Continuing Professional Development of a Teacher in a MOOC Frame

Abstract

There are two very often conflicting views on the essence of professional development for teachers. On the one hand, there is a formal requirement for professional development, and on the other hand, professional development can be seen as an ongoing process of professional and personal growth. The second approach has been studied in this paper. Literature review on the subject showed that there are no ready-made strategies, sets of options that would ensure effective professional development without its localization, i.e. taking into account the teachers’ previous experience, as well as the context in which they are currently working. The key conditions for this kind of localization should be: continuity of professional development, its contextuality, sociality and orientation to research and knowledge. This paper discusses mass open online courses (MOOC) as a format that ensures the implementation of all the above-mentioned conditions. The research context is a community of EFL professionals. The author analyzes her personal experience of participating in two MOOCs and integrates them into Continuing Professional Development Framework (CDPF), developed by British Council. The relevant practices and conditions for effective continuous professional development are considered in the context of MOOC’s pedagogical, technological and content possibilities.