of a well-rounded, interdisciplinary education.

4. Greater Integration of Technology:

Blended learning, a combination of online and offline teaching methods, is not just a temporary solution during pandemics but a glimpse into the future of education.

5. Continuous Feedback Mechanisms:

With advancements in tech, real-time feedback tools will become commonplace, allowing educators to adjust their teaching methods dynamically based on immediate student feedback.

6. Emphasis on Socio-Emotional Learning (SEL):

As mental health gains prominence in societal discourse, the integration of SEL in teacher training will become essential.

Report by Hindustantimes.com, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in India has started initiatives to integrate SEL into school curriculums, signalling a shift in focus from rote learning to holistic development.

Tips for Educators Seeking Quality Professional Development

For those eager to advance their skills:

• Set clear objectives : Know what you hope to achieve from any professional development opportunity.
• Seek feedback: Engage peers or superiors to identify areas for improvement.
• Choose wisely : Do your research to ensure you're investing time and resources in reputable and beneficial opportunities.
• Be open-minded: The best learning often happens outside of our comfort zones.

The journey of an educator is one of perpetual learning. By prioritising their own education and development, teachers not only enhance their own careers but enrich the lives of the students they guide. Through this dedication to personal and professional advancement, educators contribute substantially to the betterment of the educational landscape, fostering an environment where knowledge flourishes, and students are inspired to reach their fullest potential. May the pursuit of lifelong learning continue to be a guiding force, shaping the future of education for the collective benefit of all involved.

• https://ncert.nic.in/about-us.php?ln=en
• https://scert.delhi.gov.in/scert/school-transformation-enrichment-programme-0
• https://tiss.edu/uploads/files/CLeaR_on_IE_Report_Final.pdf
• https://www.hindustantimes.com/education/ncert-signals-shift-in-focus-from-rote-learning/story-aQFoQcAmVD4Vfo6XCzWpnO.html

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3 Things Principals Can Do to Make Teacher PD Better

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There is a wide gap between how teachers and school leaders view professional development. For many teachers, PD conjures up images of boring, one-sided lectures that have little to do with their classroom reality.

In fact, almost half of the 1,498 teachers surveyed by the EdWeek Research Center in October 2023 said they found their PD “irrelevant.” In stark contrast, only 16 percent of the 659 school leaders surveyed during the same period thought the same about teacher PD.

School leaders have tried different things to make the PD they offer more relevant and engaging for teachers. Some have encouraged teachers to pick a topic they’re passionate about, while others have moved mandatory PD modules online for teachers to complete at their convenience. Some school leaders believe frequent follow-up check-ins with teachers can help them apply what they learn in their PD sessions.

Still, it’s a struggle for school leaders to design the PD teachers want as they juggle district-mandated trainings and initiatives needed to meet their schools’ goals, said Brooklyn Joseph, a lead program facilitator with Lead by Learning, a program at Northeastern University where she partners with schools to design professional learning.

With all this information coming at them, teachers feel like they’re ingesting a lot of content that doesn’t always link back to their classroom practice, Joseph said during an Education Week K-12 Essentials Forum on school leadership last month.

Getting PD right isn’t just a time or resource challenge, Renee Gugel, an assistant professor of teacher leadership at the National Louis University in Chicago, said during the forum. To make PD fun and engaging for teachers, principals also need to build their own capacity.

“Sometimes, [the obstacle] is not knowing how to go about it,” Gugel added.

Gugel and Joseph made three key recommendations to school leaders on designing PD that’s useful to teachers. Their session can be viewed in the above video.

Start with the right information

Surveys at the start of the school year are a good way to pick up information on the kind of PD teachers want. The challenge is that school leaders seldom share or reflect on the results with teachers, Gugel said.

“It can be hard [for school leaders] to share the results. Teachers are going to say stuff you don’t agree with or feel offended by, because you planned the PD [sessions],” Gugel said.

But if school leaders can be transparent about the feedback in staff meetings, it can signal to teachers that they’ve been heard and their concerns are being addressed. “It’s an immediate climate shifter,” Gugel said.

The information loop shouldn’t be restricted to surveys. Joseph recommends creating “design teams” of veteran and new teachers across grades and subject areas who can help school leaders plan PD based on past survey feedback. Teachers may respond to PD better if their peers help plan it, Joseph said, and design teams can help make these sessions more relevant to their needs.

“School leaders don’t have to plan all the PD by themselves in a vacuum,” Joseph said.

Teachers should also have the option to answer survey questions anonymously, Gugel said, if they are nervous about openly critiquing a PD session planned by their principal.

Strike a balance between teacher agency and a school’s instructional goals

Effective PD should focus on one or two key topics chosen by teachers, Joseph said.

“Just like we provide structures and routines for students in classrooms to do their own independent learning, once we allow that choice [to teachers], we find that they want to explore [more] about their instructional practices. [Teachers] have to care about what they’re learning,” Joseph said.

Gugel added that PD should be actionable—teachers should be able to apply practices they learn during PD in their classrooms shortly after the session takes place.

The PD that emerges from this process, though, should not be completely detached from the school’s instructional goals.

The process to find the best PD should be grounded in a school’s data, Joseph said. School leaders and teachers can look at test scores as well as internal school indicators like student behavior. Teachers and school leaders should look at these data together and determine areas for improvement.

By doing that, Joseph said, teachers have the agency to choose their own PD but are still guided by the school’s overall instructional goals.

Some school leaders can be wary of giving too much choice to teachers. Gugel warned against this: “When teachers hear that their school leaders trust them to use their [PD] time well, that’s motivating in itself.”

The most popular form of teacher PD

The most exciting form of PD, both experts agreed, is when teachers can learn from each other.

Teachers learn from each other informally through observing classrooms or catching up over instructional strategies in their free time. But Gugel and Joseph recommended that school leaders also create more formal PD spaces for such sharing.

Then, teachers can share their experiences trying out new teaching methods and discuss new patterns of student learning. For instance, teachers can use these spaces to drill down on specific tactics like how to best organize a classroom to encourage student learning in smaller groups.

These “collaborative groupings"—as part of smaller professional learning communities or larger PD sessions—can also help newer teachers get a feel for what’s going on in their peers’ classrooms, and how they can adapt some of these instructional strategies in their own teaching, Joseph said. This type of PD is a useful way, too, for veteran teachers to share their experiences, instead of spending time going over trainings they’ve already had.

Arranging this opportunity for PD might be yet another task on a leader’s to-do list, but Joseph said it’s worth the effort.

“We want to have a vision for where we are taking teachers,” she said. “But we also want to provide space and time for teachers to take us on a different journey … [to] the place where they are feeling inspired and passionate.”

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An Introduction to Educational Essays for Professional Development of Kindergarten Teachers

The professionalization of early childhood teachers is a new need for teachers in the education reform, an inevitable trend of the times, and an important factor in the quality of kindergarten education and the overall development of young children. Among them, the significance of educational essays to the professional development of teachers and the prosperity of education is indisputable. The author believes that educational essays are the recorder of kindergarten teachers' daily life, the summarizer of kindergarten teachers' education and teaching, the practitioner of kindergarten teachers' scientific research, and the reflector of kindergarten teachers' teaching practice. Therefore, it is advocated that writing educational essays is an effective learning method for teachers and becomes the basis for teachers to discover themselves, study themselves and improve themselves. The process of educational practice is enhanced by writing educational essays to reflect and summarize and streamline, thus improving teachers' professionalism and further promoting the progress and prosperity of education.

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• CAREER COLUMN
• 09 August 2024

Why I’ve removed journal titles from the papers on my CV

• Adrian Barnett 0

Adrian Barnett is a researcher in health and medicine at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Omitting journal names in your CV could help to prioritize the quality of your science over the prestige of the publication. Credit: Nature

Can you name the journal in which microbiologist Alexander Fleming first reported on the antibacterial properties of penicillin? Or where engineer John O’Sullivan and his colleagues presented the image-sharpening techniques that led to Wi-Fi?

Most of you can easily name the benefits of these breakthroughs, but I expect only a few would know where they were published. Unfortunately, in modern scientific culture, there is too much focus on the journal — and not enough on the science itself. Researchers strive to publish in journals with high impact factors, which can lead to personal benefits such as job opportunities and funding.

But the obsession with where to publish is shaping what we publish. For example, ‘negative’ studies might not be written up — or if they are, they’re spun into a positive by highlighting favourable results or leaving out ‘messy’ findings, to ensure publication in a ‘prestigious’ journal.

Illuminating ‘the ugly side of science’: fresh incentives for reporting negative results

To shift this focus in my own practice, I have removed all the journal names from my CV . Anyone interested in my track record will now see only my papers’ titles, which better illustrate what I’ve achieved. If they want to read more, they can click on each paper title, which is hyperlinked to the published article.

I’m not alone in thinking of this. The idea for removing journal names was discussed at a June meeting in Canberra on designing an Australian Roadmap for Open Research . A newsletter published by the University of Edinburgh, UK, no longer includes journal titles when sharing researchers’ new publications, to help change the culture around research assessment. Celebrating the ‘what’ rather than the ‘where’ is a great idea. This simple change could be extended to many types of research assessment.

Quality over journal titles

It is disorienting at first to see a reference that does not contain a journal title, because this bucks a deeply ingrained practice. But journal names are too often used as a proxy for research excellence or quality. I want people reading my CV to consider what I wrote, not where it was published, which I know is sometimes attributable to luck as much as substance.

Of course, anyone who really wants to judge me by where I’ve published will simply be able to google my articles: I haven’t anonymized the journals everywhere. But removing the names in my CV discourages simplistic scans, such as counting papers in particular journals. It’s a nudge intervention: a reminder that work should be judged by its content first, journal second.

Because I’m a professor on a permanent contract, it’s easier for me to make this change. Some might think that it would be a huge mistake for an early-career researcher to do the same. But there is no stage in our scientific careers at which decisions about hiring and promotion should be based on the ‘where’ over the ‘what’. It would be easier for early-career scientists to make this change if it became normalized and championed by their senior colleagues.

A potential criticism of removing journal names is that there is nothing to stop unscrupulous academics from publishing shoddy papers in predatory journals to create a competitive-looking CV, which could put candidates with genuine papers at a disadvantage. Promotion and hiring committees need to be made aware of the growing problem of faked and poor-quality research and receive training on how to spot flawed science.

However, when a job gets 30 or more applicants, there can be a need for short-cuts to thin the field. I suggest that reading the titles of each applicant’s ten most recent papers would work better than any heuristic based on paper counts or journal names, for only a slight increase in workload.

Imagine a hiring or fellowship committee that receives plain or preprint versions of the every applicant’s five best papers. Committee members who previously relied on simplistic metrics would have to change their practice. Some might simply revert to Google, but others might welcome the challenge of judging the applicants’ works.

Judging researchers is much more difficult than counting impact factors or citations, because science is rarely simple. Simplistic promotion and hiring criteria ignore this wonderful complexity. Changing typical academic CV formats could bring some of it back.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-02596-y

This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their professional experiences and advice. Guest posts are encouraged .

Competing Interests

A.B. is a member of the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Research Quality Steering Committee, which provides national guidance on good research practice. A.B. is paid for his time to attend committee meetings. A.B. was on the organizing committee for the Policy Roundtable: An Australian Roadmap for Open Research meeting, which is mentioned in the article, and received paid accommodation to attend the meeting.

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