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certain number of hours to professional development each week, month, semester, etc. In this way, teachers can take control of their own development and feel a sense of pride and accomplishment in their professional growth and development. When development is required for subject-matter knowledge or pedagogical expertise, training should be required across the board, i.e., all teachers should be required to take part. When only some teachers are required to take part in a certain professional development or training program, they are perceived as being the only ones who need to learn a certain subject or need improvement. Programs that label some teachers as good and others as not good enough, even inadvertently, lead to demotivation. Standardized Tests should be given (if at all) Before a Teacher Starts Their Teaching Career There is no doubt that those who teach language should have a certain proficiency in the language they teach, but if standardized tests are to be required to make sure teachers have attained a certain level of proficiency, they should be taken before teachers start their profession, not after they are already engaged. When in-service teachers fall below a certain bar on a standardized test, the results can be damaging. Automatically, their level of language proficiency and, hence, their ability to teach the language will be called into question; these teachers are perceived by other teachers, school administrators, and people in the community as not skilled enough to do their job well, which is extremely demotivating.
6. Conclusion Teacher professional development is important for continuing to develop and enhance teacher effectiveness. While teacher development programs should help teachers obtain improved knowledge and skills, they should also serve to encourage and motivate teachers. Unfortunately, in many ways, the LeapsAhead program has had the opposite effect, whereby teachers who were required to attend the course felt they are failures who were not good enough to do their jobs well. Additionally, unrealistic goals for achievement further undermined their motivation. Well-intended teachers who do not feel supported by the institutions they work for will not be able to perform to an optimum level. Program administrators of professional development programs need to consider methods of training and supporting teachers that serve not only to improve knowledge and skills but that also work on an affective level, nurturing and uplifting teachers. Volume 8 Issue 2
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Teachers Need Realistic Goals for Achievement One way to certainly be set up for failure is to have unrealistic goals whether selfimposed or imposed from the outside. Before setting goals, program organizers need to make sure that they can realistically be achieved. Organizers need to take into account the potential fallout for teachers who do not succeed. When teachers do not succeed on meeting the goal of a training program, they are likely to be even more demotivated than before they started the course.