Personal Growth and Teaching

My personal belief about personal growth/improvement is that it must come from within. One may be able to influence a person to change temporarily but these changes will not be long lasting and are not positive (fear of reprimand, intimidation, harsh criticism). I believe improvement of instruction must be preceded by a desire for personal and professional growth on the part of the teacher because they feel/see/understand that what they do impacts lives for the better or worse.
Action Research is an excellent tool towards this end.