Introduction
Even in developed countries, a range of educational issues continues to exist that compromise the overall quality of teaching. Among those, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2020), are improper curriculum development and lesson planning. Specifically, the traditional educational system evaluates exclusively student performance and achievements, while in fact, learning experiences are equally important. In other words, it is necessary to apply total quality management to teaching, so that assessment occurs in the process of it and focuses on the well-being of students, not solely their marks.
At the current stage, many teachers lack the appropriate interpersonal skills and, consequently, neglect student well-being. Considering it, meanwhile, is critical for building relationships of trust, sharing responsibilities, and organizing effective teamwork, which, in turn, underlie “the new normal in education” (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2020, p. 9). Therefore, the professional development (PD) of teachers should focus on such aspects as communicative competences, emotional intelligence, and the principles of transformational leadership.
The latter targets to encourage those who follow to improve themselves by supporting and inspiring them. Teachers, subsequently, are to learn how to do that (Cherry, 2020). PD in this direction will help reduce the formalism of curricula, shifting their focus from academic achievements to the process of acquiring new practically applicable knowledge and skills. The paper presents the approximate timeline as well as budget of a possible professional development program to turn teachers into transformational leaders.
Project Development and Implementation
Needs Assessment
To identify the scope of the training, it is essential to collect the actual information on how the teachers see their role in the educational process and what additional competencies they need to develop. Another point is the preferable format or formats of training, such as coaching, peer observation, lesson modeling, or other. Apparently, the most informative way to discover this is to survey the potential trainees directly; the outcomes will determine the desirable vector of PD. The timeline and budget of this needs assessment may look as follows.
Development of PD Plan
Comparing, contrasting, and summarizing the respondents’ answers will provide a view of their existing competencies as well as the gaps the training will have to close. To enable that, it is necessary to design a customized program that will incorporate the needs of the participants and the basics of transformational leadership. The new approaches to curriculum development and lesson planning, which the training will communicate, should rest on that combination.
In addition to the participant teachers, the project manager and project supervisor will be involved. These are responsible for resolving the organizational issues and the successful implementation of the project, respectively (“Manager vs. supervisor,” 2021). In particular, the function of the latter is to hire the lecturers or coaches, depending on the chosen format, who, subsequently, form another group of stakeholders (“What does a project supervisor do?” 2020). As soon as the PD program is ready, the supervisor will share it with the personnel. Presenting it to the participants would be relevant as well, so that they have an understanding of what will happen in the classroom and, due to this, are more confident and dedicated. The approximate time and costs this part of the project requires are in the table below.
Implementation of the Program
It is essential to enable the teachers to combine training attendance with work without overloading them, for which reason the time limit equals 2 hours in the evening, after classes, 3 days a week. The optimal total length of the program is about 24 hours. This most probably will be sufficient to communicate the basics of transformational leadership to each participant, present the innovative approaches to curriculum development and lesson planning that rest on those ideas, and ensure practice.
As mentioned, the parties involved, in addition to the trainees and the lecturers, are the project manager and the project supervisor. The former is responsible for running the project on a daily basis, specifically, following the class schedule, the provision and allocation of the resources, and risk management. Regarding the supervisor, his or her area is the alignment of the components, in other words, the absence of any obstacles to following the overall plan. The below table involves more detailed comments on time as well as budget.
Plans for Longevity
As apparent from the above, designing, implementing, and completing the PD program requires about two months in total. This is not the limit, however, as the monitoring of its effectiveness will happen throughout the academic year to gather a maximum of the data that may determine the need for any advancements. In case of enabling the appropriate quality, the training can be held in other educational institutions in the future, presumably after adapting it to the social, cultural, or other specialties of a particular region.
Rationale for Budgetary Allocations
The execution of the teacher professional development program, which the paper offers, requires appropriate budgeting. This means the most efficient use of the available resources and, consequently, the greatest probability of success (Issel & Wells, 2017). To enable this, it is necessary to consider both direct costs, such as wages or materials, and indirect, which result from certain activities and are invisible at the stage of planning (“Indirect costs definition,” 2021). This section provides a brief overview of both categories.
Direct Costs
Wages
The group of employees that will work on the project involves 4 lecturers, the manager, the supervisor, and the school administration, most probably in the person of the principal. All of those will adhere to their usual full-time schedule, with the exception of the lecturers, who will work for 2 hours 3 days a week and, therefore, receive payments on an hourly basis. The wages the above table includes correspond to the current national average; the possible need for especially qualified personnel can increase them.
Rooms, Materials, and Equipment
The school where the trainees work actually will house the program, which means that no additional buildings are necessary. The equipment, such as computers, speakers, interactive boards, or other also will be available. Regarding the teaching materials, it is the most reasonable to collect them from free sources, considering the substantial investments in project management and supervision. Among such sources are public online libraries, leadership manuals, websites of educational organizations, and other. It may be necessary to request authorized copies of certain materials from their authors, which will take additional time.
Indirect Costs
Indirect costs are not immediate and, consequently, less visible, but budget calculation still needs to consider them. In the given case, this area of expenditure covers meetings as well as processing and analyzing the research outcomes. Specifically, these activities require electricity, Internet traffic, and, possibly, the time that otherwise would be devoted to for-profit tasks. The tables do not mention the points of such a kind since they are quite variable and, therefore, difficult to anticipate.
Conclusion
The paper assesses the approximate time and finance a teacher professional development program, which targets to present new approaches to lesson planning, may require. Altogether, the preparations and running the course take up to 2 months; it is necessary to identify the participants’ needs, design the program, and organize the schedule properly to avoid excessive load. Regarding financial resources, the wages of the lecturers, project manager, and project supervisor make the majority of the direct costs, while the spending on the materials and equipment is minimal due to their availability.
References
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The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2020). Curriculum (re)design: A series of thematic reports from the OECD Education 2030 project. Web.
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