FEATURE FOCUS: CPD
How collaboration can maximise the impact of continuous professional learning
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n our first feature this month on CPD, Education Today catches up with Denise Inwood, former senior school leader and now managing director of BlueSky, creators of BlueSky Education, the leading online performance management, CPL
and self-evaluation solution for schools, to talk about how you energise and engage your staff, and the importance of collaboration in maximising the impact of continuous professional learning.
“Effective professional growth is vital for school leaders and teachers, both for their personal career development and also because it advances practices in the classroom which improve student outcomes.
“As schools work to meet the current challenge of examination reforms in the context of budgetary constraints, I believe that the need to support teachers’ professional development has never been greater.
“During the many years I worked as a teacher and then senior leader I saw time and time again that school improvement can only really succeed if you truly engage your major asset: your staff. I am convinced that effective collaboration within and across schools can maximise the impact of professional learning on teachers, making it easier for senior leaders to promote improvement in their classrooms.
Current constraints on staff development “This autumn’s report from the National Audit Office examined whether the Department for Education is supporting the schools sector effectively to retain and develop the teaching workforce. It described DfE initiatives to support the teaching workforce as "relatively small scale", estimating that the Department spent £35.7 million in 2016/17 on teacher development and retention, as well as an
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estimated £34.2 million on schemes aimed at improving teacher quality.
“In comparison, in 2013/14 £555 million was spent on training and supporting new teachers. “An additional issue is that OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) data indicates that most teachers still teach largely in isolation, as over half of teachers reported very rarely or never team-teaching with colleagues, and two-thirds reported the same rates for observing their colleagues teach. Some 46% of teachers reported never receiving feedback on their teaching from their school leader, and 51% had never received feedback from other members of school management.
“Add to that the fact that OECD surveys also show that teachers in many other countries receive a significantly higher number of formal days for professional development than their English counterparts do, with just five inset days during an academic year. International evidence shows that to have a real impact on pupil achievement teachers need to be able to participate in at least 50 hours of development work over not more than two terms.
October 2017
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