Practical ways to make departmental CPD more effective

Rachel Hawke

Head of Geography at Isca Academy and Lead Subject Mentor for Geography at SWTT

What is professional development?

“The formal and informal learning opportunities with which geography teachers engage over time, causing them to reflect critically upon and consequently enhance their practice, ultimately for the benefit of their students’ development (Avalos, 2011). We suggest that professional development must be ‘ongoing’ but, to be of benefit, it requires those involved in creating, contributing to and consuming these experiences to consider more critically its relevance, effectiveness and transformative potential for practice.” (p.278, Hill and Jones, The Handbook of Secondary Geography, 2017)

Why?

NPQ for Leading Teacher Development

What underpins the NPQLTD?

Teacher learning is just learning

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Willingham (2009) - simple model of memory

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What makes good learning?

In a strong lesson what elements would you expect to see?

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What underpins the NPQLTD?

Effective professional development is likely to involve a lasting change in teachers’ capabilities or understanding so that their teaching changes.

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• Avoid overload - focus on one thing
• Use spacing and retrieval
• Check for understanding - use of exit tickets
• Consider prior knowledge

What were my key takeaways?

• Professional development should be evidence-informed
• Use mechanisms - effective professional development should include some of these.
• Active ingredients - key content and behaviours needed to make the PD work

What is ineffective PD?

Think of a time when you have attended ineffective PD.

• What was it missing?
• What made it ineffective?

https://www.ambition.org.uk/blog/how-can-mechanisms-supercharge-your-teacher-education-practice/.

What are the mechanisms?

How did I decide what to focus on in my department CPD?

Triangulate your sources:

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• Learning walk/drop ins
• Book looks
• Assessment data
• Staff feedback
• Student feedback

What did I do?

• Which mechanisms did I use?
• Practise what you preach
• Context sensitive - ‘nothing works everywhere, and everything works somewhere’ (Wiliam, 2018, p.2)

Example of department CPD

Retrieval

Retrieval - fill in the gaps

1. Our department priority at KS3 is the use of green highlighters to identify _______ and ___________.
2. Our department priority at KS4 is a focus on AO__.
3. An example of how we are doing this at KS4 is…
4. Geography at Isca is about aiming to inspire a _________ about the world that will remain with you for the rest of your life.
5. Research from the EEF shows that verbal feedback can add ___+ months of progress

2 - Revisiting prior learning

Why are we using live feedback?

• Research from the EEF
• Studies show that it is particularly important to provide feedback when work is correct
• Verbal feedback can have an impact of +7 months progress

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https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/feedback

4 - Evidence informed

Why are we using live feedback?

Our students need to improve their written work - end of cycle assessments and GCSE mock papers consistently show lower results on the 8 mark questions (AO3).

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We are focusing on chains (this means that) and key terms (e.g. interception).

What does this look like in geography?

6 - Instructing teachers

Why use non-examples?

https://www.deansforimpact.org/files/assets/lbsdanchorchartene.pdf

What does this look like in geography?

11 - Providing prompts and cues

What does this look like in geography?

‘The impacts of tsunamis are equally devastating, regardless of the location.’��To what extent do you agree?

Chains

Key terms: economy, social, infrastructure, HIC, LIC

It will be clearly identified in lessons where/when green highlighting should be happening.

Exit ticket

The dam is the best option because of the added benefits such as hydroelectric power. The Itaipu dam provides nearly all of Paraguay’s electricity which can be used in industry meaning that more money can be made. Local communities can also be involved in the projects meaning it is more likely to succeed as they support it.

However, deforestation leads to monoculture such as growing soya for animal feed. This leads to a loss of biodiversity and less interception by the canopy. This could lead to an increase in soil erosion and mean the soil is less fertile. In an attempt to reduce this, over 44 million trees were planted but these would take a long time to mature meaning that in the short term the soil would lose nutrients.

10 - Rehearsing the technique

What happens after the CPD?

Keep referring back to your evidence - learning walks/book looks/student survey/teacher feedback - to see how your CPD is being embedded.

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Refine the next session based on what you have found.

13 - Encouraging monitoring

What are my key takeaways?

• When you are planning your CPD try to include as many mechanisms as possible
• Remember that teachers are learners - use the techniques from your lessons
• What is your evidence?
• Triangulate your sources

Planning for your context

Use the planning sheet to think about CPD that you are delivering in the next term.

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How could you integrate any of these into your setting?

REFERENCES

Education Endowment Foundation. (2021b). Effective Professional Development: Guidance Report.

Hill, J. and Jones, M. (2017). Professional development. In: The Handbook of Secondary Geography. Geographical Association.

Pointer, N. (2023). How can mechanisms supercharge your teacher education practice? Available at: https://www.ambition.org.uk/blog/how-can-mechanisms-supercharge-your-teacher-education-practice/.

Wiliam, D. (2018). Creating the Schools Our Children Need : Why What we’re Doing Now won’t Help Much (and What We Can Do instead). West Palm Beach, Florida: Learning Sciences International.

Willingham, D. T. (2009). Why don't students like school?: A cognitive scientist answers questions about how the mind works and what it means for the classroom. John Wiley & Sons.