With Lou Mycroft LET’S BE ENERGISED ABOUT CPD IN THE NEW ACADEMIC YEAR
For a couple of years now I’ve had a virtual companion – the Satin Bowerbird. I use it as a metaphor in talks and articles to help people see how they can continuously improve. This gorgeous creature hops around its habitat in eastern Australia collecting blue shiny things with which to furnish a decorative shady shelter. Once the mating season is done, the blue straws, bottle tops and occasional sapphire get repurposed for next time around. So it goes with CPD – and that’s no bad thing. The first day of September arrived and reminded me that, as educators, most of us live with the rhythm of the seasons. The new academic year has, hopefully, a little thrill of anticipation around professional development. Gone are the days where we didn’t think about CPD until
we trotted along to listen to the latest ‘drive-by expert’. Before social media it was harder to know what else was going on in FE. Now we have the latest ideas in our pocket. This brings with it a new set of skills: discernment, plus the ability to curate a deluge of information. It’s good to get excited about CPD. The blue shiny things keep practice fresh and us interested. It’s part of a
healthy shift towards respecting the teacher’s professional integrity, which is reflected in the Education Inspection Framework’s use of ‘education’ in place of ‘teaching, learning and assessment’ (which always sounded to me like an unnecessary attempt to tell us our job). It’s easy to say that there’s nothing new under the sun.
But it doesn’t matter if we’ve seen it before. There’s nothing in Barak Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction that isn’t common sense. But we let our practice lose its sharp edge sometimes, under a deluge of bureaucracy and ennui. A Twitter thread, a new network, a great conference workshop, a shiny-covered book – they all remind us that we can make the experience of learning better for everyone concerned. So throw yourselves into your networks and into this edition’s focus on fresh ideas. Happy New Year!
Lou Mycroft is a writer, teacher, independent thinker and thought-provoker. She is currently working on two Education and Training Foundation projects: the PDNorth Professional Exchange and #APConnect, a programme for Advanced Practitioners. Join the debate on Twitter using the hashtag #pedagogue
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Association of Employment and Learning Providers Autumn Conference, Manchester. See the AELP website for details:
bit.ly/AELPAutumn Conference
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Two-day Prevent duty course for safeguarding officers, Birmingham. See ETF Booking for details:
bit.ly/PreventCourse Birmingham
NOVEMBER 6
Annual SET Conference, The Vox, Birmingham. See page 4 for full details and to book your place visit the SET website or Eventbrite:
bit.ly/SET Conference2019
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Association of College’s Annual Conference, Birmingham. For details and booking, click on this link:
www.aocannual
conference.co.uk
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#FEResearchMeet event at Ashton Sixth Form College. For details and booking visit:
bit.ly/FEResearch MeetAshton
inTUITION ISSUE 37 • AUTUMN 2019 39
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