Teachers’ professional development: main factors fostering progress of education

ENThe main purpose of continuous professional development is to seek professional mastership, which would positively impact the achievements and progress of students. The problem of research encloses that continous professional development of teachers is important indicator that should foster students learning results. But the expertise of National external evaluations and the results of audits enclose the problem – teachers are developing their competences but there are no evidences about the progress of educational achievements. The research goal is to find out the main core factors of teachers’ professional development, based on national external evaluation of schools, that could make effect on students’ achievements and the progress of education. There was used quantitative statistical data analysis (descriptive statistics) of National schools’ evaluation reports (more than 200 schools were evaluated since 2015-2020 years by National Education Evaluation Agency). The main enclosed factors are: Teacher’s mastership is assessed at an average level and it is one of the most important factors influencing students’ achievements and quality of (self) education in Lithuanian schools of general education. Changes in organisation of (self) education, virtual learning environment and students’ self-assessment have been mostly encouraged by teachers’ professional development. Targeted and successful professional development, aimed at the improvement of students’ achievements, is directly linked with the culture of organisation, and management aspects, such as planning of activities, and stimulation of leadership. Regarding the continuous professional development and growth of the teacher, it is very important that the national, regional, and school levels bring the forces together by committing themselves. Keywords: teachers’ professional development; progress of education. [From the publication]