Embedding an Evidence Informed Professional Development Policy was written by Adam Kohlbeck – Deputy Headteacher and EduPulse co-founder.
Introduction
Because teaching quality can make the biggest difference to pupils’ outcomes (EEF, 2021), then there should be little else that takes as much of a leader’s focus in schools as improving the quality of teaching. How can we be sure that the systems and processes we employ are facilitating the greatest gains in quality of teaching? The starting point in answering this question is the evidence base in effective professional development. A central task of school leaders is to translate this evidence into policy which will guide practice across a school. While implementation is key to realising the aims of policy and research, this does not lessen the importance of establishing an evidence informed, coherent policy for professional development.
This blog, the first of two, focuses on some of the key processes embedded within the policy for professional development at Birkbeck Primary School. The second blog will share our reflection on its implementation.
What is the process?
The annual process begins with a diagnosis of whole school priorities related to teaching development. This is monitored on a termly basis to ensure that the priorities are still fit for purpose. We use the survey tool on the Great Teaching Toolkit to create a proposal for what we think a whole school development point should be. We further validate our choice by examining pupil outcome data that relates directly to the sharp focus we have initially proposed. We week further evidence through a sample of lesson observations, focusing on our proposed priority.
Once we have settled on our whole school priority, we then work with phase and subject leaders to establish team goals that feed into our whole school priority. Finally, we use performance development meetings to set individual priorities that support team and whole school priorities.
Every teacher has access to a structured system of support with an experienced colleague to set an agreed learning goal and manageable actions. As each teacher attains those goals, this support continues—moving on to the next step in achieving the larger goal. This structure relies on dedicated time during the school day, reinforcing the value we place on developing teaching.
We then use our after-school professional development time (once per week) to focus on our whole school priorities. These are either delivered to the whole staff or certain teachers or teams dependent on commonality of need. We are also careful to select curriculum subjects that are in particular need of development in the context of our whole school priority as the context for this work so that we simultaneously develop overall teaching and specific subjects.
A recent example of a whole-school priority that might begin the process outlined above was:
To improve pupils’ understanding of the disciplinary aims in each subject.
From there, we identified subjects that required particular focus and teams and individuals for whom we needed to make adaptations, taking into account the strengths and needs.
Professional development sequence design
Standalone professional development sessions provide knowledge and information that becomes transient. When focus moves too often, teachers do not have time to properly embed new ideas; they need reflection time to focus and refine practice. For this reason, we write sequences of professional development that run over a minimum of four sessions, spaced logically with the school calendar. A four session sequence might look like this:
Session 1 – Shared reading and reflection on a piece of research related to the focus of the sequence.
Session 2 – An in-depth session about the targeted change to practice we want to aim for. This is led by the subject leader.
Session 3 – (Usually, two or three weeks after Session 2), A lesson study made up of staff watching a recording of a lesson and reflecting and evaluating the target practice.
Session 4 – Small group breakout discussions around 4 key thematic questions followed by a whole group de-brief and discussion.
Sims, et al. (2021), conducted a meta-analysis that found fourteen mechanisms that significantly influenced the effectiveness of professional development. We ensure that when we design a sequence like the one above, we include as many of the mechanisms as we can. For example, this approach means that we give ‘change time’ to allow practices to embed gradually. And by starting with shared engagement with the research base, we hope to change teachers’ beliefs and knowledge. Only when knowledge and beliefs are changed can we hope to a sustained impact on practice.
In this example, Session 2 helps direct the kinds of changes to practice that we want to see. Session 3 works as a reminder of these changes to practice and reinforces the connection between the desired practice changes and the underpinning evidence. Finally, Session 4 focuses on sustaining changes to practice by identifying the areas of practice that should be subsequently monitored. Sustained change to teacher practice will hopefully lead to changes to pupil knowledge and behaviours – in turn, this can lead to positive impact on pupil outcomes.
Concluding remarks
Processes need to be driven by beliefs; it is clear that our beliefs are driven by what evidence tells us makes effective professional development. While the impact of these processes is yet to be seen in full (more on that in the future), their presence has brought a purpose and focus to the professional development work in our school that we did not previously have. Building professional development around evidence informed best bets is precisely that – our best bet.
References:
Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). (2021). Effective professional development: Guidance report. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/effective-professional-development
Sims, S., Fletcher-Wood, H., O’Mara-Eves, A., Cottingham, S., Stansfield, C., Van Herwegen, J., Anders, J. (2021). What are the Characteristics of Teacher Professional Development that Increase Pupil Achievement? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Education Endowment Foundation. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/evidence-reviews/teacher-professional-development-characteristics
