CPD Team

This recently published report into the English system is of interest as Graham Donladson begins his review into the training of teachers in Scotland.

It is a hefty piece of work;  it reaches a number of interesting conclusions, and makes some pretty radical  recommendations. For example, in terms of CPD, it finds that there is not a strong enough culture of professional development among teachers, and that “the licence to practice” requires a generous and guaranteed entitlement to professional development. The report calls for ring-fencing of minimum levels of spending on CPD by schools, ‘at earliest opportunity’ and describes the need to attend to the ‘neglected needs of supply teachers’.

Read the full report here

I came across a very interesting article in the Harvard Education Letter (Vol 26, no 1) by Richard F Elmore, an old friend of the National CPD Team and indeed of Scottish education.

He reflects on school reform over the last 25 years, by considering how the work he has undertaken has changed his thinking and his habits of mind, and how he has been influenced by others.

He comes to three significant conclusions:

1. He used to think that policy was the solution. And now he thinks that policy is the problem. He describes the American system as “overwhelmed with policy, conditioned to respond to the immediate demands of whoever controls the political agenda, and not invested in the long-tern health of the sector and the people who work in it.” He believes the answer lies in building a stronger profession by “direct engagement with practitioners, rather than trying to “fix” schools with policy”.
2. He used to think that people’s beliefs determined their practice. Now he thinks that people’s practices determine their beliefs. He used to believe that improvements in student learning would come from changing teacher attitudes about what children can learn in order that they change their practice. He now believes that what people believe does not greatly influence the way they behave. Rather the largest determinant of of how people’s current practice is their past practice. He says “people demonstrate an amazingly resilient capacity to relabel their existing practices with whatever ideas are currently in vogue.” Elmore now cares more about what people do, and their willingness to engage in deeply unfamiliar practices.
3. He used to think that public institutions embody the collective values of society. He now thinks that they embody the interests of the people who work in them. He says that the phrase “We’re in it for the kids,” is a monument to self-deception. He believes that the public school system is among the most self-interested institutions in America, staffed by people who are not unusually corrupt, immoral or venal, but simply acting according to their interests. He claims that the greatest leaders of social transformation – Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela  – “led by providing an opportunity for people to bring their voices and actions to a common endeavor – not by confusing their own interests with those of the people they hoped to help.”

Would love to hear comments on this – or indeed what did you use to think . . . but now think. . . ?

This is a guest post from Catriona Oates of Scottish Cilt

Tuesday 3^rd November

Big excitement! Last night I participated in my first flashmeeting – an online meeting, organized by teachers who wanted to share their experiences of teaching Modern Languages; in particular this time, their experiences at the London Languages Show. The time and the agenda were set by the participants in advance, agreed, it seemed at their previous online get together.  So – what exactly is a flashmeeting?  Essentially, it is a video conference, which starts out as a blank sheet of paper. Contributions, ideas and agenda items are added by the people who want to be there, to hear what their colleagues have to say and to share something themselves. A maximum of 25 people can participate and a waiting list is organized in case of cancellation.  That’s how highly valued these places are:  and remember, it took place between 8.30pm -10.30pm on what seemed to be the first day back after mid- term, AND they’d all spent the weekend at the London Languages Show. Who says teachers aren’t committed!  Within the lucky 25, we were joined by colleague Steve Collis from Sydney Australia and Doug McAllister from Missouri, USA.

There was huge enthusiasm for the Languages Show at which many of the participants had presented, in particular for the sessions Chris Harte and Lisa Stevens presented. The Show and Tell session organized by Joe Dale was also a highlight for many.  Several  of the participants commented on how this Languages Show had been the best one so far, on account of the social networking ( mostly via Twitter) that was going on – an interesting comment as exactly the same was said about Scottish Learning Festival this year and I found this to be the case myself.

The agenda was as follows:

1. What were your impressions of The Language Show and or The London Show and Tell event?
2. What do YOU want to get out of the **MFL Show and Tell 09** in Coventry in 2 weeks time?
3. How do you use your VLE and what sort of resources do you have on it?
4. How are you implemeting the new KS3 curriculum and what effect is it having on engagement and KS4 uptake?
5. Do you have a local SLN and how has it helped with the introduction of the New Framework?
6. What practical advice would you give to a languages teacher needing to record their GCSE speaking tests for the first time as mp3 files not on cassette?
7. What’s all this I hear about Storybird?

The meeting functioned much along the lines of a Glowmeet, with the bonus of being open to anyone. There were chat functions, voting functions and a good web sharing function that I didn’t get the hang of. There was lots of really good chat going on and when I asked people what they thought would be a good focus for a possible Scottish Languages Show, Creativity; Thinking Skills, Active Learning and Cross-Curricular approaches were some of the suggestions that came back. Sounds like a good start (We’re working on it – no promises!).

 The Languages Show is obviously a very big part of these teachers’ professional development, as are the follow through activities they plan around it, like last night.  Some very interesting comments were made around the subject of CPD. Several teachers said that they had learned more about teaching in the couple of years since joining twitter than they had in ten of twelve years teaching, on account of the professional exchange and sharing that goes on there. I could say the same but for me the proportions would be a couple of months to seventeen years!

No CPD certificates were issued as a result of attendance last night, and there was a queue to get in. When you consider the number of courses that get cancelled due to poor numbers, for whatever reason, this raises interesting questions.  With budgets, curriculum and many other things changing all around us, we need to be ready for changes in our approaches to CPD. This is teacher –driven and teacher owned CPD. There is a place for national CPD providers within this context, but not quite sure of what it might be at the moment. One thing is for sure: we don’t want to find ourselves on the margins looking in and admiring what is going on!

Don’t just take my work for it, here are some other blogposts written just after the event:

http://simonjhowells.blogspot.com/

http://dmac1.edublogs.org/2009/11/02/my-first-mfl-flashmeeting/

http://domsmflpage.blogspot.com/

I joined 1799 others last week to take part in the biggest leadership conference in the world. It felt a wee bit like the Scottish Learning Festival with presentations, workshops, exhibitors’ village, etc.

 I particularly enjoyed Sandra Stein of the New York City Leadership Academy which has a very successful “principal” development programme that includes problem-based real-life simulations, Richard Olivier, son of Laurence, who deconstructed the lack of ethical leadership displayed by Macbeth, Mick Watters formerly of the Qualifications and Curriculum authority in England, who I remember seeing at the Dundee/Angus leadership conference a couple of years ago and Steve Munby who is the CE of NCSL (and who will be coming up to the Summer school).

Lots more information, video links (check out the overview of Day 3 for some great speakers) and resources on the website.

A group of Scottish educators are on an international study visit to Hong Kong. You can keep up to date with their experiences on the Andrea Reid’s blog at http://scipdhongkongvisit2009.wordpress.com/. Highlight for me so far is the news that in Hong Kong the best teachers have their names plastered on the back of buses!

Latest News

All local authorities have been invited to nominate two delegates for this year’s Summer School in Edinburgh. Invitations have also gone out to teacher associations, universities, etc.

The closing date for nominations was last week, so if you haven’t heard and know just the very person, let your Director/Head of Service know. Unclaimed places will be allocated to someone on our very long waiting list!

Check out the programme at the Summer School website

We are in the process of planning the 3rd of the series of Summer Schools on Leadership. If you need a flavour of these events, you can get a wealth of information on the previous 2 events on the Summer School site or you can see posts from last year’s events on this blog.

This year’s theme is “Creativity and Innovation in School Leadership: releasing the potential of A Curriculum for Excellence’. We are on the lookout for innovative and creative leaders who can take an active role in this event. If you have any thoughts please comment below, send us an email cpdanswers@ltscotland.org.uk or Twitter Margaret

I am in Stockholm with Simon Macaulay of the EIS and Tom Hamilton of GTCS. We are taking part in a seminar with Lärarförbundet, the largest educational trade union in Sweden. If you are visiting the blog from Sweden, do please leave us a comment! Tack så mycket!

These are Simon’s slides… Read more…