TEACHERS’ CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCE

Despite an extensive body of research the issues of teachers’ continuous professional development are of particular importance for modern pedagogical theory and practice. The article outlines the features of public school teachers’ professional development in Australia. The study employed a range of theoretical and applied research methods, namely comparative and historical, induction and deduction, logical, analytical, descriptive and statistical as well as questionnaires and interviews. The article specifies the functions of teacher professional development, its elements and components. It analyses the legislative basis and the genesis of Australian teachers’ professional development standards. The article identifies the specificities of teacher professional development implementation in Australia. The results show that teacher professional development is a continuous process of deepening knowledge, improving skills and competencies, forming values and attitudes. The methods helped in revealing the interconnection between continuous professional development and educational reforms, the forms, models and methods of CPD of Australian and Ukrainian teachers. The results of the survey showed the potential for the system of Ukrainian continuous teacher education development and the possibilities of Australian experience adaptation taking into account our rich educational traditions