This week Jim Keegans will be attending an international conference with colleagues from the University of Glasgow. A team from the Universities of Glasgow and Cambridge have completed an evaluation of Flexible Route to achieving the Standard for Headship (FRH) and will present in Sweden a research paper on integral features of the FRH programme including the impact of coaching. As FRH project manager, Jim has represented the National CPD Team on the national priority of providing choice and flexibility through an alternative route to the Scottish Qualification for Headship (SQH). The conference coincides with the next phase of FRH with a programme launch planned for participating authorities on 30th - 31st October in Stirling.

Jim Keegans

Categories: thought leaders

Professor Richard Teese, Director of the Centre for Postcompulsory Education and Lifelong Learning (CPELL), Melbourne Graduate School of Education, will visit Scotland and be a guest of the National CPD Team during September.   On Monday 22nd he will make a presentation to staff of Midlothian Council on issues related to priorities at Authority level and with reference to the recent OECD Report for which he was a co-author.  On Tuesday 23rd he will present at the national CPD Coordinators meeting in Edinburgh again with a focus on the main themes emerging from the OECD Report and its implications for CPD.  The National CPD Team continue to promote this involvement of international thought leaders and welcome the opportunity to engage in discussion and share experiences with such a major figure internationally in education.

Categories: thought leaders

I represented the CPD Team at the BERA annual conference on Saturday at Heriot Watt University.

The keynote was delivered by Professor Ken Eichner, Professor of Teacher Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the U.S.

Ken spoke eloquently on how we need to rethink educational research to remove the divide between practitioners and academics. An early remark questioned the wisdom of having separate ‘practitioner days’ at conferences such as these was greeted by a few cries of ‘hear, hear!”

He propounded a ‘3rd space’ theory that links the 1st space of practice-based knowledge creation and the 2nd space of a largely academic route.

He used a number of examples of ‘boundary crossings’ to illustrate this third space:

• ITE students drawing on practitioner research. See the Carnegie Foundation on how teacher educators use these web sites to educate teachers
• Hybrid educators who work in both schools and universities
• Mediated field experiences where academics / teachers learn from each other (similar to professional learning rounds work being led by Graham Thomson here in Scotland?)
• Professors teaching children and documenting it for teacher education
• ‘professional development schools’ that are part of faculties within US universities

Some of the issues highlighted by Professor Zeichner:

• Teacher action research is still largely ignored by academic world
• We should consider changing the funding model (currently based on the amount of published research) to include post-research and ongoing dialogue
• Presentations and publications should be defined by topic not by the source of the research.

Categories: 1

Conference was privileged to hear the last public speaking engagement of Matt MacIver as Chief Executive/Registrar of the General Teaching Council Scotland.

Matt talked warmly of his professional contact with Judith McClure over the years, including their respective early roles in developing leadership in Scotland. Among the challenges highlighted by Matt were:

- Succession planning for head teachers and other leaders

- Changing the view held by some that Chartered Teacher is simply a career progression

- If we are going down the route of professional standards, why is there no standard for leadership?

- Revision of the Standard for Headship to meet the new leadership challenges

- Developing effective CPD for heads that encourages development of leadership skills

He spoke warmly of the leaders that influenced him from his early days as a young teacher in Kilmarnock through to his current position. Matt’s penultimate (and passionate) plea was for conference to go out and ‘talk up’ the noble profession of teaching.

Finally, Matt was fulsome in his praise of leaders as represented by SELMAS conference delegates, ““extraordinary people doing an extraordinary job!”

Categories: SELMAS

From Matthew MacIver on the profession

“We must talk up the profession because it is the most noble job in the free world”

Categories: SELMAS

This post is kindly proferred by Derek Allan, Depute at Glenrothes High School.

Tim Brighouse got proceedings underway after lunch with his eloquent and funny discourse on how we educate without unnecessary failure. After reminding us of the economic, moral and cultural purposes of education he delighted conference with a series of anecdotes that packed a heavy punch:

• Watching a teacher’s reactions when he asked kids “which teacher is the best marker?” and seeing her delight when one pupil named her!
• Visiting the maverick head teacher in London whose school was decorated with hundreds of favourite quotes from staff and pupils. The head teacher achieved this by paying “a quid for a quote”. It cost him over £1700 but worth every penny!
• Tim recited the Buscemi poem “The average child” to considerable effect
• He recounted a visit to a school senior management team in a small, cramped office who pleaded to him for more accommodation. His return visit after granting the request saw the team still in the same office and the extra accommodation used for learning!

He returned several times to the concept of “butterflies”, i.e. small interventions that make such a big difference, The ‘quid for a quote’ is an example of a butterfly as was his description of staff in one school who agreed four words to consistently use in lessons to remove barriers to learning. Many of these interventions can be found in Tim’s work online at www.timbrighouse.com.
You can get the gist of Tim’s presentation from the slides below. He ended by reciting from George Bernard Shaw:

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations”

Categories: SELMAS
Tags: Brighouse, education, failure

Tim Brighouse on head teachers who are visible in the school

“They sit on the wall not on the fence”

Categories: SELMAS

Tim Brighouse made reference to 15 essential skills of leadership. These can be downloaded with other useful resources at www.timbrighouse.com.

Categories: SELMAS

Tim Brighouse recited Mike Buscemi’s poem which was first presented at the 1979 National PTA Convention in the US.

An average child

I don’t cause teachers trouble,

My grades have been O.K.

I listen to my classes.

I’m in school every day.

My parents think I’m average,

My teachers think so, too.

I wish I didn’t know that

’Cause there’s lots I’d like to do.

I’d like to build a rocket,

I’ve a book that shows you how;

Or start a stamp collection –

Well, no use starting now.

’Cause since I found I’m average

I’m just smart enough to see,

To know there’s nothing special

That I should expect of me.

I’m part of that majority,

That hump part of the bell,

Who spends his life unnoticed

In an average kind of hell.

Categories: SELMAS

From Graham Thomson’s group

“Head teachers need to look after themselves as well as colleagues!”

Categories: SELMAS