Improving Professional Learning through In-house Inquiry

David Middlewood, Ian Abbott

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781472570857
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Improving Professional Learning through In-House Inquiry shows how to identify the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) needs of an individual or team and then to meet those needs through carrying out specific inquiry within the organisation. Middlewood and Abbott demonstrate how the most effective professional learning occurs when the the needs of an organisation are identified at all levels and provide clear support for following this approach. The authors also show that effective student involvement is key because it clearly links CPD with the ultimate aim: to meet students' learning needs. Examples of how this has been achieved successfully in schools and colleges are drawn on throughout, showcasing a variety of settings in various countries. Four extended case studies from different types of educational institutions are provided to illustrate learning journeys.

PART ONE

Principles

CHAPTER ONE

Effectiveness in professional learning and CPD

Introduction

Continuous professional development (CPD) and professional learning for staff has been identified as one of the key factors in school improvement, both in developed countries (Bolam et al., 2000) and in developing countries (Dalin and Rust, 1996). Recent developments in several countries, including England, have signalled major changes in the way in which educational organizations manage the provision of professional learning and CPD as well as the initial training of teachers. In particular, there is a move towards greater ownership by individual institutions of the management of their learning needs and provision. These developments are a reflection of a system-wide move towards greater organizational autonomy which is taking place in many countries across the world, including some of the burgeoning economies such as China and India. This chapter deals with the key purposes of professional learning and CPD and why it is a crucial factor in bringing about educational improvement in schools and colleges. In this chapter, the following are considered:

•The definitions, purposes and importance of professional learning and CPD,

•developing a culture of effective professional learning,

•different forms of professional learning,

•issues concerning effectiveness of professional learning,

•identifying and meeting the needs of staff and students and

•impact and evaluation of professional learning and CPD, including cost-effectiveness.

The definitions, purposes and importance of professional learning and CPD

Historically CPD is the generic term that has been used to describe the professional development of staff in schools and colleges. More recently the term ‘professional learning’ has started to replace CPD. Increasingly CPD has been associated with specific courses or programmes while professional learning is a much broader concept involving a range of development opportunities. For the purposes of this book, we will use both terms. We use CPD to mean more formal, organized training/learning, and we use professional learning in a much broader sense, incorporating all kinds of development, which may include formal CPD.

Some form of professional development is central to the career progression of practitioners in a wide range of professional occupations. For example, in a book on career progression and development in the accountancy profession, Lindsay (2015) notes that CPD is still widely used there but that the term is becoming a little ‘passé’ (ibid.: 15) and she links it more significantly with ‘life-long learning’. It should not be confused with the related concepts of ‘on-the-job learning’ or ‘in-service training’, which are more limited. Professional learning and CPD are both wider concepts and can involve a broader range of teaching and learning styles and approaches in a variety of settings inside and outside the workplace. The development of professionals is related both to the professional identity of individual staff and to the objectives of the organization they are employed by (Galloway, 2000). It is the marrying of these two, the individual and the organization, that lies at the core of effectiveness of professional development. This is a topic we discuss later in the chapter and return to in later chapters where we propose ways of achieving and evaluating this effectiveness.

The three words of the phrase ‘continuing professional development’ are interesting in themselves. Obviously, ‘continuing’ suggests that it is something that will be ongoing throughout a person’s professional career. The word ‘professional’ itself carries various connotations and the notion of professionalism has been debated and indeed contested, including the question as to whether teaching is a profession in the same sense that medicine and law are clearly accepted as such. As well as its practitioners being qualified and initially trained, professionals may at the least be seen as having:

•a degree of autonomy,

•an acceptance of accountability, and

•acceptance of an ethical code of conduct or practice.

‘Development’ should be distinguished from ‘training’. Learning via training has the connotation of ‘highly specific, content-driven and targeted programmes geared to knowledge acquisition and information-giving’ (Law and Glover, 2000: 247). It has a place in any professional’s career as new skills and information are often needed in order for a person to be up to date in their field of expertise – we are not likely to trust a lawyer who does not know that a law has been changed or a doctor who uses obsolete equipment! The word ‘development’ however implies concern for the practitioners as people in their learning, either professional or personal, or both. It is therefore closely linked with personal development, because the attitudes, feelings and motivation of the persons concerned are necessary if they are to improve. Professional learning further develops this theme because it implies a deeper and wider form of development than that often associated with CPD, which is often linked with skills acquisition.

Educational organizations should theoretically be ideally placed for this professional development because their core purpose is to enable learning through effective teaching. Whatever form they take, from pre-school to education for the Third Age, they have the quality of education and learning at the core of what they do. Since all staff in an educational organization have learning and the enabling of learning as their key purpose, all activities within the organization should have an ultimate focus on learning. Staff who are employed to carry out maintenance, clean, provide meals and transport are all involved because they are trying to ensure that student learning takes place effectively in the best possible environment and in the best possible condition. Office staff who are involved in dealing with administrative tasks also undertake these tasks ultimately to facilitate effective learning. Teaching and lecturing staff have learning as their prime focus, and therefore it is essential that each member of staff has the opportunity to develop themselves within their own roles and become continuous learners. Professional development therefore needs to be at the heart of every educational institution, as it strives to improve teaching and learning. In her work on school improvement, Harris (2002) has reported that improving schools have frequent interchange and professional dialogue, that is, about teaching and learning, at a formal and informal level throughout the institution.

A good deal of educational research and literature supports the view that the most effective teachers are those who themselves are good learners and continue to learn, (see, e.g. Blandford, 2000; Stoll et al., 2003; Early and Bubb, 2004, Middlewood et al., 2005; and Brooks, 2012). Therefore, a school or college which is able to encourage all its employees to embrace a commitment to their own learning and development should be the one that is most effective in pupil or student learning. Day (1999) has also claimed that teachers’ professional development is an essential component of successful change in schools and colleges. Additionally, Muijs et al. (2004) have argued that effective professional development has a positive impact on curriculum development, and Bush and Middlewood (2013) note that the provision of effective professional development can be a significant factor in both recruitment and retention in organizations. We can therefore identify several ways in which effective professional learning and CPD is vital to the ongoing success of any educational organization.

If we pause here to consider what we mean overall by ‘professional learning’ and its significance, we can perhaps more readily deal with the management issues relating to it.

If a teacher or lecturer as a member of the education profession is to be effective, s/he will normally have decided to train to be such and acquired certain skills and capabilities to enhance certain personal qualities inherent in them as a person. Clearly, such skills will need to be refreshed and updated as time passes and/or in the light of new policy requirements. Also, cliché though this is, the world of education and indeed the world itself will be significantly different from when a person began in the profession. Thus, if we compare a teacher of twenty years’ experience with that person after, say, four years, the teacher will be different and so will be the person! In this century, such a person has to be used to change as a constant, and the aware, intelligent person will be learning how to manage that change in a positive way. S/he will sometimes complain about a specific change or changes (as humans, we all do!), but the true professional will adapt and thrive. THIS is learning! As has been noted many times, change equals learning! In the modern world, acquiring knowledge is relatively easy. One’s children and grandchildren usually ‘know’ as much or more about the latest technology, for example! But knowledge does not equal learning – as Eric Hoffer pointed out: ‘In times of change, the learners will inherit the earth, whereas the knowers will be beautifully equipped for a world that no longer exists!’

For us therefore, a professional learner is one who is continually adapting to new contexts and situations and in doing so enables their pupils and students to do the same. The task of effective organizations is to offer opportunities for them to be able to do this. If change equals learning, then learning equals change and we like the story of the headteacher faced with a teacher who proudly claimed that he did not need any CPD because he had been teaching for twenty years and why should he change? The reply was:

I think you mean you have been teaching one year; you have just done it twenty times!

Developing a culture of effective professional learning and CPD

The term ‘learning organization’ is often used to describe an organization that has a positive approach to professional learning. This is an all-encompassing phrase that has its origins in the business community and is widely associated with a dynamic and successful organization. Revans (1982) originally proposed the equation that the rate of learning in an organization must be equal to, or greater than, the rate of change. A consistent feature of education in many countries has been the increasing pace of change as the government has striven to raise standards by a deluge of education policy (Abbott et al., 2013). Schools and colleges have been – and still are – under constant pressure to change and thus the need for organizations to be continuously learning and developing as they strive to foster and maintain success, is greater than ever. Such schools and colleges have to:

•Focus their energies and activities on learning, recognizing that learning may come in many different forms as appropriate to a wide range of learners.

•Establish and develop an ethos and ethic of enquiry.

•Recognize that learning can come from many sources – not just from formal teaching; external networks and stakeholders such as parents also contribute to learning.

•Accept that learning is a lifelong process and that the organization’s role is in making a contribution to this process.

•Be in a continuous transformational state.

Working in a school or college that has these characteristics is likely to be not only interesting and challenging, but also ultimately rewarding! In order to ‘be better’, the organization will continually challenge the status quo and they (the staff and leaders) will strive to find ‘new and better ways of doing business’ (Holyoke et al., 2012: 437). Developing a learning organization will require a common sense of purpose which will be allied to a drive for continuous improvement. McCharen et al. (2011: 689), when researching innovation in schools, reported that a ‘sense of shared purpose is a notable aspect of a learning organisation’ and that this sharing was rooted in ‘shared commitments to values, such as the integrity of teaching or the need for social justice’. Abbott and Bush (2013: 598) claim that in outstanding primary schools ‘there was a strong emphasis on mentoring and coaching’ and ‘individual professional development was strongly supported’ with an emphasis on ‘a clear vision, accepted by all the participants, around improving the life chances of the children who attend the school’. A shared purpose will drive a school or college forward and will enable it to constantly innovate and change because it is able to make best use of its people through their own learning. This learning can take a number of forms and a learning school or college should:

•promote learning as a means to an end,

•develop learning as a process,

•facilitate learning how to learn,

•ensure learning provides knowledge which is worth pursuing for its own sake.

Learning as a means to an end refers to learning that is considered by the learner as being worthwhile and leads to tangible outcomes. In many societies, especially developing countries, education is seen as a means of securing economic success, improving life chances and securing a better future. This is often associated with specific skill acquisition and a formal qualification.

Accepting that learning is a process and the development of the skills of learning enables the learner to take their learning and apply it to a variety of contexts (Middlewood et al., 2005). Developing a passion for the subject area they teach is an essential part of a teacher’s role in a learning school or college. This helps staff in their valuing learning for its own sake. At different stages of their career, staff in schools and colleges may be required to undertake specific learning to gain a qualification to enable them...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• PART ONE   Principles
• PART TWO   Practice
• PART THREE   Overview
• References
• Subject index
• Copyright