“It has been said that teachers who have been teaching for
twenty years may be divided into two categories: those with
twenty years' experience and those with one year's experience
repeated twenty times. In other words, sheer time on the job
does not ensure fruitful experience and professional progress.
(...) A teacher can and should advance in professional expertise
and knowledge throughout his or her career, and such advances
do not depend on formal courses or external input. You have
within your own teaching routine the main tools for personal
progress: your own experience and your reflections on it,
interaction with other teachers in your institution. Teacher
development takes place when teachers, working as individuals
or in a group, consciously take advantage of such resources to
forward their own professional learning. Ongoing teacher
development is important not only for your own sense of
progress and professional advancement; in some situations it
may even make a crucial difference between survival and
dropping out.” (A Course in Language Teaching, by Penny Ur, p.
317/18. Adapted)