In partnership with MCMC, the National CPD Team led a national workshop on 19 January to explore the potential of the Learning Rounds approach in the context of multi-agency, collaborative professional development.
The workshop was attended by over 30 colleagues from education , psychological services , social work services , Scotland’s colleges and the independent and voluntary sector. The team is compiling a report which will be circulated to all interested parties . Initial feedback indicates that there is an appetite for the approach as it provides a structure which is inclusive and has immediate relevance to the professional learning of colleagues who have shared statutory and policy responsibilities for ASL, GIRFEC and MCMC .
The team is working with two local authorities to explore the delivery and impact of the approach and we will keep you informed of progress!
Welcome to the January 2011 CPDNews from the National CPD Team
Teaching Scotland’s Future
The Donaldson Review of Teacher Education
We are delighted to welcome this excellent, comprehensive report which offers fifty recommendations intended to develop the capacity of all teachers to deliver better learning outcomes for children and young people. Many of these recommendations, which address all aspects of CPD and leadership development, and which we have summarised here, are very relevant to the work of the team and the Network. Graham Donaldson offers the following key points on the review’s home page:
The highest priority must be given, at all levels, to strengthening both teacher quality and leadership in Scotland’s schools.
Selection for initial teacher education should be thorough, broad and rigorous and carried out in assessment centres.
A minimum level for literacy and numeracy should be agreed and tested at entry to teacher education courses; and student teachers should be expected subsequently to develop their skills to a high level.
All teachers should be skilled in supporting the development of literacy and numeracy skills in their pupils and in overcoming barriers to learning such as dyslexia.
The BEd degree should be replaced by degrees that combine academic study beyond education with professional studies.
Teacher education should be seen as a career-long process, with much closer working amongst schools, universities, local authorities and national organisations.
The professional development of experienced teachers should be guided by a new set of standards developed by GTCS.
Further high-quality, part-time routes to teaching should be developed.
A greater range of teachers’ professional development should be accredited with Master’s-level credits built into ITE qualifications and a Master’s account opened for each teacher.
More rigorous procedures should be established to assure the quality at all stages of teacher education.
Leadership skills should be developed right from the start of a teacher’s career and better pathways created towards headship.
The recommendations offer a clear agenda for future action for all of us who have a professional interest in teacher development, and we look forward to beginning the discussion on this together at the next Network meeting.
To support the work of the Teaching Scotland’s Future review team, HMIE were asked to produce an analysis of all aspects of CPD. They scrutinised documentation, and interviewed Continuous Professional Development (CPD) coordinators, probationer teachers and teachers in their second year of teaching. You can read their report here.
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SCOTTISH EDUCATION QUALITY AND IMPROVEMENT AGENCY (SEQIA)
As you know, this new organisation will initially bring together HMIE, LTS and some parts of the Scottish Government. It will aim to improve the efficiency of all the national bodies supporting education, and so it seems evident that it will offer a logical place to drive forward the work of the CPD Team and to ensure a coherent response to the challenges in the Donaldson Review.
We have had some early discussions as to how this might work, and there are lots of exciting opportunities emerging from these discussions. We will be sure to keep colleagues informed as the way ahead becomes clearer.
PRD News
Professional Review and Development
The online ‘Survey Monkey’ questionnaire on colleagues’ experiences of PRD has now been completed by well over 1300 schools staff representing 10 authorities. The surveys from 8 of these have been anaylsed in detail and an overview of the results is included in the Phase 1 Report of the PRD initiative can be found in the i-share area of the PRDShare online community
You will notice that the reported levels of satisfaction with the PRD process in our survey are much higher than as reported in Teaching Scotland’s Future. We are fairly sure that this is because those who have shown their interest and commitment to PRD by responding to our questionnaire, though giving valuable insights into their experience of PRD, are not a typical cross section. The finding in the review of teacher education that fewer than 50% of teachers regard the arrangements for PRD as ‘effective’ (42%) or ‘Very effective’ (10%) in identifying priorities for CPD, is almost certainly a more reliable statistic. Hence the importance of working together to make this process more meaningful for all.
The team has now begun a series of meetings with the authorities involved to discuss next steps. By asking authorities to focus their efforts on a particular, manageable, aspect of PRD, we hope to be able to collate and share insights and gain a deeper understanding of what we need to do to make PRD a valuable experience for all school staff.
We are building up a PRD Bank of Wisdom; illustrative examples of interesting goings on in PRD. Please get in touch if you have anything to share – we’d love to hear from you!
LEADERSHIP
The Network Leadership Advisory Group is scheduled to meet again to consider a Framework for Educational Leaders which is referred to in the Commentary from ‘CPD Educational Leadership Survey’ (2010). This framework is a redraft of ‘CPD for Educational Leaders’ (2003) and focuses on a continuum of professional development from early leadership onwards. Included as important features of the framework are the professional actions of leaders and the essential elements of vision, values & aims, knowledge and interpersonal skills. Over the next few weeks we will be seeking the views of a number of focus groups and will be in position to report on progress at the CPD Managers Network meeting in March.
DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP
The team is continuing its engagement with two local authorities to explore the nature of distributed leadership in specialist settings. The approach will be offered as a CPD opportunity in CPD Find.
FLEXIBLE ROUTE to HEADSHIP
We are currently planning the next cohort for FRH with coach role training at end of March and full engagement at end May with participants as aspiring headteachers. 13 local authorities are engaged with the current cohort 2010-12. Recently we have collated evidence to show the success of the programme which includes FRH graduates now in post as headteacher and we will be sharing this information with authorities across Scotland. Of interest is evidence of the building of coaching capacity within authorities engaged in FRH. Also of interest is the reference in the Donaldson Report to further development of flexible routes to headship.
HEADTEACHER’S CPD �
The CPD Team is already addressing another theme referred to in Donaldson, that of providing CPD opportunities for headteachers from the middle years of headship onwards. We expect to run with a pilot programme beginning Feb/March. The principles of this model of CPD are based on those of FRH and include critical self evaluation against the Standard for Headship, professional learning planning, coaching and impact on learing at both personal and school level. For further details contact jim.keegans@cosla.gov.uk�
LEARNING ROUNDS
The team is now considering with one local authority evidence of impact in relation to pupil gain following Learning Rounds Activity. Any consideration of this theme by other authorities whose schools are engaging in Learning Rounds would be very welcome. Please contact margareto @cosla.gov.uk
We are also exploring the potential of the model as a collaborative CPD activity with partner agencies – particularly in light of shared responsibilities in relation to ASL and GIRFEC. A seminar on 19 January attended by colleagues from education, social work services, Scotland’s Colleges , specialist services , psychological services, EIS, Scottish Government and the independent sector considered the opportunities and challenges which a multi – agency Learning Round presents.
The day was very positively received and a seminar report will be disseminated to all interested parties. Again if you would like a copy of the report please contact margareto@cosla.gov.uk The team will be piloting the approach with a local authority over the next few months. Again the outcomes will be shared with network colleagues.
The New Look CPDCentral is here!
Only one week into the new-look CPDCentral and we’re getting busy already. Find out more on the blog post “What is CPDCentral?”
To find out if you are already a member of CPDCentral, have a look at the list of colleagues here. If your face doesn’t appear, then follow this link http://bit.ly/cpdhello
“Recommendation 40 – Online CPD should be part of the blended, tailored approach to CPD for all teachers”
Coming up on CPDCentral
• look for more colleagues joining as the real publicity starts this weekend
• CPDMeet20 on Thursday 27th January at 4pm. Graeme Logan from the Donaldson Review team is going to lead a discussion on the findings. Sign up here.
• Cabinet Secretary, Mike Russell, is hosting a discussion online on the CPD needs of colleagues not fully employed, Wed 26th at 5.30pm. More on CPDFind and /or sign-up here
• work begins on the affiliation programme for CPDCentral. This will let you host your own CPD communities / opportunities but take advantage of the CPDCentral collegiate features
Changes to CPDFind
The national database of CPD, CPDFind is also changing. Graham Wilson and his gang of gurus at LTScotland are busy working on a version of CPDFind which will better reflect the way educators in Scotland access CPD. The deadline for these changes is end of March 2011. Here are a summary of the changes:
• local authority CPD managers will be able to publish opportunities only to their own colleagues
• local authority CPD managers will be able to identify and approve their own local CPD sources / providers
• establishment CPD coordinators will be able to do the same at establishment level
• simplified publishing of CPD opportunities
• the endorsement system currently operating will become an impact evaluation system with the option to endorse. Yes, you read that correctly!
The National CPD Team, the Glow Team and other teams from LTScotland are getting together to help each other improve our online CPD provision on Glow. It will take the format of a ‘Glow makeover’ of CPD communities. See Catriona’s post on what happened at the last one.
Aims
To examine how Glow / other online tools can be used for better value CPD
To familiarise ourselves with existing CPD provision on Glow
We will be concentrating this time on a few of the national communities on Glow, but if you have a Glow CPD community of your own, we’ll try and squeeze you in! Contact Con for more details
The national database of CPD, CPDFind is changing. Graham Wilson and his gang of gurus at LTScotland are busy working on a version of CPDFind which will better reflect the way educators in Scotland access CPD. The deadline for these changes is end of March 2011. Here are a summary of the changes:
local authority CPD managers will be able to publish opportunities only to their own colleagues
local authority CPD managers will be able to identify and approve their own local CPD sources / providers
establishment CPD coordinators will be able to do the same at establishment level
simplified publishing of CPD opportunities
the endorsement system currently operating will become an impact evaluation system with the option to endorse.
Using the profiling available in Glow, we are setting up a system that allows CPDFind users (who are also on Glow) to be identify themselves and determine what level of access they want.
All users will be able to search for opportunities, add them to a wish-list, evaluate the quality on completion, evaluate the impact further down the line and endorse opportunities. All users can also apply for publishing rights.
In addition, CPD coordinators can maintain a catalogue at establishment level, including determining who can publish to it
In addition, CPD managers can maintain a catalogue at local authority level, including determining who can publish to it.
The current endorsement system is being converted into an evaluation system with 3 levels of endorsement:
not endorsed
endorsed on likely impact and reminder set
reminder received and endorsed on actual impact
The results of the evaluations will only be available to the individual in the first instance, but endorsed opportunities will be made public.
Report of a review of teacher education in Scotland
The CPD team welcome the publication of “Teaching Scotland’s Future” with its clear case for a high priority to be given to teacher quality and leadership. We are delighted to see lots of themes that build on current CPD Network concernsand activities. There are many relevant references, for example:
recommendation 33 talks about the “shift from set-piece events to more local, team-based approaches which centre around self evaluation and professional collaboration”;
recommendation 34 addresses the need to consider the likely impact of CPD on pupils;
recommendation 40 is about on-line CPD as “part of the blended, tailored approach for all teachers”.
And many more . . .
We are delighted that the report recommends that our work on CPDFind should be developed (see recommendation 41), and that PRD emerges as a key tool to improve school and teacher effectiveness.
However the Report describes many challenges in the “ambitious and far-reaching agenda” set by the Report, and success will require new partnerships, creative solutions and new ways of working for many of us involved in all aspects of teacher education. We look forward to contributing to this agenda.
Regular readers of our blog will know about CPDStepin (the community for supply teachers and other colleagues who have difficulty accessing CPD through the ‘usual channels’)
Anne McGhee will be leading an introductory practical session for such colleagues in Broughton High School on 26th January. This will be the first of, we hope, many practical sessions around Scotland to further encourage use of the Stepin community.
The CPD Team are particularly pleased that the Cabinet Secretary, Mike Russell, has kindly agreed to lead a discussion as part of the session. The theme for the discussion is “The challenge of keeping your skills up-to-date for CfE when not fully employed”
The discussion will also be webcast as a CPDMeet on CPDCentral, the national CPD Community on Glow. The practical session begins at 4.30pm and the discussion at 5.30pm.
Please help us support this session and CPDStepin:
Are you on supply or are under-employed, see this CPDAnswers post to find out how to get a Glow username and password and becoming part of the CPDStepin community
Are you a CPD manager in a local authority? Please alert teachers on your supply list. See also this blog post if you want to book a similar session for your supply colleagues
We ask all our readers to pass on the word about CPDStepin to colleagues not currently fully employed.
As part of its support for CPD for supply teachers, the National CPD Team is offering local authorities the chance to augment their local provision with a free session on CPDStepin. CPDStepin is the professional community on Glow specifically supporting colleagues, like supply teachers, who are not fully employed but still want to keep their skills up-to-date for CfE.
Anne McGhee, the facilitator of the CPDStepin community, will lead the session and they will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. To request a session, please email stepin@ltscotland.org.uk as soon as possible.
Please note, for funding reasons, the session must be requested and agreed by Friday 25th March 2011
The programme kicks off in City of Edinburgh Council on the 26th January and other LAs have already taken up the offer.
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