Job shadowing benefits for teachers

One of the most rewarding ways of enriching professional development is by shadowing a colleague in another school in another country. The experience challenges established views of best practice at the same time as adding to our portfolio of classroom strategies.

We have found job shadowing to be an effective form of professional development with many potential benefits for teachers. It gives teachers opportunities to see other teaching practices from a different angle and enriches the process of continuing professional development.

Dr. Diana Hicks, who has worked with teachers in UK and overseas for many years running training courses, giving workshops and conference keynotes, has developed a 1-week job shadowing programme together with Delingua Training in Cheltenham.  Following on from a range of requests, we have designed the programme for primary, secondary and vocational teachers across a range of subjects.

To maximise the benefit of the week’s visit, we provide observational guidelines on the first day to enable teachers to observe features of routine, language, lesson structure and systems within the school. These frameworks are collated on the final day in preparation for the colleague presentations at home.

This kind of guided observation in a carefully-selected UK classrooms together with discussion with teaching professionals allows visiting teachers to gain deeper educational insights into similarities and differences between the educational systems and then to adjust classroom pedagogy accordingly.

Delingua can offer a support package of job shadowing which includes the organisation of host accommodation and local support throughout the visit.

The application process is easy and straightforward. For further information and to apply, please contact Carol Stephens at info@delinguatraining.com