Leading Teaching Development.
Daniel Roche
Assistant Principal & Head of Geography
1. Know your pupils.
Find out what it is, in general, that your pupils need. Knowledge here is powerful. Use your quality assurance procedures to find out what the general strengths and weaknesses are. This will vary according to local context - do pupils need support with vocabulary, reading, metacognition etc. Use this information to inform your next steps. At BCA pupils required support to widen their vocabulary. This information was powerful for leaders of learning who could then plan for next steps to address this.
2. Know your teachers.
Similar to above, use quality assurance structures to identify general strengths and areas for development. Informal lesson visits are particularly helpful here in building up an accurate picture. Each individual teacher will clearly have different developmental needs; however, it is useful to keep up to speed with emerging whole school areas for development and powerful to celebrate good practice. At BCA, one of the current areas for development is checking understanding for all. Whilst there are areas of good practice, knowing that this is an element for whole-school development allows it to be targeted to be good practice for all.
3. Create a coherent plan.
The first of my tips centres on identifying areas for development. Once this has been completed, a plan to address these areas should be made. The aim here is for habitual change to behaviours, either pupil or teacher, and often both. This can be difficult to accomplish and sustain; however, with a structured plan, clearly communicated, with clearly identified milestones, delivered in a structured fashion, habitual change becomes possible. There are many models for formulating the plan, such as the EEF Logic model. Once the plan has been made, communicate it clearly and work through diligently. Refer back to the plan regularly and signpost milestones. Celebrate successes.
4. Create a space for application to individual contexts.
Teacher development needs for one subject will likely differ from the needs of a second subject. Understanding this is key to implementing teacher development strategies. Allowing time and space for individual subjects and teachers to apply CPD into their own context is a vital stage of development. This time should form a significant part of your plan. Once new material has been shared (in small, structured steps), time is needed soon after for discussion, application and planning in department contexts to allow for changes to be implemented. Senior leaders also need to be aware that, though the principles of teaching and learning should be adhered to, what this looks like in contrasting classrooms may well be different.
5. Allow time for self-directed CPD.
Evidence suggests that whole school, set piece CPD can have limited impact. The tips above aim to address this by focussing on the real issues identified by data (QA, lesson visits), creating a targeted plan and allowing time for application in individual contexts in an effort to overcome these difficulties and make this element of teacher development practical and relevant to the wide range of teacher experiences and expertise. That said, there could still be a teacher or two for whom whole school CPD not the best use of their time as this is already an area of strength. I am pleased to say that by far the biggest time allowance of the CPD calendar at BCA is set aside for self-directed CPD in the form of Independent Enquiry. Staff take a similar approach to that outlines in tips 1-4. They identify one area for development based on a range of evidence, which will benefit the pupils they teach. They formulate a plan based on evidence from education research, blogs and writing which is applied to their individual context.