Have we confused formalised CPD with effective CPD? Are we missing key aspects of teachers’ professional development by ignoring aspects of CPD that can’t be measured?
In an education system that is high stakes and high accountability, there is the understandable focus on demonstrating impact. Schools focus on improvement, as they should, and a large part of that is the focus on improving the quality of teaching.
Excellent teaching is deemed the solve-all solution to barriers to learning such as SEND or deprivation in the rhetoric we use in schools. Whilst frustratingly vague, this is a fair assumption. When there are competent teachers in classrooms who really know their stuff, our pupils’ benefit.
It seems right, therefore, that schools prioritise CPD and that school leaders have a well-planned vision for what teachers need to know and do in their schools.
However, I’ve taken part in some brilliant and some dreadful CPD programmes in my time. If I were to ask you, you’d have similar stories of fantastic programmes or dreadful CPD on a Thursday afternoon in November. Transmissive CPD is the most common model we find in schools. Either through whole-school sessions in the hall or through one-to-one support, the model is the same. Teachers are the receivers of knowledge that is externally generated and identified as something that needs to be implemented in classrooms.
This is problematic for three reasons:
Teachers don’t have as much influence over decision-making in their classrooms as they should. This model of CPD doesn’t always facilitate teachers’ ability to make complex decisions in their classrooms when they are encouraged to do so (see my blog about this for more detail about what I mean here)
We are missing the informal professional dialogue that happens in staffrooms, at the coffee break during a conference or making new connections on social media.
Knowing something and applying it in practice are simply not the same. We cannot confuse being told key information about teaching and learning with having the intrinsic motivation to form knowledge into habit
Fundamentally, the problem is, I am not convinced that this is how teachers learn. When I think about the formative moments in my career, I do not think about specific CPD sessions. I must have attended hundreds of them over the years and yet I can only think of one or two where I felt inspired to implement a change in my practice that became an embedded constant in my practice.
Instead, I wonder how schools can facilitate the more informal forms of learning. In a world where directed time is mapped out down to the second, wouldn’t it be wonderful for school leaders to dedicate time each week for colleagues who might not always get a chance to catch up to talk about what’s going on in their classrooms.
The simple magic of “I tried this and it didn’t go down as well as I’d hoped…” or “have you through about doing X at the beginning before Y to save you some time?” can shift a school’s culture and make teachers feel more connected. The positive implications of having people to turn to are numerous, including higher levels of teacher commitment to a school, improved pupil outcomes and lower staff turnover (Brown, 2019; Brown & Godfrey, 2019; Brown et al., 2022). Additionally, this helps us with the 'knowing-doing' gap as teachers have time to reflect on the practicalities of implementation and hear how an aspect of practice has worked in a colleague's classroom.
Informal does not mean wishy-washy or ineffective, it just means that we are paying attention to aspects of CPD that fit outside of the traditional model. The cynical voice in my head says that formal structures of CPD are more prevalent as they can be monetised with many supporting leaders to present evidence of impact included in the package. This feels safe and can be presented to higher ups to show progress if necessary. It’s not all like this though of course and CPD varies from transmissive models such as the whole school in the hall model we’ve talked about before to transformative CPD that places teachers at the centre of decision-making (Kennedy, 2014). I don’t think being wholly at either end of the spectrum is a good idea. With too much control, people will leave. With too little unity, no one will know what’s going on. There is a balance to be had.
Cain et al. (2019) explain the knowledge teachers need nicely here:
“Theories of organisational learning highlight the importance of both codified knowledge (i.e. that which is set down in mission statements, policies, protocols and so on) and tacit knowledge (the often unspoken knowledge, obtained and shared informally, that encapsulates a particular organisation’s way of doing things, and might actually be quite different from official assertions in mission statements and so on) (Argyris & Sch€ on, 1978). Through working and talking together, school teachers can establish and maintain, but also critique and alter, their aims and purposes, their spoken and unspoken rules, a common repertoire of activities and their shared understandings and values. They can develop the ability to share what they know, and to create knowledge together” (Cain et al., 2019, p. 10).
My argument is that you couldn’t fit all of this into a formal CPD programme if you tried, but to not have any consideration of informal methods of learning leaves too much up to chance.
When I talk to fellow school leaders about this, the response from those who aren’t a fan of informal learning is that people won’t take it seriously and will use the time to chat, mark or catch up about something else. I don’t see this as a big ‘gotcha’ moment to be honest. Do we really think that all the teachers sat in a hall listening are 100% focused and motivated? Are we totally sure it is all going in, is understood in the way that it is intended and about to become common practice everywhere? No, of course not. Regardless of the form it comes in, individuals will only get as much out of CPD as they want to. Let’s not confuse compliance with the intrinsic motivation needed to improve. I would argue, however, that a school that gives teachers time to talk, catch up and share ideas is going to be a nicer place to work. This in turn creates opportunities for teachers to feel and act as their most positive selves.
Essentially, I am arguing that just because we can’t measure it and it is informal, doesn’t mean that it isn’t important. More than that, just because professional dialogue can be an informal form of learning, that doesn’t mean it can’t be planned for. Indeed, professional dialogue is simply too important to leave up to chance. #
Reflective Questions
How does your school/trust currently balance formal and informal CPD opportunities? Is there space within your school day/calendar to incorporate informal professional dialogue?
What role do teachers in your school/trust play in shaping classroom practice and decision-making around CPD?
How does your school culture facilitate and hinder informal conversations and professional learning amongst staff?
Do you prioritise teacher engagement? How do you measure teacher engagement and it’s impact?
References
Brown, C. (2019). Exploring the current context for Professional Learning Networks, the conditions for their success, and research needs moving fowards. Emerald Open Research 1, 1-18. HTTPS://DOI.ORG./10.12688/EMERALDOPENRES.12904.1
Brown, C., & Godfrey, D. (2019). An Ecosystem for Research-Engaged Schools (C. Brown & D. Godfrey, Eds.). Routledge.
Brown, C., Groß Ophoff, J., Chadwick, K., & Parkinson, S. (2022). Achieving the ideas-informed society: resuls from a structural equation model using survey data from English Emerald Open Research, 4. http://dx.doi.org/10.35241/emeraldopenres.14487.1
Cain, T., Brindley, S., Brown, C., Jones, G., & Riga, F. (2019). Bounded decision-making, teachers reflection and organisational learning: How research can inform teachers and teaching British Educational Research Journal, 45(5), 1072-1087.
Kennedy, A. (2014). Understanding continuing professional development: the need for theory to impact on policy and practice. Professional Development in Education, 40(26/05/2020), 688-697. https://methods.sagepub.com/project-planner
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