CPD


in association with Managing your own CPD


In straitened times, teachers may be


considering


more cost-effective ways of getting the CPD they need. School leader Paul Ainsworth considers managing your own CPD programme


of the metropolitan cities. There is no doubt that in recent years schools have


become much more CPD savvy; the result being that individual teacher’s training opportunities are increasingly closely linked to the school improvement plan. This may be good for making the best use of


R


available finances. However, the secondary impact is that there is far less latitude for teachers to gather wider personal development than there was in the past. Admittedly, in the 10 years I have been a teacher,


this has always been limited. Greatly different from the world our more senior colleagues from the staffroom inhabited when they began their careers. They will remember halcyon days when it was possible to undertake a year’s sabbatical to study for a master’s on full pay. Some of them may have even taken the opportunity themselves. So if you cannot rely on your school to widen your


CPD horizons, what can you do to increase your skills and give your CV, possibly your career, a boost too? With some imagination, determination and – most importantly – time, there are a myriad of projects that you could begin which would develop yourself. Generally there are two major reasons schools are


reluctant to allow teachers on external courses. The first is cost, but often the bigger barrier is staff being absent from school for a day, the cost of supply teachers and the inevitable disruption to pupils’ learning. This article presents a brief insight into some CPD


examples that are available and take place outside of the school day, thereby removing the need to negotiate with the senior leadership team for time out of lessons in order to attend. You may find that your school may be prepared to subsidise some of the fees as a reward for your commitment.


Academic courses


The first and possibly most obvious route is the many academic courses which you can undertake during evenings, weekends, holidays and via distance learning. A quick look online and you will find any higher


education institution that offers a BEd or PGCE will probably offer part-time courses which you could choose to study. One institution to look at in this respect is the Open University. This was the provider I chose when I was working


in an independent school and I perceived a reluctance by the school to allow staff to attend external courses. I wanted to keep my teaching fresh and have something extra on my CV. After I had proved my commitment with my


first year’s study, the school then part-funded my second year. The post graduate qualifications offered by the Open University include certificates, advanced diplomas, master’s qualifications right through to doctorates with durations ranging from one year upwards. For a single post-graduate module you might expect to pay around £945. This type of qualification is a serious undertaking,


both in time and financial commitment, but there are other types of courses which are shorter in duration and less costly.


Shorter courses


Newcastle College offers a suite of flexible e-Learning qualifications such as life or performance-coaching which on occasion have been free of charge via flyers to schools, but usually range from £100 to £395. These can provide you with two fillips; first they can be useful in highlighting ways of motivating pupils, and they can


SecEd • March 10 2011


also give your career aspirations a boost by giving you the confidence to “goal-set” and then work towards them. You may even find that a new career opportunity opens up in life-coaching too.


Professional support


Other avenues to explore are the courses offered by the professional bodies. You will find all the teaching unions provide courses and subject associations will organise a variety of meetings and conferences. The unions offer a wide variety of day courses which are often free-of-charge and sometimes you may find your travel costs are subsidised too. These may take place at the weekend so there is no


need to approach your school for time off to attend. A number of years ago I attended a course run by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers which looked at career development and job-searching, the type of course a school would be very unlikely to fund but I found very useful.


Teacher Learning Academy (TLA)


You could choose to research your own teaching and learning methodologies. The General Teaching Council for England’s (GTCE) TLA has a framework based around four stages to encourage practitioners to conduct their own classroom-based research. The first stage involves a project which you research


in your own classroom, right through to stage four where the aim is to look at a project across a number of schools and then have your findings published in national literature. These studies may require some time out of the classroom but the worthiness of such a project would make it difficult for senior leadership to refuse to support such studies. More than 17,000 teachers have used the TLA in


its eight-year history. Of course, the government has signalled its intention to scrap the GTCE next year, but the body is working now to find a new owner for the TLA by the autumn this year and it will continue to operate the programme throughout the spring, with its free online resources remaining available as well. Teachers keen to submit projects for the current


round must do so by March 21 and if successful they can apply for a bursary to cover half of the submission fee. The arrangements for submitting projects after this date will be announced in due course.


Get down to the bookshop


One of the most cost-effective ways of giving yourself a boost or some fresh ideas is to browse through the education section in your local bookshop. You could find a subject specific title or consider


a book from a series like Teacher Pocket Books. One of the most useful books I purchased was by Susan Tranter, called From Teacher to Middle Manager: Making the Next Step (published by Pearson), which I consulted while job-hunting and during my first year in post. You could also consider generic management titles,


whether you wish to improve your leadership, time- management skills or even for job search ideas. I always found it surprising how reading such a title on a wet wintry Sunday afternoon would provide me with some optimism and zest to face the dark week ahead.


Extra-curricular Lastly, do not forget courses that can also develop


your extra-curricular interests. These could range from refereeing to sports-coaching to leading expeditions. They should improve both your own personal skill level, and in addition could make you qualified to deliver sessions to your pupils.


Conclusions


One of the crucial aspects of CPD for today’s teachers is being prepared to take ownership. Your school will be interested in developing your skills to suit certain needs within the organisation, but you cannot expect them to necessarily provide a wide breadth of opportunities. However, there are many opportunities that you


can take which will make you more proficient in your role, give you the edge at interview, or just allow you to look at old problems with a fresh viewpoint. You may find that if you make the commitment and then


Talking CPD A social CPD community


Sarah Pinkerton discusses


harnessing the power of video to inform your school’s CPD


THE NEW educational landscape is challenging and we have to rigorously evaluate traditional activities and consider innovative ways of working but, given the current financial constraints, new practices must have real impact and be cost-effective. In short, we have to achieve more with less. We know that the most important piece of “kit”


in a school is the teacher. It is not surprising that Ofsted is placing a growing emphasis on classroom observation during school inspections. But how do we support teachers to be the


best they can? Research shows that traditional professional development activities such as courses, lectures and workshops fail to impact on day-to- day teaching. It has been argued that traditional models fail because they do not incorporate key experience-based components such as modelling, professional dialogue and observation within and across professional learning communities (Rose & Reynolds, 2008). It is here that the effective use of modern


technologies, appropriately applied, can support school leaders to develop the most effective strategies for school improvement. Video-enabled reflection and peer learning


unlocks key ingredients to successful CPD – contextualisation, personalisation and immediacy


of dialogue. Mixing these powerful components alongside the power and flexibility of collaboration in a web-based community enables teachers to support their peers and take a personal stake in contributing to the improvement of their school in a way that has never before been available. Video communicates messages clearly and


memorably in a way that words or still images cannot. Video allows you to include those body language clues we all use – “the smile, the twinkle of the eye, the raised eyebrow” (Grover 2007). It’s not always possible to communicate what


excellent teaching is in words but by watching video clips a world of potential and innovation opens up. Video learning promotes collaboration, going


beyond institutional, financial or geographical boundaries. Videos provide a contextualised and personalised mechanism for feedback, offer experiential learning opportunities and a bank of resources to support ongoing professional development. There is a new culture evolving. Twitter, Facebook


and YouTube are global online communities enabling people to discover each other’s talents, develop skills and knowledge. Other professions have clear signature pedagogies


that harness the idea of social learning through the use of video and peer observations to enable the process of self-reflection and sharing of skills and knowledge. The challenge now is to combine the principles of


social learning with a mechanism that enables us to go beyond just exchanging texts and conversations towards establishing communities of practice. This will extend school boundaries and allow us


to share lessons, capture best practice and develop through self-review, peer-mentoring, coaching and demonstration.


• Sara Pinkerton is marketing manager for IRIS Connect. Visit www.irisconnect.co.uk


communicate your experiences to the school, then they will be prepared to support you with future endeavours. Also, the experience of learning something new or


refining an existing skill will give you a boost when you face that year 9 group on a Monday morning.


SecEd


• Paul Ainsworth is vice-principal of Belvoir High School and author of Developing a Self-evaluating School: A Practical Guide (Continuum International Publishing, 2010).


Further information


• Open University: www3.open.ac.uk/study/under graduate/education/index.htm


• Newcastle College’s e-Learning qualifications: www.flexible-elearning.com • The TLA: www.gtce.org.uk/tla/


EGULARLY, ARTICLES in SecEd’s CPD pages describe the methods a school could use to provide their own in-house CPD opportunities for staff, thereby reducing teacher’s expectations that CPD is always a day’s course in one


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