Reclaiming Pedagogy On Saturday 7th June, 16 teachers from Belmont Community School travelled down to Leeds for the inaugural Northern Rocks Education Conference at Leeds Metropolitan University. Of the 500 delegates who attended the day, I’m fairly confident this represented the largest attendance by a single school. A fantastic testament to our teachers’ passion for education and desire to develop their practice further. L-R: Daniel Narcross, Chris Jones, Michael Caygill, Amanda Telfer, Veronica Waldie, Jon Boniface, Suzanne Falconer, Lee Ferris, Louise Hindmarch, Dan Brinton, Laura Jackson, Julie Ryder, Nicola Roberts, Jane Cooper (not pictured Ste Hall, Andrew Hall) Following the initial panel discussion, we moved off into the various different workshops we had chosen. If we could redesign teacher development from the ground up, what would it look like? Workshop 1: If we could redesign teacher development from the ground up, what would it look like? Workshop 2: What do great teachers do? Key messages
CPD and the Second Law of Thermodynamics ‘Time is the school in which we learn, / Time is the fire in which we burn.’ Delmore Schwartz CPD and the Second Law of Thermodynamics Thermodynamics is the study of heat and energy. Its laws describe how energy moves around within a system. Schools are complex systems, with interacting or interdependent components that come together to form an integrated whole. Professional Capital We want an environment where teachers and classroom support staff think about, discuss and reflect on student learning in an informed way. For teachers like Masie, there are a number of different ways to arrive at a better understanding of ‘what works’. Our Professional Growth model thus combines the best of what already exists within the building with the latest impetus and thinking from elsewhere, albeit largely distilled research at this stage. Professional Growth Wednesdays Professional Development that is structured into blocks does not really work. Teacher Coaches and Lead Learners Working Minds Like this:
DIY Teaching CPD How we teach is a complex mix of our values, context and emotions. It is deeply influenced by our knowledge, understanding and beliefs about pedagogy, our subject and what is of value to learn. No two teachers are likely to be the same. Front Cover of the New Improving Teaching Resource: What’s Your Next Step I’m deeply passionate about the education of both young people and teachers. Paradigm Stick & Shift I’ve spent part of the summer writing a resource for a voluntary professional development programme I will be leading across the trust’s academies. Last year’s professional development programme was genuinely collaborative and collegiate but the language was inspectorial. The original table that I used as a route map for last year’s journey is below. I’ve since revised the table but retained some of the original structure and ideas. Tighten the learning gains, Pre-plan challenging assessments, Refine the Pedagogy – Focus on the Learner Microcosm of the Classroom The Programme Like this:
CPRd This blog has languished in my draft-posts for a year; you’ll see this from the date references! The main reason I didn’t publish over a year ago was simply because I didn’t want to wade into what was, at the time, an extremely highly charged debate about the place of research, evidence, and practice in education. My additional reasons for not publishing until now will, possibly, be covered in another post on another day. Anyway, a year has come around and although the charge and passion of the debate is still high, it has, perhaps calmed and softened somewhat. l have spent the morning watching the second National ResearchED 2014 Conference online thanks to the wonderful technical expertise of Leon Cynch @eyebeams through the LIVESTREAM feed. I haven’t edited any part of it, and my only addition to it is the inclusion of a presentation by an inspirational education consultant, Dr Julia Atkin (@Juliaatkin) South Australia who I came across a few months ago. CPD: Thinking ‘as’ research
Opening The Door On Our 'Craft Knowledge' My last post of the school year is a resolution for the school year ahead. There is no special philosophy, research or expensive equipment required. It is a simple focus on ‘opening the door’ more in the coming year. It is about sharing. I am excited at the prospect of becoming a ‘Teacher Coach‘ in the coming year. Thank you to David Weston for guiding me to this chart, and for greatly influencing this post. This ‘opening of the door’ has the attendant benefit of being great for my teaching and learning because I most acutely learn about my craft when I observe other teachers, whether it be interview lessons, student teachers, or my experienced colleagues. Teaching is a very emotional business and it is often quite an isolated one. “More often, we educators become one another’s adversaries in a more subtle way—by withholding. In the current climate of ‘payment related performance’ there is the corrosive potential for competition trumping collaboration between teachers. Like this:
Becoming A Better Teacher: Teachers Doing It For Themselves “Every teacher needs to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better.” Dylan Wiliam Every teacher wants to get better. I use Dylan Wiliam’s quotation over and over unashamedly because I think it strikes a truth that all teachers and school leaders must embrace. I used it to begin my #TMClevedon seminar on ‘becoming a better teacher‘. Of course, many teachers are not improving. After the whirlwind of feedback and the perilously steep learning curves of our first two years as teachers the impact of experience dulls. The Problem with Continuous Professional Development As the line goes, no man is an island. Like waiting for some course that will deliver pedagogical manna from heaven, we too often look in the wrong place for answers. We must identify the vital core aspects of our pedagogy that will have the greatest impact for our learners. The Answer: ‘Deliberate Practice’ So what is it? What are the Barriers to Improvement? Reflect to Improve Like this:
A bottom-up approach to CPD is ‘best’ Imparting knowledge of teaching is not always best done from the “top,” explains Andrea McMahon. After attending his first Learning Lunch in the newly-established Centre for Excellence in Teaching (CET) at Newham College, maths lecturer Anwar Faruqh summarised his experience, saying: “What an excellent idea – it’s like having our own Institute for Learning on our doorstep”. His enthusiasm is exactly the sentiment that those involved in centre hope will gather momentum and inspire other teachers in the college to take ownership of their professional development. Engaging in activity whose primary purpose is to develop professional practice is the bedrock of expert teaching and training. The recently updated Teaching Standards capture this clearly as demonstrated through the three domains: professional values and attributes, professional knowledge and understanding, and professional skills. Professional development is most effective when a bottom-up approach is favoured over a top-down one.
'The Butterfly Effect' in Schools ‘The Book of Life’ by David Kracov (see here: “If a single flap of a butterfly’s wing can be instrumental in generating a tornado, so can all the previous and subsequent flaps of its wings, as can the flaps of the wings of millions of other butterflies, not to mention the activities of innumerable more powerful creatures, including our own species.”Edward Lorenz, ‘Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wing in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?’ The genius concept of ‘the butterfly effect’ has long since flourished in popular culture since Professor Lorenz, of MIT, founded this central tenet of chaos theory. It was the butterfly image which united two brilliant ideas for improving schools, alongside teaching and learning, from two heavyweights of education: Ron Berger and Sir Tim Brighouse. Of course, to take the metaphor further a little, such ‘butterflies‘ need the right conditions to thrive. Like this:
Dylan Wiliam: 'Every Teacher Can Improve' I watched a short video of Dylan Wiliam giving a talk to teachers yesterday through Zoe Elder’s blog – see here. I thought the short extract was so good and such a positive way to begin the new year, and the new school term, that I transcribed it in full here: “I think the only way that we can improve teacher quality is to create a culture of continuous improvement. That is given lip service in many districts, but nobody is really facing up to what it really means in practice. You see, I think that every teacher needs to get better. In many districts they target help at the teachers who “need support”, who need help, who are having difficulties. Every teacher fails on a daily basis. Many of you will walk out of this room absolutely convinced I said stuff I know I didn’t say. Our daily experience as a teacher is a failure. This is something you are never going to have to worry about. Thanks to Zoe for finding the video. Like this: Like Loading...
TeachMeets and the Super Heroes of Education This is a guest post written by Jon Tait @TeamTait It’s half past 3, you’ve taught for a full day, worked through your lunch and now you are trying to get yourself re-focused on Powerpoint slide number 64 that someone is reading off during what is tentatively called Continuing Professional Development. The word ‘Continuing’ can be loosely attached to the session due to the fact it feels like it’s going on forever, but the words ‘Professional’ and ‘Development’ are merely a fictional twist, buzz words and a dream of what it ought to be. There is however, another way…… Sharing good and outstanding practice, by the very nature of it, is best delivered by highly skilled current practitioners. These teachers are the ones who still teach 20 odd lessons per week, parents evenings, write reports, mark books and still have the enthusiasm and energy to teach ‘knock out’ lessons to the children in their care every day. The TeachMeet has brought out the Super Heroes within us.
Teachers taking responsibility for their own CPD November has been an interesting month for me. As a company we have attended, hosted and sponsored over 25 events. These events ranged from schools voluntarily hosting events about IRIS Connect to share best practice, to large national events. Amongst these was one of the most exciting and energising I have been to for a very long time - #SLTCamp. Held in a Youth Hostel deep in the Surrey countryside, a group of teachers met to discuss, debate and collaborate, at what the organisers described as an ‘unconference’ with the agenda and topics driven by the group itself. Why was I so excited by this ‘happening’? “(traditional models of CPD) ... often focus purely on knowledge transfer and neglect the fact that teachers already gained specific experience and knowledge in teaching and training and that should be taken up and developed further” The second was an article by Tim Brighouse (he always manages to express complex ideas in a deceptively easy manner). So, will SLTCamp be a one off?
Communities of practice contents: introduction · communities of practice · legitimate peripheral participation and situated learning · learning organizations and learning communities · conclusion · references · links · how to cite this article Many of the ways we have of talking about learning and education are based on the assumption that learning is something that individuals do. Furthermore, we often assume that learning ‘has a beginning and an end; that it is best separated from the rest of our activities; and that it is the result of teaching’ (Wenger 1998: 3). But how would things look if we took a different track? Supposing learning is social and comes largely from of our experience of participating in daily life? Jean Lave was (and is) a social anthropologist with a strong interest in social theory, based at the University of California, Berkeley. Communities of practice In some groups we are core members, in others we are more at the margins. The characteristics of communities of practice References