NPQLTD Building culture and ethos
Practice Activities
Delivering effective professional development
Select three of the following nine activities to submit to your leadership mentor.
Choose an activity based on your areas of interest and the results of the initial needs analysis undertaken at the start of the course.
Activity 1: Developing a team
Task
The research underpinning the framework statements highlights the need to develop a team of colleagues to deliver a range of professional development. As a leader of teacher development you need to provide training, guidance and support to colleagues delivering professional development in your school.
Tracy Goodyear shared her plans and guidance for seminar leaders running professional learning seminars at King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls. The booklet and training she provided, helped support the development of a team of colleagues to facilitate professional learning through practice inquiry, projects and seminars. The guidance prepared seminar leads for the role and explained how they should run sessions and support staff through a 4-step process. The guidance included recommendations for adopting a variety of approaches including expert-led conversations, analysis of artefacts, practice, action-planning and reflection.
Investigate examples of training and guidance provided to support those delivering professional development at your school. It may help to reflect on the support and training provided to school mentors or to think back to a recent INSET session, for example, how were colleagues and leaders of development activities prepared and supported for their contribution to the training provided?
How were they identified as mentors or leaders of a session or activity?
What training or development did the mentors or session leaders receive (for example, professional qualification, short course, train the trainer sessions, training on the school priorities and improvement plan)?
How were they briefed?
How did leaders ensure they had the time and capacity to deliver the profess
What resources and guidance were they provided with (for example, delivery guidance, facilitator notes, training materials)?
How were they supported to adopt an evidence-based approach to planning and delivering PD (for example by referring to Standard for teachers' professional development or ECF)?
How were they supported to reflect on and evaluate the impact of the professional development they provided on teachers' practice?
Draft a plan to support the development of a team of colleagues to deliver a range of professional development. Make a note of the essential content to be covered, skills to be practiced, how colleagues would be supported and how the guidance and support would be accessed.
Submission
Write a 200 words (maximum) summary of your actions and learning from this task and submit to your leadership mentor.
Resources
Practice examples: Tracy Goodyear, assistant headteacher, King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls
Department for Education (2015) Standard for teachers’ professional development
Activity 2: Developing specialist subject, phase and domain expertise
Task
Read pages 5 to 10 of Darling-Hammond et al.’s (2017) review of effective teacher development, looking at content focus, active learning and collaboration, which highlight the benefits of collaboration and inquiry to develop subject expertise.
Meet with at least two subject leads or specialists in your school to discuss their approach to developing the subject, domain or specialist expertise of their teams.
Make recommendations for refining the strategy for developing expertise, informed by your reading of Darling-Hammond et al..
What action is required to support the development of subject, domain or specialist expertise through collaboration and inquiry?
Submission
Write a 200 word (maximum) summary of your actions and learning from this task and submit to your leadership mentor.
Resource
Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M. E., & Gardner, M. (2017) Effective teacher professional development. Learning Policy Institute.
Activity 3: Meeting teachers' needs
Task
Leaders of professional development need to take account of the well-being, needs and abilities of staff when planning the delivery of professional development activities. Darling-Hammond et al., (2017) recommend that leaders provide sufficient time and resources for staff to engage in professional development without increasing workload and the Equality Act requires schools to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate disability and remove barriers to participation. To meet the needs of individuals, leaders should work closely with staff to understand any barriers and identify effective strategies to overcome these.
Meet with at least two teachers to look at the intended delivery of professional development in your school for the year. Review the planned activities with a focus on relevance, accessibility and workload.
How relevant is each activity (for example, how does it align with school priorities and teacher needs)?
Is the method of delivery accessible to all staff (for example is the timing and choice of venue or resources appropriate)?
Does the scheduling of professional development activities take account of busy times and changes to workload across the school year?
Is the chosen method of delivery efficient and effective? Could alternative methods be employed (for example, asynchronous, online or flexible delivery?)
Draft recommendations to adjust delivery to increase relevance and accessibility and reduce workload.
Submission
Write a 250 words (maximum) summary of your actions and learning from this task and submit to your leadership mentor.
Resources
Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M. E., & Gardner, M. (2017) Effective teacher professional development. Learning Policy Institute.
Submission
Write a 250 words (maximum) summary of your actions and learning from this task and submit to your leadership mentor.
Activity 4: Coaching and mentoring colleagues
Task
The DfE guidance for the Teacher Standard for Professional Development (2016) notes that school leaders should “ensure that professional development activities include external challenge to thinking.” In her practice piece on expertled conversations, Audrey Douglas explained how she supported this through the
use of a commercial professional development programme to scaffold and support professional dialogue about practice.
Planning for expert-led conversations
Meet with one or more senior colleagues to discuss strategies for providing expert challenge and scaffolding and structuring coaching sessions (for example through reference to the Teacher Standards, a commercial professional development programme, the Early Career or NPQ frameworks).
Work with your colleague/s to identify an appropriate framework or resource for supporting coaching or mentoring sessions in your school.
With your colleague/s identify an area of focus (for example, use of feedback, modelling, explanations, questioning, developing literacy). Your choice should be informed by school priorities and the school improvement plan.
Conducting expert-led conversations
Arrange a coaching session (for example the analysis of an artefact or discussion following an observation) with a less experienced teacher, targeting the area of focus.
Structure the session using your chosen framework or resource. It is helpful to provide the coachee with clear guidance on the area of focus and the relevant framework statements or resources which will be used to structure the session, ahead of time
Ask clear and intentional questions to facilitate reflection (you might wish to use framework statements or questions provided by your chosen development programme as the basis for these, adapting appropriately for the context and teacher's needs).
Provide actionable feedback and identify opportunities for the coachee to test ideas and practise implementation of new approaches.
Reflecting on the coaching session
Ask your coachee to reflect on the experience.
What is their opinion of the use of the chosen framework statements or resources for supporting and structuring the conversation? Was this beneficial or limiting?
How do they feel about the area of focus? How clear were the links to the school's and their own improvement priorities?
Did the expert-led conversation provide sufficient challenge?
Do they feel able to act on the feedback?
Submission
Write a 200 words (maximum) summary of your actions and learning from this task and submit to your leadership mentor.
Resources
Practice piece: Audrey Douglas, senior assistant headteacher at The Green School for Girls
DfE (2016) Standard for teachers’ professional development
Activity 5: Tailoring conversations
Task
The framework highlights the need to tailor conversations to the expertise and needs of the individual. In her practice piece, Audrey Douglas explained how coaches at The Green School for Girls used the GROW model, adapting their approach to be more or less facilitative, dialogic or directive depending on the confidence and expertise of the coachee.
Observe a coaching session
Observe a coaching or mentoring session at your school.
Notice how the conversation changes from being directive to facilitative and how the coach adapts their approach depending on the needs of the coachee.
Feedback on a session
After the session, meet with the coach to facilitate reflection and provide support and challenge.
Share what you noticed about their choice of approaches.
Ask the coach to explain their reasons for switching between approaches. What were the cues that prompted their choice of a directive or dialogic approach?
How could the coach's approach be refined to better meet the needs of the coachee?
Submission
Write a 200 words (maximum) summary of your actions and learning from this task and submit to your leadership mentor.
Resources
Practice piece: Audrey Douglas, senior assistant headteacher at The Green School for Girls
Activity 6: Co-observation
Task
Samantha Torr shared examples of how she established coaching and inquiry triads to develop teaching practice. This facilitated co-observation, modelling and exploration.
Trial a triad approach in your school by creating a team of three teachers of different skills and areas of expertise to observe and support each other.
Identify an area of focus from the school's improvement priorities (for example, use of feedback, modelling, explanations, questioning, developing literacy). Support the team's co-observations of lesson segments which demonstrate each teacher's practice in that area and allow each member of the triad to explore and model what they are seeing and thinking.
Ask each member of the triad to reflect on the experience.
What did they learn from watching a colleague model and from listening to a colleague think out loud and narrate what they were seeing during the co-observation?
Submission
Write a 200 words (maximum) summary of your actions and learning from this task and submit to your leadership mentor.
Resources
Practice piece: Samantha Torr, vice principal and director of Alpha Teaching School Hub
Activity 7: Creating career pathways
Task
In his practice piece on the subject of playing a formal role for early career and trainee teachers, Stuart Pope explained how he created career pathways for teachers, providing professional development to support teacher's professional progress.
You encountered Tracy Goodyear's CPLD strategic plan in the section on Delivering effective professional development. The plan highlights the relevance of professional development content and activity for staff with different levels of experience or need, illustrated through the use of personas.
Produce a table like the example below and create personas to illustrate the skills, abilities and development needs of staff at your school by creating a table
Stage of career Persona Brief
The early career teacher
Experienced classroom teacher
Decader
Aspiring middle leader
Aspiring senior leader
Having completed the table, review your school's current CPD offering.
Does the offering include appropriate professional development opportunities for staff at each stage of their career?
Are the needs of all staff being met?
How could the professional development plan be refined to create clear career pathways and better meet the needs of all staff?
Submission
Write a 200 words (maximum) summary of your actions and learning from this task and submit to your leadership mentor.
Resources
Practice piece: Stuart Pope, strategic development lead for Ivy Learning Trust
Practice example: Tracy Goodyear CPLD Strategic Plan and Key Documents
Activity 8: Adopting appropriate approaches
Sims et al. (2021) emphasised the importance of selecting approaches (forms and mechanisms) appropriate for the intended development outcomes. The DfE guidance (2021) highlights the importance of developing practice and theory side by side rather than as separate components and including activities that link logically to the intended pupil outcomes. Practitioner inquiry and active learning provide the opportunity for teachers to develop their own evidence-based practice.
Read Section 2 of the EEF guidance (2021), Ensure that professional development effectively builds knowledge, motivates, develops techniques, and embeds practice, which demonstrates the use of 14 mechanisms.
Review your school's planned professional development for trainees and/or early career teachers, noting the intended outcomes of the planned activities. Is the activity intended to:
build knowledge
motivate teachers
develop teaching techniques
embed practice?
Having seen the importance of including opportunities for practice and enquiry, answer the following questions.
Does the planned delivery for trainees and/or early career teachers provide appropriate mechanisms to build knowledge, motivate teachers, develop teaching techniques and embed practice?
Are sufficient opportunities for practice and enquiry included?
Refine the plan to better address the intended outcomes and ensure sufficient opportunity for trainees and/or early career teachers to engage in practice and enquiry.
Submission
Write a 200 words (maximum) summary of your actions and learning from this task and submit to your leadership mentor.
Resources
Education Endowment Foundation (2021) Effective professional development guidance report
Activity 9: Teacher induction
Samantha Torr's CPD programme for 22-23, includes the induction process and provision for early career teachers at Alpha Teaching School Hub, illustrating how early career teachers access their statutory entitlement. Samantha ensured new staff were supported with an extra day of induction training before the start of term and provided with an induction tutor.
Task
Read pages 13 to 26 of the DfE (2021) guidance on induction for early career teachers.
Meet with a senior leader and an early career teacher (or recently employed teacher if there are no early career teachers in your school) to review the school's induction process and resources for new staff.
Does the process meet the requirements outlined in the statutory guidance on induction for early career teachers?
How do the induction process and associated resources provide necessary support and guidance without overloading the new starter?
What information and resources were invaluable to the new starter?
What information and resources do they wish had been provided during induction?
What information and resources need to be provided to meet statutory requirements?
Prepare to plan or refine both the statutory induction process and general induction process for both early career and experienced teachers who are new to your school or department by answering the following questions:
What changes are needed to better meet the statutory requirements (for example, changes to the timetable, scheduling of professional development, access to experienced staff)?
What information and support is essential before school starts for both early career and experienced teachers who are new to your school?
What information and support is essential for the first day of teaching for both early career and experienced teachers who are new to your school?
What information and support is essential for the first week for both early career and experienced teachers who are new to your school?
What information and support is essential for the first half term for both early career and experienced teachers who are new to your school?
Submission
Write a 200 words (maximum) summary of your actions and learning from this task and submit to your leadership mentor.
Resources
Practice example: Samantha Torr, vice principal and director of Alpha Teaching School Hub
DfE (2021) Induction for early career teachers