The case for teacher-driven teacher learning

The previous chapter was an exploration of organisation-driven teacher learning, which can often be top-down and hence potentially demotivating for teachers. To ensure that teachers buy into CPD programmes while retaining agency in driving their own professional development, impactful programmes typically incorporate teacher-driven teacher learning.

Reviews of the literature on CPD suggest that when teachers are in the driving seat of their professional development, they are more likely to be invested in their learning than when organisations implement top-down CPD programmes where they have little or no say. For example, Chapter 1 mentioned that Walter and Briggs (2012:4) found that ‘the more teachers are involved in selecting their own professional development activities, the more they report improvements in their subject knowledge, their commitment to teaching, their teaching practice and the learning of their students.’ Put simply, give teachers choice in CPD, and they will feel their own practice and their students’ learning improves.

Another benefit of giving teachers choice about what they want to learn and how they want to learn it is that it enables leaders to generate buy-in and build in personalisation, another two key features of impactful CPD, according to research. This is because choice will allow each teacher to focus on areas that are personally relevant to them, their career progression and the needs of their learners.

Appendix 1: Continuing Professional Development (CPD) frameworks

Over the last decade, a number of CPD frameworks have been developed and made freely available to support teachers, their managers and teacher educators to map out learning and development goals for teachers. CPD frameworks include sequenced descriptors which reflect different stages of a teacher's development across a range of categories of teacher knowledge and skills. These descriptors serve to identify teachers’ current stage of professional development and the areas they need to focus on, and to provide guidance on how to access the knowledge and skills needed to achieve specific goals. They are often accompanied by online diagnostic tools based on the frameworks that can be used to help teachers and their managers.

The CPD frameworks listed below are different in:

1. their focus – whether they describe competencies which are common to all teachers, or those which are specific to different groups of teachers or specific domains of teacher expertise

2. their component categories – the specific areas of professional competence and practice included in each framework

3. their identified phases of development – these reflect the different stages of competency or skill in teachers’ careers

4. whether a digital version is available, which can be used for online self-assessment.

The table below offers guidance to identify the specific features of each framework, so that you can choose the one(s) that is/are more appropriate for your context.

Introduction

Chapter 1 explained how effective CPD needs to be evaluated (the ‘E’ in INSPIRE) and briefly touched on the importance of assessing the quality and impact of CPD programmes on a regular basis. In this chapter, we look more closely at the crucial issue of evaluation.

Designing and implementing an organisation's CPD programme requires significant amounts of time and money. This is invested in planning, preparation, sourcing, adapting and developing materials, buying in experts, paying for cover and so on. Participants also invest in the CPD programme by spending time and effort trying to learn what the programme teaches. But how do all the relevant stakeholders in language-teaching organisations know whether investment in CPD has actually paid off? How do they know if the programme achieved its goal of promoting impactful teaching that leads to better learning for students? The answer is through conducting effective CPD evaluation.

A recent history of professional development in language teaching

The idea that teacher learning does not stop when a newly qualified teacher completes their initial teacher education is not new. Many generations of language teachers have continued to develop their expertise both formally and informally throughout their careers, and over the years, universities, LTOs and publishers have implemented different initiatives and created resources to this end. Until relatively recently, however, there has been a dearth of evidence regarding what long-lasting and transferable CPD looks like, and what it consists of.

The term long-lasting CPD is used here to mean professional learning that has a deep and lasting effect and stays with the practitioner over time, influencing their behaviour and practices.

Transferable CPD refers to professional learning that teachers can enact in their own practice to improve their teaching and their learners’ learning.

The lack of evidence concerning impactful CPD has meant that most attempts to develop and to resource teacher learning were informed mainly by theories for which there was either no evidence or insufficient evidence of impact. Instead, it was informed by common sense and experience, and, as a result, had different degrees of success.

In many contexts throughout the second half of the 20th century, professional learning for language teachers was generally conducted to a large extent by teachers ‘learning while doing’, i.e. by reflecting on their teaching, by taking part in so-called in-service teacher training (INSETT) seminars (workshops, talks and reading clubs organised in-house, often led by the teachers’ academic managers, the teachers themselves or external experts) and, perhaps to a lesser extent, by engaging in reading methodology books or professional magazines and journals. Teachers working in institutions with a culture of peer observation also benefited from watching each other's classes and discussing their thoughts about the observed lessons.

The Cambridge Educational Management series is intended to support academic managers in dealing with key aspects of their role. The books in the series are designed to bring together theory and practice, providing insights into key parts of the academic manager's role.

In my work, I am lucky enough to meet and work with leaders and managers in the educational profession from all over the world, and a recurring theme that comes up is that teacher professional development is something that they all feel strongly committed to, but sometimes without a great sense of how this might best be pursued. With all the ongoing daily demands facing the academic manager, the idea of strategising and planning effective teacher learning often gets pushed to the back burner. In such instances, it is either left up to committed teachers themselves to pursue their own development without institutional support, or in some instances, development comes down to, say, a training workshop every other Friday, the subjects of which may be determined not by teacher needs, but by trainer availability.

This of course is not always the case, and there are many institutions that have created very effective and well-thought-out teacher development plans which are more holistic, more personalised, more systemic, and, consequently, more effective – benefiting not only the teachers, but the school as a whole, and of course, ultimately the students and their learning. Such effective teacher development also promotes teacher engagement and motivation, as well as organisational development.

Introduction

At the beginning of this book, the point was made that an educational leader's vision of the role of professional learning within their language-teaching organisation, their attitude to teacher learning – including their prioritisation and ongoing support of CPD – and the organisation's culture really matter. These factors are the cornerstones on which the success of professional learning programmes depend.

This chapter examines these factors by situating them within a discussion of the essential environment and conditions that language-teaching organisations need to create and sustain in order to enable powerful, long-lasting and transferable teacher learning. These comprise:

• committed leadership

• an inspiring vision

• clear goals

• an enabling culture

• appropriate terms and conditions of employment

• a viable and contextually relevant CPD model.

Some of these factors are relatively concrete, tangible and easy to measure; others are ‘softer’ and more elusive. Also, you may find that, while helping create some of these conditions may come naturally to you, providing others may prove challenging and require intentional and sustained effort on your part. Nevertheless, all are fundamental and most come at little or no cost to your CPD budget, whereas their absence or deficiency can be costly to your organisation's teaching staff, to the school itself and to the students.

In order to make the exploration of these conditions relevant to your working context, this chapter combines evidence-informed discussion with reflective tasks at different points. These tasks provide opportunities to reflect on your own leadership practices.

Introduction

The previous chapters introduced key concepts and frameworks that educational leaders can apply to underpin designs and practices of impactful CPD programmes. These spanned different aspects, such as creating and sustaining conditions in LTOs that are conducive to effective and transferable teacher learning (Chapter 2), planning and implementing organisationdriven and teacher-driven teacher learning so as to achieve deep and impactful learning (Chapters 3 and 4 respectively) and evaluating the quality and impact of CPD programmes (Chapter 5).

This chapter brings together all the different concepts and zooms in on circumstances where designing, implementing and evaluating effective CPD programmes can be particularly challenging due to local circumstances.

How can CPD leaders ensure that the CPD programme actually addresses the many voices from different stakeholders, the broad range of diverse learning needs and the organisation's own priorities in a coherent and balanced way?

Balancing institutional, group and individual needs

As mentioned in Chapter 4, when there are differences between the organisations’ priorities for the CPD programme and what teachers feel they want and need to learn, it can feel like a tug of war. In other words, managers tend to adopt ‘either/or’ thinking, i.e. that either the organisation's priorities or the teachers’ priorities, but not both, can be addressed at any one time. And in these cases, it's usually the organisations’ goals that win out, leaving teachers demotivated and even resistant to the content of the CPD.

The challenge of implementing CPD

It is not difficult to recognise an educational manager as you enter a language-teaching organisation (LTO), be it a large, medium-sized or small state school, a language department in a university, or a private language school. All you need to do is spot the really busy person fuelled by sheer adrenaline, the individual in a state of constant alertness, ready for the next crisis: a phone call from the teacher who is unwell and needs cover in an hour; the next knock on the door from a student who wants to change classes while not ready to move up a level yet; the parent who wishes to complain about their daughter's teacher who is not giving her enough homework; the next email from a sales representative announcing their imminent visit or their line manager making a new demand for yesterday …

Whether they show it or not, whether they always make time to chat and listen to everyone or prioritise the long list of tasks to be done, educational managers find themselves typically operating in a web of multiple and competing priorities and demands on their time, their resources, their mental space, their problem-solving abilities and their decision-making skills. Pretty much everything they do matters to almost everyone in their organisation. The timetable and the staff rota for next term needs to be finished, the placement test needs to be administered and the progress test reviewed, the teacher who is not giving her class sufficient challenge needs to be observed and supported, the new coursebooks for the next academic year need to be chosen and ordered, the induction handbook for the next teacher intake needs to be edited, and … hang on a minute – one of the teachers needs help right now.

Introduction

Chapter 1 highlighted the importance of supporting and promoting professional-learning initiatives that lead to impactful teacher learning. It defined impactful teacher learning as professional learning that effects changes in teaching, so that in turn these changes hopefully result in better learning for students. This chapter focuses on how to plan organisation-driven teacher learning; that is, when the content of CPD is determined by the teaching institution, so as to achieve impactful learning for both teachers and ultimately their students.

This chapter is informed by two assumptions:

• that when planning a CPD programme, it is beneficial for those planning it to have a solid understanding of the level of impact and depth of expertise that they want the programme to achieve, and of how this can be achieved, even where those decision-makers are not personally participating in the CPD activities themselves

• that while it can be time-consuming to plan CPD in depth, doing so can make a difference to the quality and impact of a professional development programme.

It goes without saying, however, that having a well-thought-out CPD plan in place is not the same as the reality of implementing a teacher-learning programme. This is because teachers’ personal and professional circumstances and priorities can change at any point, as can the organisation in which they work, or the wider sector and external environment.

This book has provided evidence-informed insights and practical suggestions based on concrete lived experiences in different contexts to help you run high-quality and ambitious but realistic and effective professional learning programmes for your staff.

I have been extremely fortunate to have worked with like-minded colleagues who developed and implemented inspiring and effective models of teacher research which were successfully disseminated and adopted across whole regions. I have also been involved with cutting-edge organisations which set up evidence-informed schemes that created wonderful opportunities for the teachers from my organisation and from other LTOs to learn deeply. I have personally seen the benefit of implementing the recommendations I have shared in this book within the organisations I have worked in and in other institutions I have supported and advised. This has ranged from small and medium-sized LTOs to Higher Education Language Departments and professional programmes for teachers at regional, national and international levels in different parts of the world.

I know from my own experience and that of my colleagues that planning, implementing and evaluating deep, transferable and impactful teacher learning is by no means easy to achieve, but neither is anything that matters. It is a long-term endeavour which requires hard work, single-minded persistence, the constant and relentless application of analysis and critical evaluation skills, patient and empathetic understanding that it takes time for truly valuable teacher learning to take root, and unwavering faith in the process and in the people who embark on it. Depending on the culture of the organisation in which one works, it might also involve having to persuade the most senior leaders – often more than once – that it is an investment worth making.

Teaching a language lesson, even for experienced teachers, involves a degree of forethought, and this is typically realized in the form of a lesson plan, even if it is nothing more than a few notes on the back of an envelope.

• 11 Why plan?

• 12 Planning v spontaneity

• 13 Design thinking

• 14 Lesson shapes

• 15 The lesson plan format

• 16 The context (1): The learners

• 17 The context (2): Beyond the classroom

• 18 Aims, objectives, goals and outcomes

• 19 Formulating lesson aims

• 20 Backward design

• 21 Researching and analyzing language

• 22 Anticipating problems

• 23 Routines and rituals

• 24 Activity types

• 25 Staging and sequencing

• 26 Using coursebooks

• 27 Using authentic materials

• 28 Integrating technology

• 29 Using online resources

• 30 Using artificial intelligence (AI)

• 31 Collaborative planning

Why plan?

Why plan lessons? The question may seem redundant. We plan for the same reasons that we plan so many other social events such as meals, vacations, parties, or business meetings: however many times we might have experienced them, we can never be sure they won't spin out of control. Lessons are like that. According to Doyle (1986), classroom teaching takes place in conditions of multidimensionality (i.e., there are a number of events and processes going on); simultaneity (i.e., they are happening at the same time); immediacy (i.e., they happen quickly); and unpredictability (i.e., we can never be sure what is going to happen next). Given this complexity, it makes sense to have strategies to deal with it, one of which is planning ahead. Planning doesn't necessarily preempt the need to think on our feet, but it provides a degree of structure with which to mitigate potential chaos. Like a route map to a hiker or a compass to a sailor, it helps orient our journey.

And every lesson is different: we can't keep repeating the same lesson day after day, week after week. Even if the format is essentially the same, the content must vary – whether it is derived from a syllabus, a coursebook, or the expressed needs of the learners (or a combination of all three).