Continuous Professional Development in Schools – Failing to Deliver?
I’ve noticed in conversations with colleagues in other countries that there is some disillusionment with the quality of access to, and impact of, professional development opportunities for serving teachers. Too often this scarce resource is identified as a course, or external conference attendance which does not impact on the context of the school in which the teacher is working.
I know there are exceptions to this rule, and have noted Canadian and Australian teachers wandering the byways of rural Great Britain whilst enjoying their statutory sabbaticals, but I’d be interested in hearing the experience of other teachers, both from the UK and elsewhere.
Most of my experience is related to English education so I’ll confine my comments to my experiences here…
In the UK teaching community in 1988, as part of the Educational Reform Act, an entitlement to five days worth of professional development a year was enshrined for all English teachers. Generally this was welcomed as giving a professional structure to the development of teachers.
Unfortunately, an unintended implication of this provision was that professional development became equated with the INSET (In-Service Training of Teachers) days. This led to CPD being seen more as an event rather than a process, and a series of keynote speakers were wheeled in, initially with OHPs, then with PowerPoint to deliver a set piece talk on a theme, with some little time for discussion. Generally, time was not given to developing new practice in schools so the process descended into glorified information giving.
The key issue that was not addressed was the balance between the individual professional development needs of particular teachers and the legitimate organisational needs of the school and how these were going to be reconciled.
The premise behind my work is that schools leech too much of their intellectual property because they do not have avenues for ensuring that their best practice informs whole school learning and teaching policies. This means that some of the school’s best practice is associated with individual teachers and leaves as they are promoted.
Secondly, I have seen so much time and resource lost on sending teachers to observe best practice in other institutions, with the unwritten and naïve assumption being that if we just did what they do here standards would rise! Not enough time is spent addressing the culture of the school which is from where sustainable change which is team driven, emanates.
For my part I’ve developed a competence-led model which aligns both elements and enables CPD to proceed towards recognised quality assurance standards for all teachers around the key learning development priorities. Happy to share if it is of interest.
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