Experienced Teachers' Engagement in Professional Development

"One day a young girl was watching her mother cooking roast beef. Just before the mother put the roast in the pot, she cut a slice off the end. The ever observant daughter asked her mother why she had done that, and the mother responded that her grandmother had always done it. Later that same afternoon, the mother was curious, so she called her mother and asked her the same question. Her mother, the child's grandmother, said that in her day she had to trim the roasts because they were usually too big for a regular pot (Farrell, 1998, p.1)." Teaching without self development can lead to "...cutting the slice off the roast," and one way of preventing this routine is to engage in professional development activities.