www.tda.gov.ukTEACHERPROFESSIONAL

RESEARCH THAT COuNTS | vIEwS ANd OPINIONS | CPd AdvICE | RESOuRCES

For your professional development | Spring 2009

mEET THE PARENTS How to get them beyond the school gate and into school

TALk THE TALk Putting discussion back into the classroom

wORLd’S NO. 1 What makes some education systems better than others?

TIm BRIgHOuSE “The first year of teaching is a roller coaster”

INTO THE STORm Why young teachers are choosing challenging posts

04 Bulletin Keep up to date with our round-up of what’s happening at the TDA and in professional development

06 how to get parents involved Parents are key to student attainment, but straightforward involvement isn’t enough. We report on new research which suggests that “parental engagement” is the key

09 view from withinGuest columnist, class teacher Tommy Izzett, explains the trials and tribulations of time management for a new teacher

10 masters research What is it like to undertake research in your own school? Chris Holbrook explains how he assessed the effectiveness of staff development as part of his masters programme

12 talking the talk Verbal questioning has long been a fundamental part of teaching, but new research suggests that to really harness the power of talk in the learning process, teachers need to take a different approach

14 challenging schools A school facing challenging circumstances might not seem like the obvious choice for an NQT’s first job, but a new study from the TDA finds that for some teachers the challenge is a positive one

16 does mentoring really work?As more teachers turn to mentoring or coaching, we look at what the research reveals about best practice

18 top schoolsWhat makes education systems in other countries work so well? A respect for teachers? Long hours? New research from education expert Michael Barber suggests otherwise

21 tda dataBaseChoosing from a mountain of CPD provision is difficult, but the TDA’s new national CPD database gives teachers the personal treatment and should make the task much easier

22 tim BrighouseEducation expert Tim Brighouse explains why Fermi questions should be on the tip of every teacher’s tongue – once you’ve found out what they are

23 resources Our termly round-up of the most up-to-date and useful CPD resources for you to explore

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CONTENTS

Editor Mira Katbamna | Group Editor Kath Stathers

Published for the TDA by Seven Squared, Sea Containers House, 20 Upper Ground, London SE1 9PD. Tel: 020 7775 5777

All information correct at time of going to press. The views expressed in Professional Teacher do not necessarily reflect those of the TDA. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the permission of the editor. If you have any comments about this publication or would like more information please contact us at: corporatecomms@tda.gov.uk

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Welcome to the first edition of Professional Teacher – the TDA’s flagship CPD journal. Professional Teacher is a step into fresh territory

for us, and one that we are very excited about, but you might be wondering: why a new magazine? And, in particular, why one with such a focus on cutting-edge research?

Our first aim is to disseminate best practice, advice and guidance. We know that outstanding teaching and development takes place, on a big and small scale, every day across the country. But it’s hard to share that practice. If you’re doing brilliant things in Rotherham, it’s unlikely a school in Dartford will hear about it, and vice versa. We’ve never been short of good ideas in this country, but we have been short on the ability to scale up those ideas. The TDA hopes that Professional Teacher will go some way to bridging that gap.

Disseminating best practice involves taking the findings of Professor Alma Harris’s research on parental involvement (p6) and incorporating it into parents’ evenings and understanding what first-class mentoring should look like (p16) – both of which proved hot topics with the Professional Teacher advisory panel. But it’s also about understanding what opportunities are available to teachers and schools for wider CPD. And that’s why I think the TDA’s CPD database (p21) is so important. Launched last October, it allows teachers and schools to access information about CPD courses nationally for the first time.

The TDA’s second aim is to share the 10-year vision for the masters in teaching and learning. It’s easy to get irritated when people start talking about a world-class profession: clearly, we already have many outstanding teachers. But I’ve never yet come across a teacher who didn’t want to be better.

And the best systems give teachers the opportunities to deepen and develop their skills throughout their careers. As Michael Barber’s research on the top school systems in the world (p18) demonstrates, a top-notch teaching force, armed with a postgraduate qualification, has the potential to be transformational.

Understandably, some commentators have talked about the “burden” of the masters but I truly see it as another form of support. If you know you have a development need in controlling a classroom, but can draw down a masters module which supports that, this can surely only be a good thing.

Lastly, our research shows that when you think of CPD you don’t always think of the TDA. We want to make sure that what we do for teachers, and for the school workforce, is more widely known – so you know who to look to for advice and support when you need it. And that’s why I’m delighted to be able to say that former London Schools Tsar and leading educationalist Tim Brighouse has agreed to become our CPD Champion. As well as writing a regular column for this journal, Tim will be going out on the stump helping us to raise the profile of CPD. I hope you enjoy reading his thoughts on pedagogy on page 22.

The TDA’s guiding precept is “listen, improve, deliver”. We listened to the profession when you said you wanted something like Professional Teacher; we hope it will improve practice – and it is the manifestation of our delivery. But ultimately, we want a journal that will be helpful to the profession. So please do tell us what you think, both good and bad – we will be delighted to receive your feedback at the address on the left.

GRAHAM HOLLEY

SPRING 2009 | PROFESSIONAL TEACHER | 3

Cutting-edge research at your fingertips. Welcome to the TDA’s new journal

Chief Executive, Training and Development Agency for Schools

Get in touch

What do you think of the contents of Professional Teacher? Is it useful or interesting? Or both? Whatever your viewpoint, we’d like to hear from you. Send all letters and comments to: corporatecomms@ tda.gov.uk

4 | PROFESSIONAL TEACHER | SPRING 2009

BULLETINThe latest news and information on professional development

A new edition of the school improvement planning framework is launched this month. But what is the framework, and how can it help schools focus on the needs of pupils?

The school improvement planning framework gives school leaders a new way to improve learning by rooting the planning process in the learning needs of children and young people.

It is a suite of tools and techniques designed to help schools take their planning, strategic thinking and implementation to the next level – with the ultimate aim of improving standards of attainment and the wellbeing of children and young people. The framework aims to enhance and complement schools’ existing planning processes.

At the heart of the framework is a needs analysis process that gives schools practical steps to design the best solution for their particular circumstances. Other tools help schools put rigorous monitoring and evaluation in place so they can establish the impact of various activities. The framework is being used successfully by:n individual schoolsn schools and their partner organisationsn schools and children’s centresn clusters of schoolsn local authorities supporting their schools.

The framework includes structured activities that have been designed to harness the knowledge, ideas and experience of different groups in the school and its community. These can be used to make existing activities, such as staff meetings and training days, be as useful as possible and include the whole staff team in planning and decision-making. This provides opportunities for staff to develop both their change management skills and their understanding of what makes a difference to children and young people’s learning.

“One of the things that the framework does is really promote an inclusive and sustainable approach to school improvement planning,” says Maggie Farrar, Strategic Director, Policy, Research and Development, NCSL. “This approach is a way of growing leadership talent from within schools.”

New framework helps schools to improve

n To order a copy of the framework from the TDA publications line, please call 0845 6060 323, quoting reference: TDA 0570/09.08/BEL or visit: www.tda.gov.uk/remodelling/extendedschools/sipf2.aspx

Local authorities can find out more about training and support from their TDA regional adviser, and schools should contact their local authority for advice and support in using the framework

Make plans to improve

Masters update

Last March, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, announced the introduction of a new professional qualification for teachers. Since then, the TDA has made considerable progress in developing the national programme for the masters in teaching and learning (MTL), working with social partners.

Building on national consultations involving over 1,300 colleagues from higher education institutions (HEIs), schools, local authorities and other relevant stakeholder groups, last term saw further development of the national framework for the MTL.

The national framework for MTL will provide the principles for developing the programme and will be used to inform discussions with MTL providers (HEIs and schools working together) on the development of their MTL programmes.

Study gives NQTs tools to improve

Key findings from the first phase of Sheffield Hallam University’s TDA-commissioned longitudinal study are now available at www.nqt-study.info.

The study examines the views of school leadership teams (SLTs) in order to make improvements in the quality of NQT training. It involves a four-stage repeat survey of more than 700 schools across England and repeat visits to 50 case-study schools. As it develops, sound files, downloads and video clips will be up on the

WHAT SCHOOLS ARE SAyINg

n “The school is using the framework to develop personalised, integrated services that put the child and family at the centre of what we offer.”Lynda Valentine, Headteacher, Jesse Boot Primary School, Nottinghamn “These tools enabled us to gain a wealth of information that we could use for our self-evaluation form.”Susanne Fisher, Senior Assistant Headteacher, John O’Gaunt Community College, West Berkshiren “Using the framework has been really powerful – we’ve actually resolved some of the real issues that we had in the school.”John Stinson, Headteacher, St Peter’s CoE Primary School, Redcar and Clevelandn “Using the framework has helped our cluster to make the links between a strong focus on standards and the wider field of extended services.”Pat Smart, Headteacher, Greet Primary School, Birmingham

SPRING 2009 | PROFESSIONAL TEACHER | 5

The latest round of research and development awards focusing on special educational needs (SEN) has been under way for nine months, and is at the halfway mark.

The TDA Research and Development Awards encourage innovative, exploratory and developmental research and its application to improving teacher training and continuing professional development. The projects are intended to build research capacity and to encourage collaboration in teacher education.

The first two rounds have been completed and can be found on the Teacher Training Resource Bank (TTRB), at www.ttrb.ac.uk The TTRB features an SEN portal which contains a

range of resources and policy documents.

The current 16 projects look at a broad range of aspects of SEN such as learning about special needs in handwriting, the role of fathers in the education of their sons, and the use of interactive whiteboards with autistic children. Final research reports and materials will be produced in July 2009, and a dissemination and evaluation conference will be held in autumn 2009.

TDA research awards reach halfway mark

MTL providers are being commissioned to develop and deliver the MTL to the first cohort of eligible teachers employed within their regions.

The TDA has begun commissioning MTL programme evaluators, who will be responsible for evaluating the impact of the programme.

Soon, the TDA will begin recruiting coach trainers, who will be responsible for training in-school coaches.

In-school coaches will support participants as they study for their MTL.

Initial roll-out for the MTL is planned for September 2009, when the programme will be available to all newly qualified teachers starting work in the North West and all newly qualified teachers starting work in National Challenge schools across the country. n For further information visit: www.tda.gov.uk/mtl

With support from the TDA, the Children’s Workforce Development Council has published two new fact sheets that are designed to help schools embed the common assessment

framework and lead professional roles.

Integrated working involves everyone who works with children, young people and families, and schools play a central role in implementing integrated working. The fact sheets are designed to demonstrate how easily integrated working tools can enhance schools’ processes and help staff work effectively with other children’s practitioners.

The fact sheets can be downloaded from the Every Child Matters website.n www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/resources-and-practice/IG00018/

site, while case studies of practice, thematic studies and report bulletins are already available.

There will be two studies of school practice in NQT induction, recruitment and retention, alongside discussions between SLT members and NQTs of key

New fact sheets help schools embed integrated working

Key findings are now online

And the winner is…

The masters in teaching and learning will start in September

Working together matters

issues, such as SLTs’ views on the quality of NQTs and key areas for NQT improvement and induction support offered in schools.

The website also includes an online discussion forum for NQTs and SLT members, and includes discussions of the project methods.

The project lead director, Mike Coldwell, said: “This is an exciting, important project, involving hundreds of schools across the country. The website gives us the ability to share the views and work of these schools, and others, to provide an important source that will help those working with NQTs to act as effectively as possible.” PH

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It might seem like a bit of a no-brainer that students who receive positive parental support perform better in school. But new research published by the Specialist Schools and Academies

Trust (SSAT) shows that parental involve-ment might be more important and have more far-reaching consequences than we ever realised before.

The report, Engaging Parents to Raising Achievement – Do parents know they matter? suggests that the most effective parental engagement consists of quite a bit more than making costumes for the school plays or ferrying kids to swimming lessons. Rather, teachers and parents need to work together over the long term in the classroom and at home.

The Engaging Parents to Raising Achieve-ment (EPRA) project (funded by what was then the Department for Education and Skills) looked at 104 secondary-age schools over a 12-month period. Professor Alma Harris and Dr Janet Goodall, from Warwick University, were commissioned by the SSAT to undertake the research.

It is by no means the first time someone has researched parental engagement and involvement. But, say the researchers, there was no absolute agreement and relatively little evidence about which methods are the most effective.

In 2002, researchers Williams, Williams and Ullman surveyed parents of children aged 5 to 16 attending English schools to establish their degree of involvement in their children’s education. Some 29 per cent of parents felt very involved, 35 per cent strongly agreed that they wanted to be more involved, while around three-quarters of respondents wanted to be at least a

Meet the parentsNew research shows that parents are even more vital to achievement than previously thought. So how do you get parents and carers from hovering at the school gate and into your classroom? Hazel Davis reports

The EPRA project was formally launched in March of 2006. Research focused on four main themes: supporting parents to help children learn; personalising provision for parents as learners; use of technology; and enhancing pastoral care.

The research was carried out in two phases. The first phase included 30 schools (29 comprehensive schools and one grammar school); 20 of these schools were then chosen to enter the second phase, selected for their innovation and their extended work on parental engagement. Initiatives included “dads and lads” or “dads and lasses” schemes, maths events, family-learning events and classes for parents to understand the curriculum in association with local universities. One school even allowed parents to shadow a year group during a school day to see what it was like.

Participating schools provided case studies according to a pre-decided EPRA template, from which much of the qualitative data was taken. The schools recorded the key aims and objectives of the projects they undertook, how the activities related to the themes of the EPRA project, outcomes and impact, challenges, their thoughts for the future and their tips for other schools. There

ENGAGING PARENTSThe role of parents and carers in education

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bit more involved. Almost 95 per cent of respondents found school “welcoming” and 84 per cent reported that the school was willing to involve them.

So it’s rather surprising, perhaps, that Professor Alma Harris, one of the UK’s leading educational researchers, believes parents may in fact be underused. “Previous research into school improvement has highlighted that parents are an important lever for raising achievement – but that they are a powerful resource that is underutilised in many schools.”

And that is particularly true for teachers in their first five years of teaching. “I think most teachers early in their career may not have parental engagement at the forefront of their mind,” says Prof Harris. “Some thought about extending learning into the home is time well spent whether

you are a novice teacher or an expert practitioner. That doesn’t mean it’s easy, but the rewards are high.”

Parental involvement is not, however, the same as parental engagement. “This is not just an issue of semantics,” Harris argues, “but affects subsequent action. Parental involvement with the school (PTAs, trips, parent skill classes) is good, but it has little – if any – impact on student achievement. Engaging parents in supporting learning in the home does.”

“The 24/7 society, the demands of childcare, and job demands are all barriers to parents and carers getting involved”

were 314 individual respondents in total, across 79 hours of interviews.

Schools were also asked to provide a cross-section of respondents including senior managers, classroom assistants and non-academic members of staff. Pupil respondents included head boys and girls, students involved in student councils, as well as students on report or at risk of exclusion or involved in behavioural intervention programmes.

Importantly, the parents who partici-pated were from a diverse group and included parents whose children had been excluded and were in behaviour intervention programmes.

WHAT IS PARENTAL ENGAGEmENT?One of the crucial preliminary aims of the research was to discover how the three groups (parents, staff and students) per-ceived the notion of parental engagement.

“During the first phase of the research project, it became clear that there was no strong consensus about parental engage-ment. It meant very different things to the different respondents,” Harris says. “Perhaps the situation is best explained by

SPRING 2009 | PROFESSIONAL TEACHER | 7

a deputy head teacher who, when asked why parental engagement is important, said, ‘I don’t know, I just know it is, and I’m not going to give up!’”

Nonetheless, in almost every case, when respondents of every group were asked, “Is parental engagement important?” the answer was always unequivocally a positive one.

It might be universally praised, but does parental engagement look different at pri-mary and secondary? Interestingly, the gen-eral consensus, from both staff and parents, was that parental engagement is “easier” at primary school than in secondary school.

“Usually, this is couched in terms of ‘you’re there (or, they’re there) at the school gates’, though parents have also reported being far more comfortable helping with homework in the primary years,” Harris says. “The difficulties relating to secondary school are often expressed in terms of physical presence, which is deemed to be more difficult at secondary level.”

WHAT ARE THE mAIN bARRIERS?The findings showed that parental engage-ment is linked to socio-economic status and ethnicity. There was also a correlation between the parents’ own educational experience and how involved they got.

Harris and her researchers found that the barriers schools face in engaging parents include time, language difficulties, child-care issues, literacy issues and effective understanding of the school system.

“The 24/7 society, demands of childcare and job demands are all barriers,” she says. “For some parents, schools are ‘hard to reach’ because of differences in culture, language and structure of education. School is difficult to negotiate for parents, espe-cially at the secondary level.”

But it’s important, she says, not to get too hung up on the idea of the problem being all with the parents. “It’s about sustaining the engagement of parents who are already working with the school. Schools can focus on the ‘hard to reach’ parents and forget to nurture those parents who already support their work,” she says.

Indeed, some of the parents interviewed reported frustration if schools did not appear to welcome their contact. The report notes that, “For some parents schools feel like a ‘closed system’ that primarily exists to support teachers over students when there are conflicts of any sort.” ➤

Research summaryn The EPRA project was launched in March 2006n Thirty schools were selected to participate in the research from 104 schools on the schemen The study showed that parental engagement is positively influenced by the child’s level of attainment: the higher the level of attainment, the more parents get involvedn Feedback shows that parental engagement is heavily linked to socio-economic status, as well as parental experience of educationn Parents of certain ethnic and social groups are less likely to engage with schoolsn In schools located in more challenging areas, the engagement of parents was a central influence upon positive learning and behavioural outcomes

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Further tensions are created when parents and staff hold very different assumptions about the nature, pattern and purpose of family-school interactions. These differences can lead to parental frustration and mistrust.

The report found that in schools located in more challenging areas, the engagement of parents resulted in a reduction of exclusions and improved attendance.

“We weren’t surprised, but very pleased at how schools embraced the challenge,” says SSAT’s head of campaigns and project leader Kirstie Andrew-Power.

“Some of the schools who had classed the parents as hard to reach realised that just by changing their own behaviour meant that they were more accessible. They realised that all parents want to support their children really.”

However, just because parents are keen doesn’t necessarily mean engagement is easy. “It was a real snowball effect, but we were very clear that there were no silver bullets,” Andrew-Power explains. “There was no ‘If you do this, all your parents will be happy.’ It’s hard work and if you have the inspiration to engage with 100 per cent of parents, you will have to adopt a wide range of measures.”

HOW WE CAN dO ITSo how can teachers and managers ensure that they are maximising their resources to engage and involve parents effectively? The research found that the most successful initiatives undertaken by the schools were those which related directly to family dynamics. These comprised things such as courses on parenting and family issues, which provided expert advice from teachers or other agencies such as Parentline. These courses allow parents to discuss family and learning-related issues with peers, in comfortable, non-threatening situations.

Parents who engaged in these activities reported increased instances of conversa-tional activity with their children and reduced stress in the home, one parent say-ing: “I keep thinking something is missing – we’ve not had an argument for weeks!” Students whose parents attended such courses also reported better communica-tion. As one student put it: “I like it when you go to those courses, you’re nicer to us!”

The provision of parents’ handbooks, which summarise information about the

school, contacts and procedures, was also found to be successful. One of the handbooks created by a project school has now been adopted across its local authority and is being used as a model for handbooks in other areas.

Other schools concentrated on learn-ing aimed directly at parents themselves, based on responses to parental surveys, questionnaires or focus groups. This learning included craft, beauty, IT, language or cookery courses.

Among the successful schemes adopted by the schools, were some easily transferable ones. Andrew-Power proposes paying students to deliver the school newsletter: “This overcomes the challenge of newsletters getting home. You could also deliver these to local residents to raise the positive profile of the school. Or recruit local businesses to pay for advertising space in the newsletter to cover the printing and delivery costs.”

She also suggests utilising parent forums and groups to look at school reports and work them into a “parent-friendly” format: “Work with students and parents for the

first draft of communication to ensure the language is appropriate and parent friendly, and have parent ‘proof readers’. One school pays mealtime supervisors for an extra hour a week to fulfil this role – these colleagues are also a positive voice in the community.”

It’s important, too, to think “big and different” for parental engagement events. Andrew-Powers suggests hiring a rock band might encourage parents to attend. She also advises producing a credit card-sized information card as a one-stop shop for parents featuring key dates, web links, phone numbers, e-mail address and a “What do I do?” section. And, finally, she says: “Plan for a whole school-timetabled approach to communicating with parents – ask the questions for each form of communication – what do we hope this will achieve?”

THE FuTuREUltimately, Professor Harris says it’s all about quality communication – and that means integration. “What we have found is that parental engagement needs to be fully embedded and integrated into teaching and learning plans if it’s to be properly successful,” she says. “Communication with parents should be two-way and the engagement of parents must be built into forward planning.”

n “It’s difficult sometimes to sit down with a 14-year-old and spend three-quarters of an hour without an aim. If you’re working on an essay you’re talking about other things. And they’re having you there, they’re pleasing you, you’re pleasing them and I think that’s really important.” n “My daughter has been quite conscientious so there’s been no need

for me to get involved. There’s no need for me to push her into doing her homework.” n “There are a lot of people out there who think [teachers] aren’t going to listen.”n “What we’ve decided is that once we’ve got disengaged parents there isn’t much we can do, so we’re looking at getting the parents who are coming up and keeping them engaged.”

n “I think once pupils get past primary school, where you leave them at the door, you lose the parents. You see them at parents’ evenings, but that’s about it.”n “I think there’s a lot of parents that do [want to get involved], but they aren’t aware that they can.”n “If the home isn’t supportive it can undermine what the school is doing.”

What teachers and parents have to say about involvement

“Some of the schools who had classed parents as ‘hard to reach’ realised that changing behaviour made parents more accessible”

ENGAGING PARENTS

n For more information on how to engage parents please email: engagingparents@ssatrust.org.uk

SPRING 2009 | PROFESSIONAL TEACHER | 9

For new teachers about to enter their first year of teaching, nothing seems more daunting than time management. Working full days at school then returning home to plan

lessons late into the night eventually becomes unsustainable – however good your intentions.

The statutory 10 per cent timetable reduction given to NQTs is intended to allow us to build up a personal bank of teaching resources for use in future years and to help us cope with the pressures of a new school with new procedures, new classes and new schemes of work. But we also find ourselves with a whole new series of unexpected drains on our precious time.

During my NQT year last year, I made many mistakes before learning some of the subtle time-management strategies that more experienced teachers take for granted. For example, responding diligently to the two or three students who came daily knocking on our faculty office door meant I worked through my morning break and arrived at my next lesson feeling rushed and pressured. Clearing my internal e-mail inbox in the morning took 30 minutes of my most valuable time. Preparing lesson resources on a Monday morning rather than a Friday evening gave me a start to the week that was far more stressful than necessary.

Everyone knows that NQTs are more likely to experience behaviour-management difficulties, but it is surprising the impact that ineffectual time management outside of lessons can have on student

vIEw FROm wITHINA new teacher writes

behaviour within them. The obvious result of my mistakes was that I felt over-burdened and less prepared in my teaching – increasing the chances of behavioural incidents. Suddenly the time-management dilemma was accentuated, because now the hour during which I would have planned next week’s lessons was spent contacting parents, writing up incident reports or talking with heads of year.

Fortunately, I work with a highly supportive staff. My school’s Training School designation exposes new teachers, like me, to the good practice of more experienced colleagues. Informal, confidential coaching by a mentor from another faculty, for example, allowed me to share experiences and come up with strategies to improve.

Now in my second year of teaching, it is amazing how much easier it is to manage my time at work effectively. This is in spite of a full teaching timetable and additional responsibilities I have taken on since last year. Planning my non-contact time is equally as valuable as lesson planning. My most profitable time is in the morning before school. Blissfully free from interruptions, I reserve this time for lesson planning, saving repetitive or less demanding tasks, such as responding to emails, until the end of the school day, when I have less energy.

Whereas last year I thought that talking to a student in morning break or working through a lunch hour might save me time elsewhere, I now realise this is counter-productive. Arriving at a lesson more relaxed, I can ensure a smooth and positive start. Taking simple measures to plan more carefully and reduce stress levels results in fewer behavioural incidents in lessons – and less time spent resolving them.

Of course, I am in the early years of my teaching career and have not got everything right. Having learned the importance of prioritising tasks, I still find I have several low-priority items that stay on my to-do list from one week to the next! What is clear to me, though, is that just like that other perpetual concern for new teachers, behaviour management, time management is a skill that can be developed with experience and structured support from colleagues.

TOmmy IzzETT

The NQT’s learning curve is about far more than getting behaviour under control and lesson pitching right. Time management is essential, too

Get in touch

would you like to be a guest columnist? If so, write to us at corporatecomms@tda.gov.uk with the name of your school, how long you’ve been teaching and your proposed topic

Planning my non-contact time is equally as valuable as lesson planning

SCHOOL Central Foundation Girls’ School, Bow, London JOB TITLE Teacher of French and Citizenship NUMBER OF YEARS TEACHINg Two

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I n 2003, the then Minister for School Standards, David Miliband, suggested that helping children to learn how to learn, in preparation for a lifetime of change, was one of the core functions

of teaching in the 21st century. In line with this view, other Government agencies, such as Ofsted and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), have also focused their attentions on developing learning skills and habits rather than placing all emphasis on the teaching of content.

The key for teachers is developing an understanding of how their lessons support and develop learning – in other words, teachers must learn how to learn, so that they can encourage their students to do the same. Staff development programmes play a crucial role in achieving this; however, it is often difficult to assess just how effective these programmes are and therefore many schools have varying experiences of professional development.

Chris Holbrook, a teacher at Drayton Manor High School, Ealing, set out to fill this evaluation gap when he examined the impact of the learning to learn staff development programme on early career teachers at his school, as research for his masters degree. Holbrook’s aim was to assess different methods of evaluation to help inform the school’s continuing professional development (CPD) policies in the future.

APPLYING RIGOUR TO ASSESSMENTOn the surface, evaluating the impact of staff development activities seems like a relatively simple exercise. After all, exam-ining educational outcomes is a process in which teachers are well versed. However, dig a little deeper and it becomes clear that although an increasing amount is now

The master classYour school probably has a staff development programme, but is it working? Masters student Chris Holbrook decided to assess his school’s programme as part of his studies. Julie Ferry reports

Chris Holbrook canvassed the opinions of teachers about their experience of CPD

need to prove its benefit to the teacher, so that they value it, and to pupils, so that they notice a difference in the teacher’s performance.

Holbrook’s research canvassed all 25 teachers within years two to five of their careers at Drayton Manor, using a question-naire format. This was then followed by interviews with a sample of the group and interviews with their students.

Holbrook found that most early career teachers saw the importance of developing learning skills and habits and had bought into the aims of learning to learn. However, while it was clear that teachers were devel-oping and implementing skills to facilitate learning to learn alongside their subject knowledge, they were doing this to differ-ing degrees. Holbrook concluded that at this stage, staff development activities had been more effective at developing teachers’ knowledge of learning to learn, rather than their skills in delivering it.

Despite these shortcomings, the study also found that teachers viewed their own skills in the field of learning to learn as important, and were able to quantify the extent to which they felt they had devel-oped. Many spoke of how they valued the professional development activities to help them become more effective in their job – undoubtedly a positive step forward in staff retention.

One stand-out aspect of the development process named by many teachers was the

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known about in-depth evaluation of profes-sional development, few schools actually put these methods into practice. In fact, a recent study discovered that the major-ity only conduct basic evaluations such as collecting teachers’ immediate thoughts after an activity.

A more comprehensive approach is required to provide school leaders with a broad picture of the effectiveness of their programmes, given the increasing focus on developing learning skills and habits, and the sheer range of CPD activities on offer to schools. Any CPD that is undertaken will

MASTERS RESEARCHUnderstanding how to assess staff development

“My research has made a difference to the way we do things at school”

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chance to collaborate with other teachers and the importance of working together. They spoke of sharing and discussing prac-tice in training sessions and being men-tored by colleagues. However, beyond sim-ple anecdotal evidence about the success of these kinds of CPD activities, how do school leaders prove that such methods of training provide real value for money?

The framework that Holbrook used in the study, proposed by Guskey (2002), allows school leaders to understand the impact of staff development activities in five key areas: participants’ reactions; participants’ learning; organisation support and change; participants’ use of new knowledge and skills; and pupil learning outcomes. He then provides the questions and methods they can use to assess this.

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My main motivation for embarking on the masters was that I wanted to learn for myself again. I had been focusing on my students’ learning for a long time and felt I needed to push myself with something completely separate to my day job, but still related to the profession as a whole.

A number of teachers from my school had either completed or just started the course and so I decided to speak to one of them to find out more about it. Initially, I thought educational leadership and management would only focus on leadership roles, so I was surprised that it looked at a much broader vision of education and leadership within schools.

The course has opened my eyes. As a

classroom practitioner you tend to be focused on your classroom, with your students, but you don’t see the bigger picture – what’s going on regionally or nationally, or how different schools have different approaches.

My school agreed to pay part of my costs, so when it came to my dissertation I wanted to give something back by looking at an area that could have a beneficial

impact on everyday school life.

My research has made a difference to the way we do things at school. I found that staff really value discussing issues formally and informally so we’ve tried to build in collaboration as a key part of staff development. Now, the sessions we run are much more focused on working together. I’m not sure whether my research has had a huge influence on my classroom teaching style, although maybe it has taught me more about getting students to question how they learn.

I would definitely like to do further professional learning – maybe at some point in the future I would consider a doctorate, but for now it would be quite nice to have a rest.

Before going ahead with any activities, Hol-brook recommends that the school should consider the tools needed for data collection and the timing of collection, to ensure they fit the purpose of the evaluation. To avoid the replication of tasks it would make sense for the school to link existing systems for collecting data with those of CPD impact evaluation. For example, pre-exising partici-pant reaction forms could be used to evalu-ate participant reactions to CPD activities.

Lesson observation schedules used for the purposes of monitoring, performance management and self-review could be adapted and collected to form evidence of teachers’ use of new skills.

Student interviews and book reviews are already conducted and could easily be used for evaluation of student outcomes. Evidence for this impact area could also be gained by using the wealth of assessment data that the school has to hand.

THE RIGHT EvALUATIONSome newer forms of data collection may need to be introduced for the evaluation of teachers’ learning and organisational sup-port and change. Online questionnaires, as used in Holbrook’s study, and interviews of sample groups are possibilities.

As well as utilising existing forms of data collection, the study also showed the importance of updating other systems in the school that are affected by staff development activity. Data collected for this study showed how an existing system (lesson observation schedules) did not fit the new reality of practice that resulted from staff development. Such a clash in systems, Holbrook says, could lead to staff feeling hindered in their development.

Schools invest heavily in staff development activities so, as Holbrook’s research indicates, the effectiveness of such activities should be closely scrutinised. Particularly with the elevation of learning to learn principles within the education system, the importance of teachers being offered the right kind of training is essential. Holbrook’s study offers a clear path for school leaders to ensure their activities are the best fit for staff.

“I wanted to learn for myself again”

Chris Holbrook completed his research while studying a part-time, two-year masters in educational leadership and management at the Institute of Education in London. The 32-year-old teaches modern foreign languages at Drayton Manor High School in Ealing, west London

n To learn more about evaluating impact, visit: www.tda.gov.uk/teachers/continuingprofessionaldevelopment/cpdleadership/evaluate_impact.aspx

Although Drayton Manor High School engaged in a process of evaluating CPD activities, it had no rigorous framework for the evaluation of staff development. However, the school already had systems for the collection of data for many other purposes, such as performance management and faculty reviews, which could then be used for the purposes of evaluating staff development.

RESULTS AND IMPACTSSo what were Holbrook’s findings? The first step in the process of planning for staff development programmes should consider the needs and the desired impact for each of the five areas. Once the desired impact is known, the school can then consider the means it will put into place.

Master of the big picture

R obin Alexander, champion of “dialogic pedagogy”, believes there is still some way to go before talk achieves the promi-nence in the curriculum it

deserves. Dialogic teaching “harnesses the power of talk to stimulate and extend stu-dents’ thinking and advance their learning and understanding,” says Alexander, Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, Professor of Education Emeritus at the University of Warwick, and Director of the Cambridge Primary Review. In a nutshell, it involves sustained discussion and dialogue between teacher and pupil that is very different to the normal question and answer routine.

The imporTance of TalkMost of us know from experience that having to articulate an idea forces you to analyse it, enhancing your understand-ing. Neuroscience also tells us that talk is essential to the building of neural connec-tions in the brain and, therefore, develops the capacity for learning. This is particu-larly true in the early and pre-adolescent years. As Professor Alexander says in his book, Towards Dialogic Teaching – Rethink-ing Classroom Talk (Dialogos 2008): “The extent and manner of children’s cognitive development depends to a considerable degree on the forms and contexts of lan-guage they have encountered and used.”

Alexander has carried out extensive research into teaching methods in other countries and notes the high value placed on oracy in some cultures. He gives the examples of France and Russia, where lessons are likely to contain a greater oral component, and may even consist entirely of talk. In such contexts there is likely to be much more extended discussion and exploration of ideas, and children are encouraged to speak audibly, clearly and at length.

Question timeVerbal questioning has long been a fundamental part of teaching. But does it really promote the dialogue that develops understanding? Caroline Roberts investigates

that make dialogue possible. “Collectivity” involves teachers and pupils working together on learning tasks as a class or group. “Reciprocity” means listening to each other, sharing ideas and considering alternative views, and “support” refers to a culture where pupils help each other without being afraid of giving the “wrong” answer. These lay the foundation for “cumulation” – teachers and pupils building on their own and others’ ideas and, crucially, linking them into coherent lines of thinking through extended discussion. “Purposeful-ness” requires that dialogue is planned with specific learning goals in mind and questions used as scaffolding.

A key difference in practice is that, rather than the teacher flitting from one pupil to another in an effort to involve as many as possible – something that often results in a fragmented discussion – the emphasis is on exploring ideas through a sustained dialogue with an individual pupil who then becomes the representative of the class.

It also requires a different type of ques-tioning, says Wendy Willmer, Head of Marks Gate Infant School, in Chadwell Heath, where dialogic teaching is now embedded. “Instead of saying, ‘Why do you think that happened?’ you say, ‘I wonder why that happened.’ It’s the same question, but it’s much more you joining them in thinking about it. That makes a huge difference to the response. The first assumes that you know the answer and are testing them.”

Teachers also nominate pupils to speak rather than allowing them to “bid” for the right to answer a question. “We don’t do hands up,” says Willmer. “The same chil-dren put their hands up all the time, some put their hands up whether they know the answer or not, and sometimes children will put their hands up as they know you will pick on the ones who don’t. It means that children are in control of the lesson. You

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In England, although question and answer is an important part of classroom practice, many studies have shown that the “default mode” of interaction is what American researchers call “recitation”. Questions are designed to check recall of knowledge, or provide pupils with clues to the “right” answer, and feedback is minimal. Although this has its place, it doesn’t produce sustained pupil talk – a 2004 review of inter-active whole class-teaching in the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies found that most pupils’ answers lasted an average of five seconds and consisted of three words or fewer for 70 per cent of the time (Smith et al 2004). This is hardly likely to take their understanding further or turn out the confi-dent communicators that society demands.

So whaT doeS dialogic Teaching look like?Alexander points out that “dialogic teaching is more a professional outlook or state of mind than a specific method”. He identifies five main principles, the first three of which are concerned with creating the teaching environment, attitudes, and relationships

dialogic pedagogYRefining the use of questions in the classroom

might make a list of children that you want to target during that lesson and you need to make sure you speak to every child over a period of time.”

Teachers must be prepared to challenge and argue with pupils. And listening to and responding appropriately to their answers is vital as they provide important clues about the child’s thinking process. But, just as pupils need thinking time, so do teach-ers: there is nothing wrong with pausing for a moment to think about an answer.

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Teacher: Jack, please tell us which story you preferred and why.Jack: I preferred At the Zoo because it was very mysterious and you didn’t find out what was looking at what until the very end. Because when I first read the story I thought there were some new arriving animals and the children were looking at them for a school project. But at the end I found that these aliens were actually looking at humans at the zoo and

the humans were the new arrivals.Teacher: The story sounds very confusing. When did you understand that the children were in the cages?Jack: Oh, not until the very end. In fact, the first time I read it I didn’t get it at all. It took two readings and then I thought, “Now I know what’s going on!”Teacher: But on our list of what makes a book worth reading that we wrote earlier, we put

“EASY TO READ”. At the Zoo doesn’t sound like it was an easy story if you had to read it twice to understand it…Jack: Yes, but the words were easy. The story wasn’t. The story was a mystery and I like mysteries, so that is why I like At the Zoo better.Teacher: So Jack prefers At the Zoo. What about you, Karen?

Thanks to David Reedy, Head of primary English, Barking and Dagenham.

BUT will iT work wiTh mY rowdY Year 9?It’s easy to see how sustaining a dialogue might be possible on a one-to-one or small-group basis, but isn’t it much harder – or even impossible – in a whole class situation, particularly with challenging pupils? The first step is to create a culture in which dia-logic teaching can happen.

“Before you start any of this you have to work on listening skills,” says Willmer. “We work on what good listening looks like – how they should sit, where their hands should be, what their eyes should be doing. We also use things like talk and lis-ten cards. One pupil has a talk card and one a listen card and they have to swap so they learn about turn-taking. You can then extend that to the whole class so every-body listens and only the person with the talk card is allowed to speak. Moving from what good listening looks like to actually listening takes time, but they do get to grips with it. It does work well with a whole class – you can have an extended dialogue with one child and the other children do listen and learn from each other.”

Crucially, Alexander is not suggesting that dialogue should be used in isolation.

Rather, it should be seen as part of a rep-ertoire of methods in which instruction, exposition, discussion – and even rote – all have their place. As Willmer puts it: “You can’t teach dialogically if they have no knowledge of a subject, so you have to cover that first.”

challenging cUrrenT orThodoxYDialogic pedagogy calls into question things that teachers may accept uncritical-ly as good practice, such as the “pacy” les-son. Obviously, lessons should not drag, but constantly moving on does not always leave time for the development and reflec-tion that is part of the dialogic process. Alexander is also critical of the tendency to give unspecific praise along the lines of “well done” and “that’s brilliant” – some-times so often that it becomes meaning-less. Instead, considered feedback, that moves children’s understanding on as well as being encouraging, is more important.

There are also some aspects of dia-logic teaching that are counter-intuitive. It often feels natural to repeat a child’s answer, perhaps to clarify their point for the class, or because they have spoken too softly. However, teachers should fight this urge, says Willmer. “It gives the mes-sage to the child that they don’t need to speak loudly as you’ll do it for them. It also gives the message to the other chil-dren that they don’t need to listen to each other as they know you’re going to say it, so the only person that it’s important to listen to is you.” And, of course, in true dialogic teaching, nothing could be further from the truth.

Dialogic teaching in action

The dialogue below followed a class reading of two stories. note the way the teacher focuses on drawing out one child using a chain of thinking, and arguing with him rather than praising. The teacher doesn’t repeat Jack’s answers and moves on to the next pupil using nomination rather than bidding

n For more information on Alexander’s research, visit: www.robinalexander.org.uk/dialogicteaching.htm

n Alexander, RJ (2001) Culture and Pedagogy: international comparisons in primary education, Oxford: Blackwell

n Alexander, RJ (2008) Towards Dialogic Teaching: rethinking classroom talk (4th edition), York: Dialogos

n Smith, F, Hardman, F, Wall, K and Mroz, M (2004) Interactive whole class teaching in the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies. British Educational Research Journal, 30(3): 395-412IL

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S chools facing challenging circum-stances (SFCCs) need good teachers who stay in their jobs for a number of years, but these are the very schools that face the most

difficulties finding good teaching staff and have the highest staff turnover.

So why is it that some teachers are keen to work in these schools whereas others would not touch the application form with a barge pole? The TDA wanted to find out, as Chris Brown, Head of Strategic Research, explains. “We wanted to work out how to attract the best-quality teachers into schools where they are needed the most,” he says. “We commissioned research looking at recruitment and retention in SFCCs, examining what would attract teachers to these schools, and once there, what would convince them to stay.”

So what does an SFCC look like? At Key Stage 4, an SFCC is defined as a school where less than 30 per cent of pupils achieve five A* to C GCSEs or equivalent; at Key Stage 2, it is a school where less than 65 per cent of pupils achieve Level 4+ in English and math-ematics. At both stages, 20 per cent of pupils must be eligible for free school meals.

However, the strong link between achieve-ment and socio-economic conditions does not entirely explain variable achievement levels: two schools facing the same socio-economic challenges can produce quite different results.

Motivation Most teachers share a desire to make a difference – but it can mean very different things to different people. For some, it’s all about exam success or helping students to achieve basic skills; for others it might be about pastoral care and contributing to a child’s overall wellbeing.

These two types of “difference” – the academic and the pastoral – carry equal

Eye of the storm?Most teachers want to make a difference – but why do some want to work in a school facing challenging circumstances? Ellie Levenson reports

packages, career development packages and financial packages.

So which incentives were most popular? Teachers placed support first, then pack-ages to help with professional development and only after that, financial incentives such as golden hellos. Trainee teachers had similar priorities, though they showed extra interest in the financial incentives, practical training and pre-employment placements.

additional supportResearchers looked at practical and emotional support, with teachers and trainees responding favourably to: increased use of specialist support staff for cover teaching, behavioural issues and special educational needs; guaranteed timetabled planning, preparation and assessment time for all teaching staff; and enhanced practical support with increased use of specifically trained teaching assistants to help with behavioural management. Mentoring and a teacher wellbeing package were of less interest.

Unsurprisingly, new teachers found support packages most attractive. Seventy-eight per cent of those who had been in the profession for less than six years said that they would find increased support “very attractive” when considering a job in an SFCC, compared to 57 per cent of those who had been teaching for longer than six years. This suggests that teachers either grow in confidence as they gain experience or that once teachers have taught in a non-SFCC they are unlikely to then move to one.

But what about using continuing pro-fessional development (CPD) as an incen-tive? Unsurprisingly, the attractiveness of “enhanced CPD” was greater to those who were generally more career-minded, tied to the idea that applying to an SFCC might result in quicker promotion. However, this kind of incentive held most interest for

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weight for some, but for most, either the academic or the pastoral is paramount – so what kind of teacher chooses an SFCC? Interestingly, the research found that teachers who felt “making a difference” was about pastoral care were most likely to teach in SFCCs, and feel a greater sense of job satisfaction working at these schools.

But for many young teachers choosing an SFCC, it’s also about real-life experience. Many of those who highlighted a desire to work in an SFCC were educated or lived in a deprived area and felt an obligation to give something back.

Of course, not all teachers want to work in an SFCC – and behaviour is key. Teachers said they wanted to focus on teaching

rather than discipline, that they were anxious about dealing with “difficult” children or felt they wouldn’t get enough support. Most worryingly, newer teachers feared they would be isolated or left to deal with difficult situations alone.

Teachers also worried that working in an SFCC could affect their job prospects later on, reporting they thought that teach-ing for too long at an SFCC might suggest excellent behaviour management skills at the expense of academic ones.

However, even these teachers said they might work in an SFCC, in the right circumstances. The TDA research looked at incentives in three areas: support

The longer a person has been teaching the more altruistic they become. Sixty-seven per cent of trainees were interested in a golden hello, compared to 46 per cent of teachers

CHallEnGinG sCHoolsHow do they attract the best teachers?

those already working in an SFCC, suggest-ing it has more potential as a retention, than a recruiting, tool. Heads tended to overes-timate the attractiveness of CPD, perhaps because many had followed a development route to senior management and so as-sumed others would want to do this, too.

MonEy, MonEy, MonEyPerhaps the longer a person has been teach-ing, the more altruistic they become. Finan-cial incentives had a relatively greater impact among trainees compared to experienced teachers. Sixty-seven per cent of trainees were

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I became a teacher in 2000 and worked in teaching for three years before applying for the fast-track programme. After four years, I was accepted onto the Future Leaders programme, which recruits and trains people who want – eventually – to be headteachers in complex urban schools.

Statistically, this is probably the least challenging school I have worked in. Even though it is challenging and an inner-city comprehensive, it is well run so there is less turnover than at my last school. I wanted to teach in this kind of school because I think this is where you can actually make more of a difference, and where good teaching and leadership is most needed. But I also think that the children who go to more challenging schools are as interesting, engaging and inspiring and have just as much ability as children in any other school.

After this placement I can apply to be on the senior leadership team in a school. It is probably easier to be promoted because you get more

movement of staff. I didn’t get a golden hello because history is not a shortage subject, although I was in the first year to get money during our training year. I think there should be financial incentives to work in more challenging schools to make sure you get the best people. You can get driven people who want to work in those schools for their own moral reasons, but you can’t rely on that, on people having their own motivations, you have to plan to get the best people in those schools.

very interested in a golden hello of £10,000, compared to just 46 per cent of teachers. This may be connected to levels of student debt and also probably reflects the fact that many of the teachers will have become less finan-cially motivated over time.

The study looked at three specific amounts – £5,000, £7,000 and £10,000 – for a golden hello, each payable over two years and in three instalments. As might be expected, levels of interest increased as the amount increased, but researchers found that expectations were at around the £7,000 mark before any amounts were put to the

respondents. Again, heads tended to over-estimate the effect of financial incentives.

The researchers concluded that for those considering a job in an SFCC, offering an incentive, particularly a support-based one, could be a deciding factor. And in the long term, SFCCs may improve so much that the school itself is incentive enough, with teachers clamouring for a job.

“It’s where good teaching and leadership is most needed”

Mari Williams, 32, is a history teacher at acland Burghley secondary school in north london. Currently on placement as an associate deputy, she explains why teaching at an sFCC can be so rewarding

Mari Williams feels she is making more of a difference

n For more information, visit: www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/sie/si/SfCC/ or www.ncsl.org.uk/publications-index/publications-display.htm?id=21256IL

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job” will always play a key part in the career development of teachers, especially in the first years. However, finding yourself in charge of a room of students can be extremely daunting, so it’s no surprise that mentoring and coaching (MAC) is becoming increasingly popular.

So much so, that the TDA is now putting a significant amount of resources behind it: the Agency’s five-year strategic plan for 2008–13 specifies coaching and mentoring skills and the TDA now hosts the National Framework for Mentoring and Coaching. The Masters in Teaching and Learning programme also includes a proposal for coaching that represents “a significant investment in coaching and mentoring capacity in schools”.

But although MAC is popular, what difference does it really make? What does good practice look like? And how can you make the most of it?

In order to find out, the TDA asked the National Foundation for Educational Research to review the evidence.

Although there is no single definition of mentoring and coaching, the research found that if effective it is likely to: provide a sounding board; provide information and support (rather than advice);

pose challenges within a safe environment; problem solve; be reflective; and create a partnership in which both mentor and those being mentored are engaged and motivated.

Making an iMpactMAC can have a huge impact – on the learner teacher, the mentor or coach themselves, on the school as a whole, and on young people.

In the study, almost everyone who had had a mentor reported gains in “hard skills” such as teaching knowledge: early career teachers said they saw an improvement in classroom management skills; and headteachers specified leadership skills. They all also said their ability to share practice improved: early career teachers, for example, said they felt more able to contribute to the school community.

However, significantly, they also experienced substantial gains in “soft skills”, reporting improvements such as increased reflectivity, improved confidence, better problem-solving skills, better relationships, a more positive attitude towards professional development, and improved self-management.

Although improving teachers’ hard and soft skills is obviously important, it’s only truly valuable if it has a knock-on effect on students’ learning.

Judging the impact on young people is difficult. However, according to the study, “the majority of teachers [who’d received mentoring] believed the effects they enjoyed were being passed on to their pupils… enhancements to pupils’ learning registered the highest degree of [impact], over and above every other impact”.

Mentoring can be challengingIt will come as little surprise to most teachers that the main barrier to successful MAC is a potent combination of time and workload. Researchers found that both mentors and those they were mentoring in all types of MAC schemes reported difficulties in simply finding the time to meet, discuss and reflect.

However, other issues were also important. The mentor had to come armed with a specific set of skills, including the ability to give appropriate feedback and the ability to give positive support and challenge to their charge. Researchers also found that the relationship between the mentor and the learner had to evolve over time so that the relationship matured as the experience and expertise of both the mentor and the person being mentored developed.

Free participation – unsurprisingly – is critical. Those who felt instructed to attend by managers were more likely to resist the process,

and to perceive discussion as implicit criticism or concern about performance.

So how do you Make it work? The evidence is pretty clear on what makes MAC effective. First, set aside enough time. Whether that is time in the classroom, time for long-term activities, time for meetings, as well as space – without it, MAC simply won’t work.

MAC works best where the organisation’s own culture is appropriate for learning and can provide a framework for implementation, locating MAC within broader professional development strategies. All parties must understand the aims and purpose of the MAC being undertaken and develop a clear structure for the programme or scheme.

Lastly, the mentor and the person they’re mentoring must be well matched (some studies claim that a bad match can scupper the whole process). Ideally, teachers should be able to select their own mentor so that he or she truly plays the role of “a chosen critical friend”. There should also be the ability to change mentors if necessary.

And then? Set your goals as ambitiously as you like, because the evidence clearly demonstrates that MAC has the potential to make a huge difference to teachers – whichever stage of their career they’re at.

Role models required How many teachers do you know who begin their careers knowing everything? Exactly. That’s why mentoring and coaching can be such valuable support in those early years, says Mira Katbamna

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Mentoring and coachingHow to gain support for your career

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n There is no one definition of mentoring and coaching (MAC), but good practice usually includes providing a sounding board, posing a challenge within a safe environment, being reflective and creating a partnership in which both mentor and mentee or coach and coachee are engaged and motivated.n MAC can be peer-to-peer, expert-to-novice, sector specific, cross-sector and last an hour or several years, so long as it meets the needs of the teacher being mentored or coached.n MAC enables teachers to gain both hard skills

(classroom techniques) and soft skills (confidence, leadership, clarity of thinking and better communication).n MAC also benefits mentors, who commonly report a gain in knowledge and skills, improved reflectivity and professional and career development.n There is currently no hard evidence to demonstrate a link between MAC for teaching professionals and outcomes for students; however, the anecdotal evidence is very strong.n The biggest challenge to effective MAC is managing time and workload.

Key learning points

Want to work for one of the best schools in the world? Move to Finland. Or Singapore. Or Hong Kong, Canada or New

Zealand. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) rigorous Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), has found that these countries deliver the very best educational outcomes for all stu-dents. But how do they do it?

PISA provides the raw data – telling us, for example, that tiny Liechtenstein excels

A new report by Michael Barber looks at how other countries manage their education systems and the lessons we can learn

for teachers, enhanced by well-behaved students and long hours of study.

These assumptions, however, are wrong. School success is not nearly as culture- or nation-specific as most of us assumed. Instead, as demonstrated by new research by Michael Barber and Mona Mourshed, the world’s most successful schools follow three simple rules.

But before we look at what does work, a quick word on the surprising things that don’t. Barber and Mourshed’s research has found that most school reform – worldwide – fails to have

global classroomEducation around the world

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in maths and that Ireland comes out near the top for reading. But numbers alone can’t tell you why they are so successful.

Indeed, until recently, explaining international differences in educational outcomes relied as much on stereotype as it did on research. Finnish success, we were told, was the result of social cohesiveness, a national obsession with reading and the fact that com-pulsory schooling began at age seven. Singapore’s outstanding scores were, by contrast, all about the cultural importance of education and a respect

How the best schools in the world come out on top

Finnish success is about getting the right people to become teachers, giving them excellent initial and continuing training, and enabling teachers and schools to intervene at the level of the individual child

a significant impact on educational outcomes, particularly in two key areas: class size and decentralisation.

Similarly, decentralisation alone, for example in the form of New Zealand’s choice-driven Tomorrow’s Schools reform, appears to have a limited impact on standards. As one New Zealand policymaker explained: “It was naive to assume that classroom quality would improve just because we changed our structure.”

good TEacHErs, good rEsulTsSo what does work? First and most important is a simple maxim: the qual-ity of an education system cannot ex-ceed the quality of its teachers. It’s no surprise that great teachers produce great results and poor teachers, poor ones.

What may come as a surprise, however, is the degree to which this is true. Barber and Mourshed cite research from Tennes-see where average students, aged eight, were divided between a high-performing teacher and a low-performing teacher. By the time those students reached 11, the

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performance of the two groups had di-verged by more than 50 per cent. Anoth-er study, this time in Boston, found that students placed with top maths teachers made substantial progress, while students placed with the worst actually regressed.

Barber and Mourshed therefore posit that getting the “right people” – the best educated, the most committed, the most effective – to become teachers is crucial to improving the whole school system. South Korean teachers are drawn from the top five per cent of graduates; Finnish teachers from the top 10 per cent; Singaporean from the top 30 per cent. Put simply, as one Middle Eastern policymaker told Barber: “One cannot give what one does not have.”

Good salaries are critical to recruiting good teachers – but only up to a point. New teachers are not motivated primarily by money – but they don’t want to have to make huge personal sacrifices in their income compared to their contemporaries. So, competitive graduate starting salaries are key, but Barber’s study shows that greatly inflating pay makes little difference to recruitment. In Europe, Spain, Germany and Switzerland pay the highest starting salaries relative to GDP but have not realised improved outcomes.

Underpinning all this is the importance of status – something policymakers can drive through marketing and a continued emphasis on professional development. For example, in Finland, the profession’s status has been boosted by the requirement that all teachers possess a master’s degree. Similarly, in Singapore teachers are entitled to 100 hours of CPD each year. And in the UK, advertising and marketing (such as the “Those who can, teach” campaign) has had a significant impact.

This brings us neatly to Barber’s second rule of success: the only way to improve outcomes is to improve instruction. As Angus McBeath, former superintendent of Edmonton’s schools in Alberta, notes, “We would never turn out a freshly minted doc-tor and say, ‘Go operate on somebody’, with-out three or four years of practice – guided practice. But we turn out teachers, put them in classrooms and ignore them.”

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able to recognise weaknesses in their own practice, have a good understanding of best practice, and be motivated to improve. But, as Barber points out, this isn’t about mate-rial incentives: “Change comes about when teachers have high expectations, a shared sense of purpose, and a collective belief in their common ability to make a differ-ence to the education of the children they serve,” he says.

WorkINg TogETHErAs a result, Barber outlines four essen-tial factors that impact on teaching and learning: ensuring teacher training takes place mostly in the classroom; specialist coaching for all teachers; school leaders to spend their time guiding instruction rather than dealing with administration; and designing ways for teachers to learn from each other. These last two are particularly important, not least because teachers in most schools work alone. Ena-bling headteachers to spend their time “guid-ing instruction” can have a profound impact on teaching.

Barber found that systems that aimed to use principals as drivers of reform also expected them to spend most of their time coaching teachers. As one, highly successful, Bostonian principal explained, “Being a teacher is about helping children

Why is the Finnish system so good? From my own experience of Australia, France and Ireland, as well as Finland, I think the Finnish system is very demanding and at the same time caring.

Teachers go to each other’s lessons, and afterwards we discuss and analyse what we have observed. We are encouraged to take part in all kinds of further education – at the moment I am doing the formal training to become a student counsellor. The course lasts for a year and a half, and I’ll be ready by Christmas. I consider it wonderful further education for my job, the best education I’ve had so far.

All teachers have a masters degree. Studies take at least five to six years and teachers are very well trained in

the subject they teach. However, trainee teachers get very little training in tackling problems they face every day in the classroom and with the students’ parents, which can make it difficult. Another issue is that it can be very tough and the work is often very demanding. The days fly by – usually I don’t have any breaks and eat my lunch in 15 minutes before rushing off to meet a student or class. It’s very hectic!

The students study a whole range of subjects, everything from maths and natural sciences to languages (everybody studies at least two foreign languages, usually English and Swedish, and perhaps French, German or Russian), biology, history and geography. They get a general view of everything.

We also have special [SEN] teachers at all school levels. And from the 7th grade, student counselling is a compulsory subject for every student.

I teach history and social sciences, and I’m also a student counsellor, dividing my time between the two jobs. As a counsellor, I give the students lectures on study skills, planning their timetables and schedules, and advising them as they plan their future studies and careers. I also give guidance and counselling in all sorts of matters concerning their lives and their studies.

Overall, I enjoy my work: I enjoy working with the children and find it meaningful – and I think most other teachers do, too. I think that it shows.

“I enjoy my work, I find it meaningful and I think that it shows”

We asked anne mattsson, a student counsellor and history and social sciences teacher at Helsinki upper secondary school for Visual arts, why she thinks the Finnish system is one of the best in the world

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Finland has gone further than any other system in performance across the whole system

global classroom

It’s a lot of work for the rewards, says Finnish teacher Anne Mattsson

by age 15, Finnish students beat the world

SPRING 2009 | ProFEssIoNal TEacHEr | 21

to learn. Being a principal is about helping adults to learn.”

In Japan, a learning culture is centred on “lesson study” (kenkyuu jugyou). Teachers work together, jointly planning, executing and then evaluating different instructional strategies for achieving a specific learning objective. And there is a strong emphasis on making sure that best practices are shared throughout the school, as one Japanese teacher explained: “When a brilliant American teacher retires, almost all the lesson plans and practices she has developed also retire. When a Japanese teacher retires, she leaves a legacy.”

Similarly in Finland, teachers are given one afternoon each week for joint planning and curriculum development. Teachers use these sessions to develop the curriculum and the instructional strategies best suited to their school. Schools in the same area are also encouraged to work together and share materials so that best practice quickly spreads through the system.

If Barber’s first two golden rules are about teachers and teaching, rule three is about the system: high performance requires every child to succeed. And in the most successful systems, that means intervention at the level of individual students. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Finland has gone further than any other system in ensuring uniformly high performance across the whole system.

For the first few years, from age seven, Finnish children study for just four to five hours a day – fewer hours than any other children in an OECD country. Yet by age 15, they beat the world at reading, maths, sci-ence and problem solving.

This is partly a result of the Finnish system of intervention. Special education teachers, who receive an additional year of training, provide one-to-one and small group teaching to 30 per cent of all students in a school in any given year. And early intervention prevents long-term failure.

There is no question that creating – and maintaining – brilliant schools is hard work, anywhere in the world. But what this research reveals is that delivering the best education is about more than culture. It’s about getting the right people to become teachers, giving them tremen-dous initial and continuing training and allowing for intervention for every child. And these are things we can achieve.

How do you decide what kind of CPD is right for you? You’ll probably start by identifying your goals, or

looking at where you could improve; you might then ask colleagues and mentors for advice and help. If you’re lucky, at that point, someone will tell you about some fantastic provision. But if they don’t, how do you choose from the huge number of options out there?

This is the conundrum that the TDA’s national CPD database (https://cpdsearch.tda.gov.uk) hopes to resolve. Still in its pilot phase (which will run for one year) the website is the first national database of continuing development opportunities designed for education professionals, with over 350 suppliers already registered.

So how can it help you? Cleverly, the website allows you to either search for key words, such as “pupil voice” or “behaviour” or, if you are unsure about your CPD needs – or just want to see what’s out there – click “browse”. You can then filter results by professional/occupational standards, focus area, delivery method, target audience, curriculum/subject area and phase/key stage.

Once you’ve selected an opportunity, you can view detailed information, including expected outcomes, accreditation opportunities, duration and cost, as well as information about the provider. Graham Holley, Chief Executive of the TDA, says that if the pilot is a success, this is just the start.

“The database doesn’t replace normal CPD management in schools but, instead of casting around randomly in a very diverse and mixed market, members of the children’s workforce

in schools will be able to go online and see what’s available,” he says. “Nobody buys a car, or a TV, or even a CD these days without checking it out online first. We hope that in the future we will be able to develop a degree of interactivity so that people can rate provision and leave comments.”

In order to get a true picture of the whole market, the TDA has chosen not to endorse any CPD opportunities on the database. However, all providers must sign up to a TDA-developed code of practice, stating minimum requirements for high-quality CPD. In order to reinforce this, providers complete a supporting statement on the website, outlining how they adhere to the code of practice, which is then approved by an independent moderator and which users searching for opportunities can see.

A lot of work has gone into getting the website – particularly the intuitive search – just right, but ultimately only you can tell us if it’s working as you’d like it to. Throughout the pilot year the TDA will also be conducting focus group sessions to test proposed features and improvements to the database. If you are interested in taking part in these focus groups and helping shape the service further, email us at cpddatabase@tda.gov.uk

The website will also undergo independent evaluation over the pilot year – but what we would really like is your feedback, which you can send to us using the feedback form (located at the bottom of the home page). So do try out the new database and tell us about your experiences – we will use your comments and suggestions to help us refine and develop the service for the future.

Take control of your training

cPd daTabasEFind the right CPD for you

Finding CPD that suits your needs has just got easier with the TDA’s national CPD database, as Mira Katbamna discovers

22 | PROFESSIONAL TEACHER | SPRING 2009

If you want to experience the highs and lows of exhilaration and despair, try becoming a teacher. The first year of teaching is a roller coaster where the ride never stops

and there’s little time to catch your breath. Energy is at a premium and exhaustion an increasingly familiar fellow traveller. Adrenalin rushes take their cumulative toll – as they must with a job in which you are performing to a series of watchful audiences eager to see whether ‘who you are’ matches with ‘what you say’ and ‘what you do’.

Getting off to a strong start is about personal qualities and values – as well as the environment in which you start your professional life. Clearly, being in good company helps – and that means being in a supportive school, Key Stage team or department.

However, the beginning teacher’s own approach to professional development counts, too. Habits established in the first two or three years do not merely replenish intellectual curiosity – the hallmark of good and outstanding teachers – but they keep ‘burn out’ at bay, too.

So what form should these professional development habits take? There are many. One that appeals to me is that encouraged by the introduction of the Chartered London Teacher scheme. In it, teachers are encouraged to keep a (preferably electronic) diary or portfolio of evidence where they collect examples of their extending skills and knowledge in five key areas: pedagogy; subject or phase knowledge; whole school issues; working well with diverse cultures; and identifying, researching and meeting the needs of individual pupils.

In each they will know something already – enough to survive initially – but to thrive they need quickly to grow their repertoire of competence and confidence.

The first and most important of these is pedagogy. Included here are planning, preparing and evaluating lessons together so you can reflect on the value of different approaches, and in particular learning the painful lesson that ‘what works’ is a subtle combination and interaction of people, pace and environment.

VIEW FROm AbOVEThe long view on professional development

The portfolio records lessons learned from exchanging the marking of pupils’ work among departmental or phase colleagues. Integral to this is the wise use of data in formative assessment – knowing, for example, the difference between ‘expected’, ‘predicted’ and ‘target’ grades and realising the vital role of the pupil in setting the target.

In ‘classroom organisation’ there’s the chance to experiment with different seating plans, minimising the chance of ‘low-level’ disruption or increasing the success of group work. Then there’s the need to extend your knowledge of psychology in the subtleties of managing pupil behaviour and getting the best out of other colleagues in the classroom – as well, of course, as being a good team member

yourself. There is also the ever-widening application of the learning and communications technologies to keep pace with, too.

Even – perhaps especially – in the bread and butter of ‘explanation’ and ‘questioning’, the successful new teacher hungrily extends their skill. Take an element of

‘questioning’ as a simple example. The received staff room wisdom of questioning technique is challenged by the research, which shows that forewarning your pupils of the order in which questions will be asked, sticking to the principle of rotation and adjusting the type of question for each youngster increases the learning of all as well as improving classroom behaviour. It’s one of the rules of distribution.

There. Like a poorly prepared lesson I have run out of time. Of course I had prepared for a 100-minute lesson – well, that’s my excuse. So in the next column I shall explore a little more about pedagogy and the other four.

Oh, and Fermi questions? It’s your homework – at least I set it at the beginning of the lesson and not at the end. Anyway, Google it to find the answer.

“The first year is like a roller coaster where the ride never stops and there’s little time to catch your breath”

Sir Tim brighouse began his career in the classroom, and went on to become a Professor of Education at Keele University and Chief Education Officer in Oxfordshire and birmingham. more recently, he served as London Schools Commissioner

Your homework today is to find out more about Fermi questions

THE TIm bRIgHOUSE COLUmN

Get in touch

Do you agree with Tim? Or have you got a different view to add? We’d like to hear from you at: corporatecomms@ tda.gov.ukpho

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Mike Bakerwww.mikebakereducation.co.uk

Award-winning education journalist Mike Baker’s take on everything from inspiring resources to the impact of the credit crunch on private education. British education indexwww.leeds.ac.uk/bei/index.html

The British Education Index is an independent index of more than 300 UK education journals, ranging from the British Educational Research Journal to School Librarian.

There is a wealth of information and guidance out there about how to further your professional development, but it can be difficult to know where to look. Here’s our guide to where to find the best resources, and the most useful advice about how to progress in your career

SPRING 2009 | ProFessionaL teacher | 23

resourcesWhere to find material to help your CPD

teacher traininG resource Bankwww.ttrb.ac.uk

The Teacher Training Resource Bank is an online facility providing access to the research and evidence base that informs teacher education. The service delivers expert knowledge and facilitates web access to materials that are relevant to teacher training. It also supports the development, review and dissemination of those materials.

teachinG and LearninG research ProGraMMewww.tlrp.org

The TLRP conducts research with the potential to improve outcomes for learners in a very wide range of UK contexts across many ages and stages in education, training and lifelong learning. The programme is concerned with patterns of success and difference, inclusion and exclusion.

dcsF: the research inForMed Practice site (triPs)www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/research

TRIPS offers easy access to essential research findings for teachers, governors, parents and all those who support them in the education of school-age students.

tda: cPd Zonewww.tda.gov.uk/leaders/cpdzone.aspx

The TDA’s dedicated CPD zone for headteachers and CPD leaders brings together essential resources that can help you deliver effective CPD that addresses the personal needs of your staff, and works with your school’s improvement planning framework.

tda: PerForMance ManaGeMent and ProFessionaL standardswww.tda.gov.uk/teachers/performance_management.aspx

The TDA’s dedicated performance management pages offer a broad range of resources from “How to” sheets to briefings slides for schools, governors, unattached teachers and school improvement partners.

tda: ePdwww.tda.gov.uk/teachers/continuingprofessional development/epd.aspx

The TDA’s dedicated early professional development pages offer guidance to help you identify and plan your development needs, review your professional development and build your confidence and skills.

tda’s research PaGewww.tda.gov.uk/about/research.aspx

Read all about the research the TDA is currently undertaking, and how the Agency aims to improve research quality, research communication and the knowledge management of research.

ncsL researchwww.ncsl.org.uk/research-index.htm

The National College for School Leadership’s research focuses on the work of school leaders to investigate how they make a positive difference to pupils’ progress and achievements.

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