Graeme Logan Professional Advisor National CPD Conference March 2011, Stirling
Overview of Presentation
Review of Teacher Education In Scotland
• Key points from Government response • High-level messages from the report Findings in relation to: • Continual professional learning • Curriculum for Excellence • Leading change and building capacity
Government Response
Review of Teacher Education In Scotland
• All 50 recommendations accepted in full or part, including those for CPD, with the exception of ‘hub’ schools • Proposed action in relation to each recommendation outlined in action plan • Timescales and dependencies also detailed
National Partnership Group
Review of Teacher Education In Scotland
• Role and remit • Membership • 2 sub-groups: priorities areas for development and leadership development
50 recommendations
Review of Teacher Education In Scotland
• The right people in the right numbers (workforce planning) • The Early phase of teacher education • Continual professional learning • Leadership
Review of Teacher Education In Scotland
• School education is one of the most important policy areas for governments across the world. • Human capital in the form of a highly educated population is now accepted as a key determinant of economic success. • Evidence of relative performance internationally has become a key driver of policy. • That evidence suggests that the foundations of successful education lie in the quality of teachers and their leadership.
Key points from ‘Teaching Scotland’s Future’ (1-3)
Review of Teacher Education In Scotland
• School education can realise the high aspirations Scotland has for its young people through supporting and strengthening, firstly, the quality of teaching, and secondly, the quality of leadership. • Teaching should be recognised as both complex and challenging, requiring the highest standards of professional competence and commitment. • Leadership is based on fundamental values and habits of mind which must be acquired and fostered from entry into the teaching profession.
Key points from ‘Teaching Scotland’s Future’ (4-5)
Review of Teacher Education In Scotland
• The imperatives which gave rise to Curriculum for Excellence still remain powerful and the future well being of Scotland is dependent in large measure on its potential being realised. That has profound and, as yet, not fully addressed implications for the teaching profession and its leadership. • Career-long teacher education, which is currently too fragmented and often haphazard, should be at the heart of this process, with implications for its philosophy, quality, coherence, efficiency and impact.
Possible outcomes from the report
Review of Teacher Education In Scotland
• Reinvigoration of professionalism and a reconceptualisation of teacher education to reflect this. • More rigorous selection of students applying to enter teacher education allied to more relevant courses, more efficient use of time and more consistent assessment of students’ progress. • A coherent approach to teacher education which is underpinned by a framework of standards which signpost the ways in which professional capacity should grow progressively across a career.
Possible outcomes from the report
Review of Teacher Education In Scotland
• Development of leadership qualities from the start of a career. • A new concept of partnership among universities, local authorities, schools, national agencies and other services which embraces selection, course content and assessment, which sets practical experience in a much more reflective and inquiring culture and which makes optimum use of ICT for professional learning. • Much more efficient use of existing contracts and structures.
Outcomes (continued)
Review of Teacher Education In Scotland
• A culture within which policy, practice, theory and accountability are better aligned to serve the needs of learners. • A national and local infrastructure which sets, promotes and evaluates teacher education in ways which relate both current practice and innovation to their beneficial impact on learning.
Change
Review of Teacher Education In Scotland
• Meaning of change or management of change? • The most effective way to manage change is to create it. • Best practice or best problems? • Solutions focused approaches • Connecting to core purposes, aims and values • The quality of conversations • Timelines
CPD: career long professional learning • • • • • •
Review of Teacher Education In Scotland
Balancing the ‘push / pull’ Clarifying expectations Improving impact Effective models of CPD Core elements of CPD for all Distributive leadership – an attitude/outlook not just a role • Improving the culture and focus of CPD, including PRD
Impact of CPD
Review of Teacher Education In Scotland
Only 29% of teachers said they frequently try to monitor impact, and only 22% said their schools did this frequently. Forty-nine per cent of teachers said they measured impact infrequently or never; the figure for their schools was 52%
Teacher CPD – impact, impact, impact ! Key question to start every review I am a child sitting in your classroom. What have I seen, heard and experienced that is different as a result of your CPD activities ?
Teacher CPD – impact, impact, impact ! Other interesting questions: • Which specific teaching skills and competences have you improved? How do you know? • In what ways have you developed and improved the curriculum? Rather than evaluating CPD ‘provision’
Recommendation 37
Review of Teacher Education In Scotland
At the outset of any CPD activity, the intended impact on young people, and the aspects of the relevant professional standard the teacher will improve as a result of the activity, should be clear. Subsequent PRD discussions should review progress with previous intentions. this process should be captured in a continuing online profile of professional development.
Professional learning
Review of Teacher Education In Scotland
McKinsey (2009) identified the best practice internationally. Teachers: • Research, try and share best practice • Analyse and constantly aim for high, internationally benchmarked standards • Analyse student data and plan tailored teaching • Map, co-create and articulate curriculum • Observe and coach each other
Level
Engagement
Examples
1
Extremely low: the child shows hardly any activity
* No concentration: staring, daydreaming; * An absent, passive attitude; * No goal-oriented activity, aimless actions, not producing anything; * No signs of exploration and interest; * Not taking anything in, no mental activity
2
Low: the child shows some degree of activity which is often interrupted
* Limited concentration; looks away during the activity, fiddles, dreams; * Is easily distracted; * Action only leads to limited results.
3
Moderate: the child is busy the whole time, but without real concentration;
* Routine actions, attention is superficial; * Is not absorbed in the activity, activities are short lived; * Limited motivation, no real dedication, does not feel challenged; * The child does not gain deep-level experiences; * Does not use his/her capabilities to full extent; * The activity does not address the child’s imagination.
4
High: there are clear signs of involvement, but these are not always present to their full extent
* The child is engaged in the activity without interruption; * Most of the time there is real concentration, but during some brief moments the attention is more superficial; * The child feels challenged, there is a certain degree of motivation; * The child’s capabilities and its imagination to a certain extent are addressed in the activity.
5
Extremely High: during the observation of learning the child is continually engaged in the activity and completely absorbed In it.
Is absolutely focussed, concentrated without interruption; Is highly motivated, feels strongly appealed by the activity, Even strong stimuli cannot distract him/her; Is alert, has attention for details, shows precision; Its mental activity and experience are intense; The child constantly addresses all its capabilities: imagination mental capacity are in top gear; Obviously enjoys being engrossed in the activity.
Leuven Scale of Involvement
Impact of active learning: Afternoon ES Lesson
Range of CPD Generic Pedagogy
Review of Teacher Education In Scotland
Subject Content
Subject-specific pedagogy
CPD: career long professional learning
Review of Teacher Education In Scotland
• The role of individual teacher CPD in achieving national priorities • All teachers are teacher educators • Improving online provision • Strategies to priorities and address areas of greatest need at national level • Accrediting a greater range of CPD • CPD for supply teachers and accomplished teachers
Review of Teacher Education In Scotland
• Peer-to-peer and school-to-school models of improvement, with the right sort of external interventions • More flexible use of collegiate time: implications for the McCormac Review
Characteristics of successful implementation of CfE
A clear plan of how and when changes will be achieved, based on self-evaluation, is in place for getting ‘from A to B’. Good quality support for CPD. Teachers are working with increasing confidence with the experiences and outcomes and know how to use these in taking a coherent approach to learning, teaching and assessment.
Effective arrangements to assess and track progress which involve learners and pay particular attention to transitions. Strong and secure achievement in literacy and numeracy. Effective partnerships and involving parents. Good leadership at all levels with a vision for the outcomes of change.
Evaluating impact through professional dialogue. . . .
What does CfE mean for you in your establishment?
What have been the major changes/ improvements for children so far?
What is your plan to continue towards full implementation?
Leadership – building capacity
Review of Teacher Education In Scotland
“People look to those in senior leadership roles to maintain equilibrium and to provide direction. They expect this direction, not in the form of questions, but in the form of answers” ‘Leaders staff should explore deeper questions not provide pat answers’
Leadership
Review of Teacher Education In Scotland
• Progressive educational leadership pathway needed • Impact of the routes to achieving the Standard for Headship • Greater range of CPD opportunities for experienced headteachers • Scheme of national leaders of education • Virtual college of school leadership
Review of Teacher Education In Scotland
www.ReviewofTeacherEducationinScotland.org.uk www.scotland.gov.uk