cpd can make a difference

The argument against in-school training
Expenditure on CPD is controlled mainly by schools that report high levels of dissatisfaction with many of the CPD activities currently available. Schools have tried increasingly to develop in-house programmes to ensure that in-service education matches their goals but then lose the benefits of economies of scale and restrict the opportunities for exposing teachers to specialist expertise and a wider range of perspectives.

This trend towards in-school programmes also puts the emphasis on CPD activities, which meet the needs of individual teachers and limits opportunities for networking and cross-school partnerships.

Good CPD practice
There is a growing body of evidence about what makes CPD work, suggesting the elements that help teachers enhance their practice on a sustained basis. The evidence comes from a range of sources, both in the UK and abroad, and much is based on detailed reports of changes in teacher practice which have improved pupil learning.

The growth of interest in teachers' use of research processes, evidence and findings, and evaluative work on the implementation of substantial initiatives, such as the National Literacy Strategy and Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE), all help to build a picture of effective processes.

Very often, specific elements of such activities such as modelling, classroom observation and coaching have been understood more as part of school or curriculum development, or indeed classroom pedagogy, than as CPD. We have only recently started to interpret thoughtfully what we know about pupils' learning for the benefit of their teachers.

Teachers don't realise how much they know
Teachers work with a very large number of variable factors in their classrooms, which they have to deal with swiftly. To manage this teachers internalise huge amounts of subject and professional knowledge and expertise to the point where they almost don't know they've got it.

Using new ideas, approaches or knowledge from CPD requires teachers to make explicit their existing knowledge and beliefs to enable them to consider the relevance of new approaches for their own practice and the needs and context of their students and subject.

This means that developing teaching practice is time-consuming and stressful. It means unlearning or letting go of tried and tested support strategies to embrace new ones, often having to cope with lessons seeming to be worse before they get better. Yet CPD has been shown to make a real difference to teachers and pupils against these considerable obstacles.

Tips for CPD success

• create opportunities for teachers to become explicitly aware of what they do and know already - plus activities that encourage the development of a reflective culture amongst teachers where they can discuss in some depth and on the basis of evidence (e.g. video clips) or shared experiences, the ways in which they and other colleagues teach
• create opportunities for teachers to understand new ideas and approaches: to see theory demonstrated in practice and be exposed to new expertise
• provide support for experimenting with new ideas and approaches so that teachers can work out the implications for their own subject, the pupils, the school and community provide sustained feedback and support over time for teachers engaged in changing their practice
• provide convincing evidence that the strategy or method being taught has direct benefits for pupil learning.

Examples of successful CPD
CPD comes in many forms, with varied levels of effectiveness. LEAs and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) market CPD programmes to schools, their staff act as facilitators for in-school training days and unions and professional associations offer a regular menu of courses. There are also a large number of private providers in the market. Yet some of the most effective activities may not even be recognised as CPD.

One example is LEA support in the introduction of changes to the National Curriculum, where many LEAs have supported small groups of teachers as they develop and test out new materials and schemes of work on a collaborative basis.

This often involves teachers trying out materials together in classrooms informally: thoughtfully experimenting or tinkering with strategies and offering each other feedback in the classroom and in planning meetings.

Many of the activities implied by the criteria are also built into school improvement projects. Often, this involves using action research as a vehicle for enabling teachers to understand current practice, interpret and test out new ideas, and to internalise them through the process of collecting data about their own work and their pupils' responses.

Collaborative CPD
Some Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and LEAs encourage teachers to undertake research-based MAs and MEds on a collective basis where the programmes focus sharply on practice.

Teachers in these programmes and others who are active in the Teacher Training Agency (TTA) funded School-Based Research Consortia have found that the very act of data collection - of observation, using video and discussion - has helped them develop their practice. It has also helped create a climate of peer review and teacher talk which has had beneficial effects across schools.

Research partnerships between teachers and colleagues based in HEIs have often resulted in lasting changes to practice with substantial learning gain. These can take the form of a consortia of teachers and researchers working together, such as those supported by TTA or the Australian PEEL project.

Issues range from the development of childrens' listening skills to overcoming disaffection. Supported by the researchers, teachers observe each other's teaching, discuss video clips, use logs, diaries and a range of other mechanisms, to improve their practice and enhance pupil learning.

Ways forward for more effective CPD
Whilst many of the initiatives described above have made significant contributions to teachers' professional development, they are dependent on the vision of individual LEAs, HEIs, unions, schools and government agencies. Now that we are starting to achieve greater consensus about what works in CPD, the development of the National Leadership College and the government's development of a CPD strategy and code of practice should help to establish a focus for good practice at a national level.

Perhaps the single most important tool in the CPD armoury is teacher coaching. Researchers such as Joyce and Showers identified, as long ago as 1988, the importance of sustained feedback and coaching on experimental practice as being crucial to transferring knowledge and skills acquired on courses back to the classroom.

This is becoming widely recognised. For example, coaching is a common strand in most of the thinking skills initiatives such as Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE), and is also central to the NUT's new professional development programme. Not only does it appear to pay dividends at a practical level but also, importantly, symbolises the fact that teachers are a crucial part of the solution to CPD as well as its core customers.

Further reading
Further information about some of the research from which this article has drawn can be found in:

Adey Philip & Shayer, Michael. (1994) Really Raising Standards,
Cognitive Intervention and Academic Achievement. Routledge. Cordingley P (1999)
"Constructing and Critiquing Reflective Practice" in Educational Action Research, Vol.7, No.2, p183-191 Cordingley P (2000)
'Teacher Perspectives on the credibility and usability of different kinds of Evidence. Reflections from across the four TTA funded School Based Research Consortia' Paper presented at the annual BERA Conference, Cardiff.
Reflections from across the four TTA funded School Based Research Consortia Eraut M, (1994)
"Developing Professional Knowledge and Competence" Falmer Guskey, Thomas R (1986)
'Staff Development and the Process of Teacher Change' Educational Researcher, 5-12. Hargreaves D, (1991)
A common sense Model of the Professional Development of Teachers, in 'Reconstructing Teacher Education: Teacher Development', editor John Elliott, Falmer Press, London Joyce D & Showers D, (1988)
Student Achievement Through Staff Development, Longman, New York & London Medwell J, Wray D, Poulton L and Fox D, (1998)
Effective Teachers of Literacy, Department of Education, University of Exeter OFSTED, (1998)
The National Literacy Project - an HMI Evaluation.

By Philippa Cordingley, Director of the independent Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education (CUREE.) She works regularly with LEAs, the TTA, DfEE and the NUT.