The other day, a friend of mine, a bus tour guide asked me the following question.

“What group(profession) do you think is the most difficult one to follow what we say in a tour?”

Me: “Doctor? Lawyer?”

“The answer is…..Teachers. They tend not to listen to us”
Being a teacher at that time, I kind of understood what he meant.
As teachers teach kids, they tend not to listen to others as if they were right all the time (of course not all the time). I guess this is due to the traditional teachers’ role–the source of knowledge in stead of facilitator.

According to the OECD’s “Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS)” On average across countries, 55% of teachers are telling that they want more professional development.

This article takes this number as positive one. My first reaction to this, however, was that 45% of teachers don’t want to improve or learn more about teaching.
This number could be way lowered in developing countries.
In my view, a good teacher should be a constant learner. How can teachers –those who say “study and learn” to their students– not learn by themselves?

Of course this is not all about their wills about them: bad working conditions, a lack of respect, stress, etc. also affect them.
For example, In 2008, teachers told that the main barriers preventing them from participating in more professional development activities were a conflict with their work schedule (47%) and a lack of available and suitable programmes available (42%)
When one teaches, he or she leanrs. It should be vice versa.

The article on TAILS: Learning to Teach: Teaching to Learn
The link of TALIS