CPD Team

We’ve been working hard to bring a new look to the CPDMeet experience for you! Our commitment to offer at least one CPDMeet per week (of term time) is on track and we kick off the 2011 programme on January 12th with CPDMeet18: Louise Jones of Highland Council on their approach to  e-safety, a subject that no educator can afford to ignore. With a few details to finalise for  CPDMeet 19 which will hopefully take place the following week on Tuesday 18th, the next in the series is CPDMeet 20  on Thursday January 27th , and it will be of interest to many educators. Graeme Logan of the Teacher Education in Scotland Review Group  will lead a discussion on the findings of the review, and we are hoping that many of our colleagues in Teacher Education Institutes will be able to join us on Glow  for this one.

The teacher education theme is continued in CPDMeet 21 with Dr Dan Tierney of Strathclyde University talking about the MLPS experience in Scotland – have we got it right, and inviting interested professionals to discuss and offer their own suggestions as to the way forward for primary languages in Scotland. CPDMeet 22 is slightly different as it will consist of a follow-up discussion from CPDMeet 17,  where Ian Stuart inspired a group of CPDMeeters with his discussion on using wikis for collaborative learning. Ian has set up a wiki in the share area for CPDMeet 17 for attendees to experiment with. CPDMeet23 takes on technology; Brian McLaren, formerly of the Consolarium team takes us through games-based learning on February 24th and the last planned one in this series so far takes a look at interdisciplinary learning in secondary, with Mary Smith of Montrose Academy sharing her experience in CPDMeet24.

The programme will continue and further dates will be posted here and on Glow.  You will notice that the sign-up process has been streamlined: the new design offers one space where you can not only sign -up for the CPDMeet, share any relevant ideas, issues,or  interesting practice and meet other interested CPDMeeters beforehand; you can also make your CPD experience matter afterwards by endorsing it through CPDFind, by setting yourself a follow-up intention , by recording the experience in your CPDReflect, or by finding out more about CPDMeets and the topic for discussion. All of this brought to you cost free, straight to your desktop. Happy Christmas from CPDSanta!

This is a guest post from Sally Fulton of HMIE.

HM Inspectorate of Education are looking to further improve the Journey to Excellence website: www.journeytoexcellence.org.uk and we welcome your views to help us with this.  We have a new online questionnaire, which will enable us to find out how the Journey to Excellence website could me more helpful to you.

 The online questionnaire is voluntary, and will take around 5-10 minutes to complete.  It will be open until Friday 14 January 2011.

All responses to the questionnaire will be very much welcomed – we hope you can support us in contributing to shaping further improvements for the Journey to Excellence. 

The questionnaire can be accessed at http://tinyurl.com/extjourneytoexcellence

This is a guest post from John McCann, Director of Next Practice at Scotland’s Colleges

I have heard it called a form of insanity.  That well known phenomenon of repeating the same action while expecting different consequences.  This is in contrast to life’s experiences which suggests strongly that if you do the same thing again it will, indeed, have the same result.

 My first memory of this phenomenon came as I developed computer programming skills.  Programs require to be submitted to a computer for translation according to a very strict set of rules.  Normally the result of submission was an extensive list of those rules which had been broken.  I have to admit that on more than one occasion, I resubmitted.  There was always hope – maybe the computer wasn’t paying attention the first time; maybe it was having a bad day; maybe the rules would be relaxed; maybe …… 

I have also to admit that on every occasion, the result was the same.  Surprising that – same action, same consequence. 

In my analysis, I have come to the conclusion that this arises through pain-seeking behaviour which seems particularly prevalent in Celtic communities.  I have come across it throughout my career.  In staff workrooms, for example, where learning from experience, particularly of others, would be regarded as a denial-of-pain situation to be avoided.  We have a wonderful collection of reasons not to share.  Pain-Seeking-through-Ignoring-Experiences-Syndrome may be our preferred cultural state.  I will readily admit to being a sufferer and that, apparently, is the first stage in finding a cure.

I was reminded of this phenomenon preparing for a presentation on ‘Colleges and Quality’ to the implementation partnership of Curriculum for Excellence.  It was a welcome opportunity.

I was able to describe to the audience a time and a place where colleges used to be.  When the time scale for changing qualifications could be measured in geological time; when teacher centred approaches were prevalent; when the culture was a dependent one and where the needs of external assessment dominated everything.  I suggested that members of the audience might recognise such a world in their own space.  Judging by the murmurings, it seemed to be the case.

I described a current world where colleges, according to HMIe, have comprehensive quality assurance and improvement systems that enhance the learner experience.  And that there were ‘no systemic weaknesses’ in the sector.  I suggested that seemed to be a good place to be and the murmurings suggested agreement.

Some of the  lessons in that journey were outlined – moderation and quality assurance to be regarded as part of a total quality system, assessment/verification policy with clear aims, quality grounded on professional dialogue, a developmental internal audit regime, retaining the core purpose of improvement and so on.  Learning from colleges made available to the system.

We are all aware of the challenges facing schools in taking Curriculum for Excellence forward and, through his TES articles, Don Ledingham has identified the potential for learning from colleges.  College experience and interests are well represented in Curriculum for Excellence implementation structures.  It feels there is measure of sanity there.

However, we need to work harder.  The public funding pressures are such that we need to use ALL the resources of the system.  We need to make sure that learning from one part of the system impacts upon another.  We need to move so that any part of the system is receptive to learning from another.  That would be a real gain of Curriculum for Excellence and help deliver what Graeme Hyslop has described as the first comprehensive learning system in Europe. 

In these difficult times, Pain-Seeking-through-Ignoring-Experiences Syndrome is looking more than a little indulgent.  Let’s aim for systems sanity.

For the summer term, the National CPD Team has been working on a series of online seminars (or CPDMeets as we are dubbing them). These informal seminars will be held on Glow Meet and will be relatively short (30 to 45 minutes).

In the pipeline, we have contributions from Mairi McAra of GTCS, Margaret Orr of the National CPD Team, Mairi Houston of NQ Online, Stephen McCrossan of the EIS Learning Reps and many others.

First up is Frank Crawford, Chief Inspector HMIE, on the subject of Leadership and Learning. This takes place on Thursday 22^nd April at 10am.

Related links

• More info and / or sign-up for Frank’s CPDMeet 
• Help, I’m a CPDMeet feartie!
• Hey, I’d like to lead a CPDMeet

Over the last two weeks, Frank Crawford of HMIE has been kindly sharing some leadership thoughts and links on his Twitter account ( @frankcrawford ). For those of us going to LeadMeet in Edinburgh on the 29th July or the International Summer School on Leadership, they are valuable thought-pieces. I have taken the liberty of reproducing them below.

• @mcleod RT My #necc09 Effective leadership in an era of disruptive innovation. http://is.gd/1x9gD 
• Leadership in education needs to be learning-focused. http://tinyurl.com/lcgspb
•  Principles of leadership for learning. http://tinyurl.com/mqbd9w
• Great leaders spend time on the dancefloor as well as on the balcony watching the dance. How good is your dancing?
• Check out posts on #leadershipday09
• And it is all teased out in The Journey to Excellence.
• For best outcomes, leaders develop the core business (learning) vision, partnerships/networks, people and ethos/culture.
•  http://tinyurl.com/na46f7 For education leaders, every minute is a learning opportunity – and every minute counts.
• Some school film clips on leadership. http://tinyurl.com/mdcq9g
• Leadership purposefully distributed essential for transformation, p13. http://tinyurl.com/na46f7 http://tinyurl.com/lkuclp
• @krysiaS Are most school leaders ‘risk takers’? Great question for #leadmeet09.
• Leadership purposefully distributed essential for transformation, p13. http://tinyurl.com/na46f7 http://tinyurl.com/lkuclp
• Check out http://tinyurl.com/n3wma4 5:28 PM Jul 6th from web
• Leadership and exhilaration. http://tinyurl.com/qw5ov8
• @hambudge Developing curriculum IS changing pedagogy – maybe not only using best practice, but thinking about future practice.
•  One school’s leadership academy. http://tinyurl.com/l6dody
• Ninety percent of leaders’ decisions don’t matter. It’s spotting the ten percent that do matter that does matter.
• Literacy and numeracy are thinking skills. Great leaders lead learning in these skills.
• The second of two attributes of leadership is humility – that you are still a learner too! (Jim Collins).
• The first of two attributes of leadership is professional drive – integrity – accepting nothing but the best (Jim Collins).

You can find other thoughts by searching for #leadmeet09 on search engines like Google.

This is a guest post from colleagues at HMIE

 ‘Learning Together: Opening up Learning’ draws together themes, features and characteristics of effective improvement through self-evaluation, and descriptions of good practice. It is a reference point for teachers who are working together to improve the impact of their work and to plan for the changes which will be necessary as Curriculum for Excellence is adopted.

It can be used alongside the many examples of good practice published at www.journeytoexcellence.org.uk, the quality indicators and illustrations described in ‘How good is our school?’, ‘The Child at the Centre’, and ‘How good is our community learning and development?’, and the series of self-evaluation guides and portraits published at www.hmie.gov.uk.

HMIE publication: Learning Together: Opening up learning

Journey to Excellence is an excellent, online CPD resource which covers 10 dimensions of excellence with a comprehensive set of video and downloadable think-pieces. Look out for the specialist CPD trails through the materials!

CPDFind links

1. The J2E  provider complete list

2. look also at the associated providers on the CPD Register; HMIE Publications and HMIE Good Practice

One of the partners in the CPD network, HMIE has just published their third corporate plan , covering the years 2008 to 2011. It has been drawn up following a series of internal discussions, consultation with a range of stakeholders, and discussed with and approved by Scottish Ministers. It sets out in broad terms the work which HMIE plan to undertake over the next three years to achieve our aims.

It’s good to see a continuing emphasis on building capacity through CPD and self-evaluation and an explicit commitment to online technology as one means to do both!

This is a guest post from Roddy Stuart who acted as a facilitator at the event

How DTS, GTCS, HMIE and SQA are currently using CPD online.

Determined to Succeed (Jean MacMillan)
Jean had recently had the chance to speak to a group of young people who were firmly in the ‘More choices, more chances’ category and who are near to leaving school.  They share a considerable uncertainty about their future, with one exception.  Many of the aspects which the school thinks are preparing them for life Read more…

http://www.hmie.gov.uk/documents/publication/exo.pdf

This report published today  looks at the experience of those young people who broaden their learning and develop their essential skills by undertaking school-college partnership programmes. Its primary aim is to identify what makes these programmes successful for young people and what needs to be done better. It is intended to help schools, colleges and local authorities to build on key messages of success to further improve the learning experience for all. 

Section 7.4 deals with professional development and support issues for staff involved in this partnership working.