“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.

Colleagues, 25 in total, were based across 2 sites, Lochside Educational Centre and Langholm Academy. The link was made using a videoconferencing  technology (PolyCom I think) which is currently being rolled out across many local schools. It seemed to cope remarkably well with a fast-moving Prezi and my singing!

The focus of the CPD sessions was largely on CPDReflect as a Swiss army-knife for PRD but we managed to maraude through CPDFind, Twitter, Teachmeets, CPDShorts and discussion on the types and sources of CPD. Dumfries and Galloway use an online CPD catalogue (CPD Solutions)

It was heartening to arrive and find that all of the colleagues had Glow user IDs which allowed me to eschew my usual “here’s the link to the CPDLinks blogpost”. Instead we were able to build, on the fly, a Glow page which hosts our follow-up activities. The event started with Glow and will continue on Glow as I hope to be able to keep in touch with the impact of the session and offer ongoing support through the Glow site we built.

There has been some recent discussion about the usability of Glow. You may have noticed the recent changes in Glow’s interface at national level (see the National Site) or may have been following Andrew Brown’s initiated ‘Glowbetter’ work. While navigation through Glow might be a bit daunting, one of its saving graces for me has always been its ‘hyperlinkability’. It means if you put a resource on Glow, you can copy the shortcut and publish that shortcut anywhere you like, ie add a bit of Glow, or +glow it!

What does this mean? For CPD, +glow usually means ‘now with added collegiality!’. For example, I might recommend a CPD thought-piece (eg Temple Grandin’s TED TV talk – The World needs all kinds of minds). The problem with this approach is it’s an open loop – there is no feedback. I have no idea who follows the link, or what they think about it, or what one thing might they change in their practice as a result of watching and reflecting on the video. But more importantly, numerous colleagues from all over Scotland may be accessing the same video and not realising they have something in common, or know of better examples, or have CPD resources to support teachers of autistic students and so on.

I like the analogy of building escalators not just stairs. By putting that same video onto Glow and asking colleagues to ‘sign up’ you turn a stair into an escalator. Participants get to see the video and also get an instant snapshot of interested colleagues from around Scotland. They can start (or contribute to) a discussion and share practice collegiately.

Try the Temple Grandin +glow version by following the link from CPDFind. Of course, you will need a Glow password for this version.

We have been developing these +glow CPDShort thought-pieces since the turn of the year. A thought-piece doesn’t need to be a video. It could be a discussion paper, an example of student work, a vox pop, results of a survey, etc.

Furthermore, +glow doesn’t just stop at thought-pieces. In future posts I will look at how colleagues +glow lots of different types of CPD; newsletters, face to face events, skills training and more.

Go on, if you are on Glow, start building escalators instead of stairs. You rarely see an escalator marked ‘Out of Order’.  The worst that can happen when you build an escalator is that folk use it as a stair.

So, +glow those thought-pieces and send me a link!

image courtesy of victoriapeckham on Flickr

All of this week I have been struck by how Glow has enhanced the various CPD events; Co-create, Building Champions and East Ayrshire workshop.  Each of the events had its own Glow group where all sorts of things happen before, during and after the event; agenda, introductions, sharing of links and resources, picture records, discussions, treasure hunts, challenges and pledges to improve practice.

This month, I hope to write a series of blog posts about ‘+glowing’ CPD opportunities. It would be great to showcase examples from your CPD. If Glow has featured in your CPD event, please let me know!

We also looked at the structure for local authority CPD that is under development by Fiona Taylor and her team in South Ayrshire and were impressed by its simple but powerful cycle; reflect-identify-practice-impact. Pam will be hosting a session in April where establishment-based CPD leaders will be invited to help us build the online CPD provision for East Ayrshire – just like that!

Neil in the meantime was supporting Audrey Brotherston of the CfE team to develop a simple front-end to national and local CPD materials for Curriculum for Excellence.

On Tuesday, I was invited by Julia Fenby to talk about CPDFind to the participants in the Co-Create project. This project is a collaboration between Scottish Arts and LTScotland’s Glow team. I was there to persuade them of the value of sharing on CPDFind the rich CPD that will no doubt ensue. One of the organisations, TAG Theatre Company, is already a registered provider and I look forward to a few more joining!

Apart from a couple of creative diversions to play CPD Fortunes and sing the CPDFind song, “Just Google CPDFind” you can see much of my contribution on my Prezi site.

Andrew Brown challenges you to tell the world immediately about your work and to start (and contribute to) educational discussions

What does it involve?

1. visit the Scotedublogs website
2. If you are a Scottish educator, feel free to start your own blog by following the add a blog link
3. write your 1st post (see challenge 2)

Supporting CPD opportunities

Blogs in Plain English Educational Blogs Writing effective blog posts

Visit the CPDChallenge Glow group for more…

Between April and June 2009 the Scottish Government issued a consultation seeking views on the functions and governance arrangements for an independent GTCS. I now attach a link to a document containing both the analysis of the consultation and the official Scottish Government response which indicates the way forward for the GTCS.

The key question in the consultation for us in the CPD world was of course Question 4 which explored the role of the GTCS in relation to CPD. In response to the issues raised, the SG is “not minded to significantly amend the functions of the GTCS to give the Council an overall lead in this area”.

However the GTCS will be asked to take lead responsibility in relation to the  development and subsequent management of a system of re-accreditation of teachers. The Government suggests this fits well with GTCS overarching responsibility to ensure that the teaching profession provides the highest possible quality of education for children in Scotland’s schools, and will help embed a culture of ongoing professional development throughout the profession.

The GTCS will set the requirements for entry into the profession, set the standards that all teachers must work to, while taking on a new responsibility for helping teachers ensure their skills remain up to date.

There is more information on re-registration and how it might work in the document.

The CPD Team would love to hear your thoughts on this!

Curriculum for Excellence places great emphasis and value on partnership working – the CPD Network reflects that in practice. The seminar on the 17 March will profile the contribution from a range of partners who may not have always been recognised as having an impact on the professional development of teachers and support staff, or whose traditional role may have been focussed on colleagues with particular remits : eg pastoral care, additional support needs, behaviour support.

Colleagues from the school library service, social work services, psychological services, the independent and voluntary sector, health  and SQA will outline resources and experiences which are relevant to the professional development of all staff in 7 minute presentations which will set the scene for “Open Space” follow up activity of discussion and sharing.

We realise that our sample range is not exhaustive and hope that pre, during and post the seminar colleagues will be able to share similar or different examples from their own authorities.   If you have partnership working on your doorstep please share it with us on the CPD blog.