CPD Team

Thanks to a wee prompt from Fearghal Kelly (CfE support officer in East Lothian), I picked up on this research study of one Science department in a school in Australia.

“Our analysis reveals three important findings:

• the negligible impact of school policy on the work of the teachers
• the willingness of teachers to utilize appropriate expertise, regardless of the source of that expertise
• and the manner in which these teachers have developed a community in which teaching practices, both individual and corporate, can be discussed and critiqued.

The clear implication of these findings is that it is teachers, working within the department and wider science education community, who were making the conceptual change from professional development to professional learning.”

This research is also featured in the most recent research round-up from LTScotland, which this month also includes CPD-related research into CPD in ICT for educators in England and an evaluation of the Chartered Teacher Pilot in Wales.

Hint: Click on any slide to get a wee magnifying glass for zooming!

Many of you have been in touch following the recent articles in TESS and in Teaching Scotland about the Learning Rounds. It felt like a good time to give you a bit of an update on what’s happening.

Why all the interest in Learning Rounds?

Because it makes a difference.

In a range of schools and in a number of authorities, Learning Rounds has delivered high quality, sustainable improvements in the learning experiences of pupils. It has helped develop collegial practice and a positive ethos.  

Because it’s affordable

Learning Rounds does not require the services of visiting experts. It builds on the learning and experiences of the establishment staff. Teachers learn from teachers, and learning is shared and collegiate. Costs lie in releasing teachers from their classrooms to observe colleagues. Enthusiastic school leaders have found different ways to achieve this.

Because it’s sustainable

Learning Rounds is not an event, but a process that can become embedded in practice. In one school it is now the starting point for the school  improvement plan; in one authority headteachers are being encouraged to use Learning Rounds to develop the quality of provision; a third authority is promoting it as a tool for faculty heads to support their teams

•  North Ayrshire, where the focus has been on learning at headteacher and officer level across schools,
• West Lothian which has taken the learning across clusters as the theme,
• Angus where the Learning Rounds team has been composed of Faculty Leaders and Principal Teachers across the secondary sector
• Dumfries and Galloway where we have been looking at Learning Rounds in the context of candidates on the Flexible Routes to Headship.

In addition, the team has been supporting Learning Rounds in South Ayrshire, in Scottish Borders and in Edinburgh (including work in the special school sector). We have made presentations about our work at headteacher meetings in a number of other authorities, most recently in Perth and Kinross.

In our team plan, we have  identified four tasks remaining to us. We will:

• complete the pilot programmes
• reflect on, evaluate, and share our experience of Learning Rounds to date
• we will continue to explore Learning Rounds, particularly in an inter-agency context
• we will produce and publish a “How to do Learning Rounds Self Help Guide” by the summer.

The GTCS magazine has a great article about learning rounds in its latest edition. It includes a range of quotes from headteachers, local authority people and many others. For example, Gary Johnstone of North Ayrshire Council says that “Learning Rounds, importantly, exemplifies the power of learning together; within, across and beyond schools and with staff at all levels working alongside each other.” and Tom Hamilton of the GTCS adds “the SFR requires that registered teachers take responsibility for their professional learning and development through working collegially with fellow teachers on continuing professional development and it is really positive to have this aspect of professionalism so well exemplified through the Learning Rounds model.”

You can read the full article here http://tinyurl.com/yjzv8mu

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. . . ?

Graham Thomson and I were delighted to do a presentation and lead a discussion on this theme at the recent Practitioner Research event at St Georges in Edinburgh.  Linda Blencowe who is the Research and Development Fellow at the school arranges these early evening events on a regular basis, and it was good to see so many colleagues coming along after school to talk about learning and teaching. You can contact Linda at lab@st-georges.edin.sch.uk to find out more about this excellent example of teachers teaching teachers.

The photo shows Graham and I with the headmistress Helen Mackie.

I have just had a smashing (not to say privileged) few days visiting the CPD festivals in Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Orkney Islands Council and Highlands Council.

One striking feature of all 3 events was the decreasing reliance on external CPD providers and the increase in local, practitioner-led CPD. For much of the time, I was ‘manning’ a table with a rolling display and sets of the eminently collectable CPD postcards but I also managed to fit in some visits to keynotes and seminars. I had a number of rewarding conversations as a result. Here are just some of them:

• with a number of supply teachers including Lorena (see la historia de Lorena)
• with Margaret Alcorn and Ian Smith (the latter of Learning Unlimited) on the links between professional learning communities and Learning Rounds
• with Carol McManus of Orkney Islands Council on how CPDFind can be improved to support local authority CPD
• with Neil Stewart of the Glow team on how we can make more use of CPDFind to raise awareness of the growing amount of CPD using and on Glow
• with Morag MacDonald of Storlann and how tools such as Glow and CPDFind can support their valuable work in Gaelic education
• with Eddie Broadley (area adviser at LTScotland) on how CPDReflect might be used to support development of curriculum maps
• with senior Highland Council colleagues on how CPDReflect might be used to exemplify their Learning Teaching and Assessment Policy

Many thanks to all for their warm welcomes and particularly to Donald MacLeod, Carol McManus and Terry Kerr of the CPD Network.

Selmas Conference 2009

The Impact of Change

11th September 2009

Once again education leaders from all over Scotland gathered in Stirling for the annual Selmas conference.

As in previous years conference was addressed by the Cabinet Secretary. Fiona Hyslop MSP who spoke of the increase in spending on education by the current administration, and the somewhat disappointing decline in the rate of improvement within the system. She invited school leaders to develop a culture that is genuinely aspirational, and that is built on a commitment to innovation and change. Curriculum for Excellence offers us all the opportunity to engage pupils in learning that has breadth and depth and that raises standards for everyone. She spoke of her optimism for the changes and of  her view that schools were now engaged in working on the CfE agenda for change.

Margaret Alcorn followed with a brief input on the need for an aligned system, with confident and cheerful leaders all focused on the “main thing”. She spoke of the need to continue to consider the values and principles of CfE.

We then heard from a panel of 5 educational leaders. David Cameron spoke of the challenge for local authorities to provide consistency and cohesion; Christine Forde spoke of developing leadership to make an impact in the classroom; Neal McGowan asked whether we had the right climate for leadership within Scotland, and suggested too many headteachers were compliant and lacked freedom to act creatively; Alex Wood summarised some of his learning from the International Summer School and Jenny Campbell suggested that some heads were overly involved in the detail, perhaps because this was a comfort zone, and that it was important to develop a high performance mindset. The delegates then engaged in a lively discussion on the points raised by the panel.

After lunch, we watched the “My big idea for Scottish education” DVD, then listened to a description of Learning Rounds from Graham Thomson. The headteacherof Irvive Royal, Stirling Mackie, and a teacher of technical, Alan Hume, from the school then described their experience of Learning Rounds in a school setting.

We finished the day with Karen Prophet of Edinburgh who spoke about models for change in the context of Curriculum for Excellence. She said that in order to interpret the complexity of curricular reform, we require leaders not managers, and returned to one of the recurring themes that had characterised the day, that is the role of headteachers to be “Leaders of Learning”.

The feedback from delegates suggests that once again, SELMAS managed to offer a challenging and stimulating day, packed with opinions, information and opportunities to network.

Colleagues from 6 local authorities attended what turned out to be a very successful and engaging day on the 4 June . The theme was Leadership for Learning with a particular emphasis on the Learning Rounds process which is premised on a collaborative observation approach with non-evaluative feedback aimed at influencing systemic change within a school or authority. Sheila Smith and Margaret Orr shared their experiences in Angus and North Ayrshire where there has been significant engagement in the process with colleagues in the secondary sector across a number of schools. Feedback from everyone involved has been very positive. Margaret Alcorn outlined the work in progress with a number of director colleagues and the anticipated involvement of participants in the Flexi Routes for Headship initiative.

The mental and physical agility of colleagues was also tested by exercises posed by Graham Thomson of SCSSA , a long standing friend of the CPD Team and a key player in the Learning Rounds journey. Everyone rose to the challenge – for those who were there on the 4th , this was a real experience as they followed colleagues’ instructions or advice on how to get off the floor !

SCSSA and the CPD team are finalising materials which will support the Learning Rounds process and these will be accessible on line – further details to follow. Any member of the team would be happy also to respond to any enquiries.

This a guest post from Stirling Mackie, Head Teacher of Irvine Royal Academy

 “The secret of management is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided”

(Casey Stengel, former manager of the New York Yankees. All other quotes are from Yogi Berra, former player with the New York Yankees)

One thing about learning rounds is that it delivers the exact opposite of Casey Stengel’s advice. In fact it positively rejoices in doing the opposite and mixing everyone up!

I was fortunate enough to attend the conference addressed by Professor Richard Elmore at Hampden Park in Glasgow in 2007(?). It was being able to hear first hand from Elmore which really inspired me to look more closely at this way of aiding school improvement.

My next step was to buy his book ‘School Reform from the Inside Out’. It is a surprisingly ‘easy’ read and confirmed my initial thoughts that there was something in this. However, like so many other ‘good ideas’ other things got in the way of taking it forward (like an HMIe inspection).

However in 2008, North Ayrshire decided to volunteer to be part of the national learning rounds pilot. The journey of everyone involved in that part of the journey is recorded elsewhere. What I want to share is Irvine Royal Academy’s individual journey, which has already taken a somewhat different, or quicker, route (perhaps Virgin Express rather than …well a slower train company).

We were first to welcome the mixed group of headteachers, deputes, authority staff, academics etc etc into our school to observe learning and teaching. It was on a volunteer basis, and for a variety of historical reasons, we had more than enough volunteers.

This brings me to point 1.

 Irvine Royal Academy was a school at a stage in its development where staff were anxious to invite ‘outsiders’ into their classrooms. Two years earlier I think I would have struggled to get more than a handful of ‘guinea pigs’. In other words much preparatory work had been done (‘inadvertently’ and for other reasons) to create an ‘ethos of openness’ in the school. So in asking yourself, will learning rounds work in my school, the first requirement is, “how open is the school culture currently?” In my opinion learning rounds can considerably help the further development of a culture of openness, but to implement it without it, could potentially lead to conflict and have the opposite effect.

‘You can observe a lot by watching’

I was committed to the learning rounds model and wanted to pilot it. I decided to approach Principal Teachers, on the basis that they already had experience of classroom observation as part of the school’s quality assurance procedures. Only two declined the opportunity.

We put them into groups of two/three and set up observations for them in departments that were not their own. A member of the SMT was also attached to each group, and in one case Margaret Orr of the National CPD team joined one of the groups.

Point 2

Principal Teachers adapted to the learning rounds model quicker than the HT/DHT group. They adopted the descriptive voice, and came up with an impressive list of observations, which can easily be turned into an agenda for action.

They thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and interestingly, their observations also caused them to reflect on their own practice, and lead to immediate changes in their own pedagogy and methodology. Is this powerful CPD or what?

‘If you don’t know where you are going you will end up somewhere else’

We always had a clear idea of where we were going. I wanted to involve ALL staff in the learning rounds model. Would staff want to be involved? Overwhelmingly yes. Approximately 80% of unpromoted staff have volunteered to join a learning rounds group. They may not express it exactly as I do, in the big picture of school improvement, but they have real clarity about two things.

1. That this is powerful CPD.
2. That the object is to improve learning and teaching and thereby more fully engage students and raise attainment.

We have planned to set up the next round of observations by unpromoted staff during ‘SQA time’.

‘The future ain’t what it used to be’

Thank goodness! The future used to be a ‘done to’ model. This is a ‘done together’ model. It works for us because of the climate which had been built over the last two years. It might not work in other places. However;

• I have no doubt as to the advantages that this model can bring to the process of school improvement.
• I have no doubt that staff are correct. This is powerful CPD
• I have no doubt that the impact is immediate.
• I have no doubt that this is real collegiality.
• I have no doubt that we will continue to develop the model further.