What is CPD: Lesson Plan

I was thinking about using CPD as a topic for an ESL lesson. The most natural idea was to present various educational platforms to adult students and ask them to pick a course they would like to participate in. We would then discuss their preferences and their favorite ways of learning.

However, I came up with a plan, a plan so cunning you could pin a tail on it and call it a fox. What about using the idea of CPD as an element of a feedback session? Ask your students to create a professional development plan for you as their teacher!

You can introduce the topic of professional development to various age groups. Especially for teenagers, the idea of lifelong learning should be quite important. After all, there is no better way of teaching than modeling. When you explain how much you still learn as a teacher, your students will realize that learning doesn’t end with finishing school.

What’s more, you will receive valuable feedback! Your students will basically tell you which areas of your work should be improved. Now, I don’t say this is an easy task, to give your students the power of such extensive feedback. But if you are a brave and open teacher, you will find this lesson a challenging yet rewarding experience.

Are you ready for this challenge? If not, you may try creating CPD programs for various celebrities, politicians, or even fictional characters. After all, you may feel more comfortable creating a program for an unknown character rather than for their own real teacher. And that’s absolutely ok!

Lesson: What is Professional Development
Age: 13+
Level: A2 and above
Time: 45 mins
Type of work: Groupwork, presentation, role-play
Vocabulary: Learning, professional development, giving advice
Grammar: Constructions connected with giving advice, modal verbs like should, could, may, or might

Introduction (5 minutes)

Start the lesson by asking your students how much time they spend on learning. Ask them if they think they will reach a point in life where learning will not be necessary for them, and discuss their ideas. Then, explain the concept of lifelong learning. Share some activities you do to improve your work, like workshops, conferences, webinars, reading articles (or this blog). Let them come to the conclusion that learning as a part of our life happens all the time. For example, when we become parents, but we also learn new things that may be useful in our professional life. That’s what we call CPD – Continuing Professional Development.

Presentation and Discussion (10 minutes)

Ask your students about the ways we may improve the skills required in our careers. Divide them into groups and give them 3 minutes to brainstorm their ideas. Once they are done, discuss their concepts. Explain that they are going to focus only on online courses as a source of theoretical and practical knowledge. Ask them if they have ever used YouTube tutorials when they didn’t know how to do something. Explain that online courses can be a mix of YouTube tutorials and regular lessons. You may use my previous post – click here – to present educational platforms with online courses. Ask your students if they are familiar with any of them. Maybe they know some other platforms that you may also use.

Case Study (15 minutes)

Now, for the main challenge! Tell your students they are going to use the platforms you showed them to define a suitable CPD program for you (or for somebody else if you don’t feel comfortable with being in the spotlight). First, divide them into groups, let them use the Internet, and ask them to create a sensible CPD plan for someone who has seven hours per week they can use to enhance their skills.

If you feel like it, you may help your students approach the topic with a sense of humor by offering some unusual courses. The main thing, however, is that each choice should be justified. That means that your students can’t just pick “how to bake bread” as a preferred course for a teacher, but they could justify it, for example, by saying “the course on making bread would be a good idea as a form of relaxation, countering the mental work you do a lot”.

Planning Teacher’s CPD – Presentation (10 minutes)

When your students are done, ask them to present their CPD plans. Then, ask the group to choose the most sensible plan, the most logical one, or the funniest. If they created these plans for you, make sure to tell them which course you find the most interesting and tell them that you might actually take it.

For all you know, you might actually need this course!

Summing Up (5 minutes)

Recap the various methods discussed during the lesson, revise grammar, vocabulary, and constructions used during the lesson. If you want to give your students homework, you might ask them either to find an online course for themselves or create a similar CPD plan for their close buddy.

As you can see, you can start discussing CPD at a relatively early age. And while this lesson may seem like fun, it presents the idea of lifelong learning and helps realize that one never stops learning. To be honest, I only realized this fact when I finished formal education, but I have never had a teacher show me the meaning of Continuing Professional Development. Yet now I can change it – and so can you.

Enjoy!