As a result of our work with local authorites on PRD processes and procedures, we’ve been giving a lot of thought to the potential of PRD as not only a mechanism for professional development, but also a lever for system change. This diagram is intended to reflect some of our thinking on the issue.
The PRD meeting feeds out of, and back into, the professional learning continuum, which is made up of all the elements you can see along the bottom. It starts with self-evaluation based on any of the themes in the middle of the cycle,then moves into a coaching conversation, which results in a CPD plan which then feeds back into the professional learning continuum. Intervening coaching conversations support progress along the learning continuum, and lead into the next cycle.
As a model, this is aspirational, certainly. But is it useful? Is it worth aspiring to?
The CPDMeet programme continues with two diverse offerings for you: On April 27th we have Hugh Smith, form the University of the West of Scotland leading #guitarmeet. Learn how to play the guitar, and how to teach it to young learners with small hands. A good opportunity for primary and early years practitioners to add to their repertoire – all welcome! Next up on May 5th is Kate Coutts, HT at Uyeasound Primary, Shetland, and experienced coach will lead a discussion on non-directive coaching and PRD. Useful for anyone who might be looking to get more out of the PRD process as reviewer or reviewee, or interested in learning more about effective coaching. More on cpdmeet29 here. Hope to see you there!
George Smuga, former government adviser and headteacher lead a really successful CPDMeet on Monday 21st March on Building Your Curriculum: moving into the senior phase. Participants tuned in from all over, including Shetland and the Highlands to share insights and issues into how we are approaching curriculum planning for this stage. The discussion was wide-ranging, and time didn’t allow as full an exploration of this issue as we felt we needed, so it might be something to revisit. You can see the recording at http://bit.ly/cpdmeet27 so why not have a look with some colleagues and if you feel you would like to take this issue further, add your thoughts to the discussion in the i-share area.
Carpe Diem School in Yuma, Arizona is one of a new type of “Bricks and Clicks” school. In this article in the Harvard Education Letter, Brigid Schulte describes a very different educational experience on offer to students. They are offered a combination of the best face-to-face teaching and cutting-edge online curriculum. Results are impressive with the school being designated as “highly performing”.
The hybrids began to develop in the States after the US Department of Education released a meta-analysis of on-line learning that seemed to confirm that a blend of face-to-face teacher time and on-line curriculum produced better outcomes than either strategy on its own.
Also worth checking out is the Top Ten Web Tools for Education by Dave Saltman – “In the quest to work smarter, not harder, teachers are flocking to an ever-expanding galaxy of web-based tools for help with everything from classroom manage- ment to classroom discussions . . . . “
Con Morris from the National CPD Team is part of a the steering group for Scottish Government’s Technologies for Learning Strategy. This aims to further the use of technology in learning and assessment for the benefit of Scotland’s learners and Scotland’s economic growth.
Part of the exercise is to find out more about how technologies are already being used for teaching and learning. You can help by completing a quick and easy, anonymous survey. Your views and opinions will help develop the strategy.
Please select the link below and remember to complete it by 27 April 2011
Welcome to this rather belated edition of our newsletter. It was due in February but we decided to hold back until the Network meeting last week in order to give you a report from that important meeting.
As always what follows are the highlights of our team and network activity. Please get in touch if you have interesting things to share or if you want to know more about any of the areas of our work.
Learning Rounds
Schools and local authorities continue to sign up for Learning Rounds. As well as accessing the Learning Rounds Toolkit (http://bit.ly/eWbIy6), team members have also been responding to invitations to visit a range of schools to talk through the potential of the model.
The Learning Rounds online community(http://bit.ly/iaNq3L)is now active! We are keen to make this as inter-active as possible to secure a robust community. Whether you are an old hand or new to the approach you will be an invaluable contributor so please sign up!
The inter-agency potential of the model has been progressed following the very successful event in January which was attended by over 40 colleagues from a range of disciplines. The report of the seminar will be posted shortly on theLR community and the CPD team blog (http://ltsblogs.org.uk/cpdteam/).
Distributive Leadership in an Inter-agency context
The team is trialing a model in collaboration with Kersland Special school and its partners. The vehicle of Learning Rounds is going to be used to provide a focus and means for inter-agency working.
Chartered Teachers
In addition to the PRD workshop and learning conversation at the annual ACTS conference in February, the team also met with the East Ayrshire Chartered Teachers Network to reflect on the CPD requirements linked to the expectations in the Standard and the Donaldson Review.
CfE Leadership events
At the Aberdeen event, the team was very interested to hear of the range of challenges and opportunities identified by colleagues and the emphasis being placed on the merits of collaborative CPD and the “reservoir” of knowledge and experience which exists within schools. It was also recognised that the orchestrated access was the most beneficial, e.g. learning rounds; peer collaboration and observation; colleague led workshops; shared planning on inter-discipinary initiatives.
CPDCentral
This ‘hub’ community on Glow is growing in size (nearly 300 members currently and over 5 times as many regular visitors). Our aim is to have every educator in Scotland introduce themselves and share practice. “Plan for perfection” as John Seddon said at the 2010 Summer School!
To help achieve this we are adding new, collegiate features as resources allow. One of the emerging success stories is the I-intend feature. This allows CPDCentral members to publicly declare what they are going to change, or innovate in, their practice. In the true spirit of collegiality, other CPDCentral colleagues can ‘chip in’ and help. Add to that the requirement for a target date and the use of simple email reminders when the date approaches; it’s been encouraging how many people hit their targets!
If you are not yet a member of CPDCentral, I-intend is one of several useful CPD tools you are missing out on so join now (http://bit.ly/cpdjoin). If you want to know how you can add tailored CPDCentral tools to your CPD programmes or events, talk to Con (c.morris@ltscotland.org.uk)
Probationer support community?
At the recent CPDNet event (see separate news items) there was a suggestion that we should use Glow more to support probationers, their supporters and coordinators. If anyone is interested in sharing that particular workload, please drop Con a line at c.morris@ltscotland.org.uk
CPDStepin
The community for temporary, supply and under-employed colleagues continues to grow. Anne McGhee, the facilitator for the community, has developed a range of CPD opportunities and support measures (including mentors). If you want to know more, email Anne at stepin@ltscotland.org.uk
Technologies for Learning strategy
Con Morris of the CPD Team is a member of the Scottish Goverment’s steering group on Technologies for Learning. The group is halfway through its work and intends to report by Summer 2011. You can find out more about #tforl (as it is known in the hashtag world!) on the dedicated blog. If you have any comments, you can add them directly to the blog or send them to Con.
CPDMeets
If you haven’t heard much about the CPDMeet programme recently don’t worry- normal service will resume now that we have the new Glowmeet system in place. We’re looking forward to working on the new system which will hopefully be a bit easier to use than the last one. So first up will be George Smuga, on Monday 21st March at 4pm (http://bit.ly/cpdmeet27), talking about BYC for senior stages, and on April 27th (4pm again) we’re going musical with a guitar tutorial from Hugh Smith of UWS. Hugh is looking at how primary teachers can use the guitar in class and this will involve some instruction as well. Useful for primary and student teachers, and anyone who wants to get strumming! More information to follow – watch out for the links on CPDCentral. If you would like to share an aspect of your practice or something that you’re really interested in, why not think about leading a CPDMeet? Contact Catriona at catriona.oates@cosla.gov.uk to arrange.
CPDLead
CPDLead (http://bit.ly/cpdlead) has had a bit of a makeover recently and now features a treasure trove of ideas to help CPDLeaders and school CPD co-ordinators in developing their in-house CPD programmes.
If you are a CPDLeader at any level please make sure you’ve signed up to take advantage of what’s there. The next step for this community will be for its members to share what they are doing in leading CPD and using the DIYCPD Guides, so if you’d like to find out what’s going on elsewhere, or share more widely what you’re doing yourself in your CPD programmes, keep an eye out for developments in CPDLead.
PRD Initiative
“At the outset of any CPD activity, the intended impact on young people, and the aspects of the relevant professional standard the teacher will improve as a result of the activity, should be clear. Subsequent PRD discussions should review progress with previous intentions. This process should be captured in a continuing online profile of professional development” Teaching Scotland’s Future: Recommendation 37
Those authorities that sent out the Survey Monkey questionnaire to their schools have now had their individual feedback based on a detailed analysis of their results. It’s interesting that different authorities seem to have different strengths and, not surprisingly, individual schools have differing levels of commitment to the PRD process. What is not surprising is that all the positive features tend to be positively correlated: a commitment to high quality PRD that staff value occurs in schools that are well led, where leadership is distributed, where relationships are good, where collegiate working is strong and where the ethos is encouraging and nurturing for pupils and staff.
We are still looking to identify more examples of interesting practice in PRD and how it links to teachers’ CPD plans. We are particularly interested in approaches to assessing the impact of PRD / CPD on teachers’ professional practice and pupils’ classroom experiences. Please get in touch if you can point us to schools or individuals we should be talking to: Bob.cook@cosla.gov.ukcatriona.oates@cosla.gov.uk
CPD Nework Conference, 9-10 March 2011: Donaldson and Us – To Boldly Go…..
The two day conference at Stirling Management Centre was attended by 53 colleagues from universities, Scottish Government and local authority CPD Managers.
The theme for the two days was to look in depth at the report Teaching Scotland’s Future(http://bit.ly/hNidmj) to reflect on the recommendations that affect schools and authorities and to consider their implications with a view to identifying what is already in place and our next steps in overtaking those recommendations.
Day one comprised of workshops on the four big themes of building leadership capacity, partnership working, coaching and mentoring and impact. Colleagues presented 5 minute ‘thought pieces’; reflecting on what the report meant for them and highlighting the main implications.
On day two, Graeme Logan HMIE, a member of the Donaldson working group gave an excellent presentation, reiterating the fundamental principles of the review and outlining the way ahead. An open and probing discussion followed, which set groups up well for further discussion.
The end product, which will be shared with Scottish Government, Teachers’ Division, GTCS and those planning the successor organisation to LTS and HMIe, was a set of priorities for action: this is not an extensive list, but it sets a large and very challenging agenda for us all.
Gillian Hunt lead an engaging session on collaborative problem –solving in the afternoon, which also resulted in a set of actions related to the network for people to champion. Further details will be distributed to the participants of the two day meeting.
The Parliamentary committee which has been looking at local authority funding of education and children’s services, and the future of schools management in Scotland reported earlier this week.
A large number of organisations and individuals gave evidence to the committee on issues such as the future structure of state school education, arguments for and against change, future issues and models of governance, the number and role of local authorities, collaboration and shared services, school autonomy, leadership and devolved school management, and many other related issues.
The Committee expressed a hope that this report will form a useful starting point for debate. Although it does not offer a complete vision for the way ahead, it has set out a number of key principles on which there appears to be broad consensus. The Committees hopes that these key principles will guide those responsible for decisions on the future of education and children’s services and on their funding.
in 1978, I became part of the exciting educational innovation that was Wester Hailes Education Centre. Along with many other colleagues, I committed myself to the concept of community schooling as a way to redress social and economic injustice. We were young, passionate and bursting with ideas and energy.
One of my new colleagues was Ian Smith, and from our first meeting he prompted me to think in new ways about education, learning and the responsibility of teachers to change society. For me he was a key thinker who had a huge impact on my thinking, and of course, he was great fun to work with.
We parted company as colleagues after just a few short years, and he went on to influence a much wider range of people, and to have a much greater impact on ideas of learning and teaching than had been possible as a class teacher.
At various points, we reconnected. His unrelenting focus on good learning and what it looked liked, was a touchstone for many of us who continued to work in schools in areas of poverty. He was always generous with his knowledge, skills and friendship.
I met Ian last year at an event in Orkney and he was still firing on all cylinders – his passion for learning undimmed. Being with him, talking to him, reminded me – as ever – of the essential importance of education and teachers. I will miss his energy, insights, learning and essential humanity.
On behalf of the CPD Team I extend our deepest sympathy to Ian’s family and colleagues.
The IER was an exploration of education system reform, and an opportunity to share challenges faced, solutions tried and lessons learnt among school systems. Ministers considered how good systems could become great.
Lots of interesting reflections in relation to ICT as a transformational force for education, assessment systems that match required outcomes, and the “enormous” challenge for teaching and leadership. It suggests great school systems will need to:
recruit top talent into teaching and school leadership (no room for complacency!)
support and manage our teachers and leaders to be successful
establish a normative model of teaching practice and embed it in daily practice and in professional development
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