Are we doing the

‘Right Things’ in
Teacher Development?
Chris Farrell, Head of Teacher Development, Centre of English Studies

www.eaquals.org
 What are we talking about?

1. Back to Basics
2. Teacher Development ‘Events’
3. Practicalities
4. Taking the Next Steps in
Teacher Development

www.eaquals.org
1. Back to Basics
 ‘CPD’ in the Wider World
“CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development.
It refers to the process of tracking and documenting
the skills, knowledge and experience that you gain
both formally and informally as you work, beyond
any initial training. It's a record of what you
experience, learn and then apply”
-Jobs.ac.uk

The Chartered Institute of Professional Development

aims to help “to improve practices in people and
organisational development for the benefit of
individuals, businesses, economies and society”
-cipd.co.uk

Eaquals International Conference, 21 – 23 April 2016

 But is ‘The Teaching Profession’
Different?

1. What is ‘best practice’?

2. Concrete definitions or general ideas?

3. The fear of ‘corporate speak’!

“Teacher professional development
refers to the wide range of learning
activities which teachers engage in,
individually or collectively, to
improve their professional practice
and to enhance student learning.
This definition includes In-service
Training, Continuing Professional
Development and Teacher
Learning”
-asti.ie.
 CPD to TD: What is Teacher
Development
Ur (1998): Coined in
1980s as a separate term
from Teacher Training • Foord (2009):
Gradual growth or
Key Questions: formation of
something; the
1. What it is? process of making
2. How it is done? something better or
3. Why it is done? more advanced

4. How it is staged?
5. Why it is staged like that?
6. How development is assessed?
 Keith Harding (2009), outlines
the key aspects of ‘CPD’:

Continuous: It must be
in everything you do
Responsibility is on the
practitioner
Needs driven, not ‘one
size fits all’
Evaluative, not
descriptive
Eaquals International Conference, 21 – 23 April 2016
Weston (2014): Deadly sins of TD

1. Passivity: 3. Insularity
Really effective professional Teachers alone, Schools alone
development requires
opportunities to implement,
evaluate, discuss and refine
practice

2. Superficiality: 4. Overconfidence
“If a teaching practice is worth “The worst person to objectively judge
learning, it is worth learning the effectiveness of a new idea is the
properly” practitioner who is trying it out”
 Training or Developing?
Ur (1998) and Bolitho (2014) :
Pre-set structure vsDevelopmental
Process
Transmission vs Personal processing
of knowledge
Professional Function vs Whole person
One-off vs On-going
Authoritarian vs Democratic
 Richards (2005):
TT Goals vs. TD Goals
Directly focused on a teacher’s General Growth not focused on a
present responsibilities. specific job. Growth of
Short/medium term. understanding of teaching and
themselves as teachers

• Adopting the textbook to match • Understand how the process of SL

the class
• Learning how to use Group
activities in a lesson
• Using effective questioning
techniques
Development occurs
• Understanding how our roles
change depending on the learners
in the class
• Developing an understanding of
different styles of teaching
2. Teacher Development
'Events'
 Shaun Wilden (2012):
Attending or Giving workshops
Observation (Organised, peer, buzz)

Event vs Process…
• Teaching a range of levels
• Doing a teaching or a language course
• Creating material
• Mentoring
• Action research projects
• Writing an article or a blog
• Attending a conference or an extracurricular event
• Reading a teaching book
TD Events in Centre of English Studies

1. Series of Workshops (approx. 9 every 6 months)

2. Action Research Groups:
• Small groups, 3 month periods
• Set focus: Video Obs., Inclusivity, Homework.
• Ends with Knowledge Share
3. Professional Development Groups:
• 6-8 Ts. PDG Room (every Friday/Monday afternoon)
• Group Leader sets discussion/research topic
• Sits for 2 months, discusses several focuses, presents
findings
• Intended to better inform INSET/AR sessions
4. Mentoring:
• Set programme in summer
• On demand at other points
Top Down vs. Bottom Up
Institution-led; Needs of the institution put
first

Teacher-led; Needs of the teacher put first

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 Why Top Down?

• The Institution knows best

• It gathers the data
• It has an ethos and a long term
strategy
• It has the resources
• It is expected

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 Why Bottom Up?
• Watkins (2013): By Teachers, For
Teachers
Model For Teacher Learning:
• Reflective
• Practical
• Non-judgemental
• Localised
• Empathetic
• Collaborative
3. Practicalities
 a. Workshops

www.ces-schools.com
 Issues with Workshops
• Back to out TT vs TD problem:
Wallace (1991): training or education is
something that can be presented by others;
whereas development is something that can
be done only by and for oneself’

1. Adi Bloom (2015): “School leaders should not

leave the learning to teachers – they should
be actively involved themselves.”
2. David Hayes (BC): Measurable Impact of TD
Events
 b. Action Research
Groups

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 “Important as a way of
understanding and
disseminating what teachers
can demonstrate about good
practice”
Anne Burns (2010)

www.ces-schools.com
Value of research to the teacher
1. Help Ts notice what Ls really do
2. Create a feedback loop
3. Help Ts consider all the factors in teaching and
develop flexibility to tailor their teaching
4. Help with justifying choices
5. Become more independent as learners
6. Keep fresh
7. Move from being a service provider to being an
academic
8. Professional/academic competence
 Key Concepts
Head and Taylor (1997):
• Knowing-in-action
• Reflection-in-action
• Experiential Learning (process, adaptation)

Edge (2001)
• Not someone else’s agenda but an
“empowering way of describing the English
Teaching professional’s way of working”
 Anne Burns (2010a)
How do I ‘do’ Action Research?

1. Reflective practice
2. Critical and systematic
3. ‘Problematising’
4. Teacher is investigator and
explorer
5. Deliberate intervention
6. Solid info, not hunches
 The long term cycle

Burns (2010);
Davidoff and van
den Berg (1990):

1.plan
2.act
3.observe
4.reflect
Where Top Down and Bottom Up meet?

Action Research/Supported Experiment

• Individual
• Supported
• Created Programme
• For an Organisation
• For a project
Collaboratively-peers or learners?
Expert-guided-management?
 Gathering Data: the Teacher and the
Institution

1. Observations 4. Interviews

2. Questionnaires 5. Diaries

3. Document 6. Field Notes

collection

7. Video/Audio
c. Professional Development Groups
1. Small groups (4-6 teachers)
2. Meet once every few weeks
3. Discuss an aspect of their teaching
4. Group Leader sets the agenda, group
together can decide what to focus on
for each meeting.
5. After 2 months there is a Knowledge
Share session

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 d. Mentoring

www.ces-schools.com
 Why Mentor?

• The Teacher Journey becomes the

Student Experience.
Preparatory
Training Course

GE YL EAP ESP 1 to 1 Exam

Adults

• Institutional Support?
• Self-reflection and self study?
• Burn out and Leave the profession?

www.ces-
 The Roles of The Teacher
Harmer (2001) Harrison and Killion
(2007):
1. Controller
1. Instructional
2. Organiser (engage, Specialist
instruct, initiate, 2. Curriculum Specialist
organise feedback) 3. Catalyst for Change
3. Assessor 4. School Leader
4. Prompter
5. Participant
6. Resource
7. Tutor
8. Observer
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 “We are all complex
amalgams of a range
of teacher roles”
Jack C Richards

www.ces-schools.com
www.ces-schools.com
 But what perspective are you looking
from?
• The students?
• The institution?
• Academic
management?
• The teacher?
• Society?
• Agent?
• Publisher (and materials
developers)?
• Accreditation body?
 Mentor Trap 1!
It takes considerable knowledge
just to realize the extent of your
own ignorance.
Thomas Sowell

You don’t know everything…maybe the

Mentee is right?

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 Mentor Trap 2!

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 Evidence?
1. Is there a mentor programme/system formalised or even ad
hoc in your organisation (or in an organisation you have
worked for)?
2. If so, what does the mentor typically have to do (in brief)?
3. For initial teachers, how long does the ‘mentorship’ period
usually last?
4. On what basis are mentors chosen in your organisation?
5. In your opinion, what is the point in mentoring:
• For the organisation
• For the mentee
• For the mentor

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 Key findings
1. Lack of clarity over the role
2. Little systematic support/training for ‘mentors’.
Mentors are typically ‘readymade’.
3. Peer to peer ‘informal’ mentoring used (‘buddy
system’)
4. Initial self reflection questionnaires as part of
mentoring process
5. Onus for record keeping, etc. is on the Mentee
6. Mentor has control but not responsibility
7. Mentor is ‘first port of call’ for all queries
8. Mentorship Period (3 months typically)
9. Mentor Role at end of 3 months? Gatekeeper to
further employment?
e. Observations and Self Reflection
Kurtoglu Eken et al (2015) need for a
“document providing practical guidelines
on observation-related professional
development (OPD)”

Tools:
• Peer Obs and Peer Discussion
• Involving Learners
• Swapping lessons with Peer Obs/Discussion
• Video Obs
• Team Teaching
4. Taking the next steps with TD
 i. Is your TD Programme
‘INSPIRE’-ing?

www.ces-schools.com
 INSPIRE Model (Richardson, Maggioli 2018)

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 Overall Goal

• Impactful
• Needs-based
• Sustained
• Peer-Collaborative
• In-Practice
• Reflective
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 Considerations
• Does it make a difference?
• Does one size fit all?
• Is it relevant?
• Is it consolidated, followed up on…?
• Does it tackle real issues?
• Are practical solutions the end goal?
• Is there regular and systematic
evaluation?
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 ii. What does the future
hold?

www.ces-schools.com
 BC Future Demand for English in Europe 2025
• Flexible Teachers
• Personalised
Experiences
• Technologically
capable
• Role of Assessment
• Focused Learning
(Jobs, etc.)

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 iii. What can the
Institution do?

www.ces-schools.com
1. Streamlining Processes (for example:
Curriculum Development and Teacher
engagement with CFD)
2. Using resource like the Eaquals Teacher
Development Framework
3. Ensuring transparency and a feedback
mechanism in the TD process
4. Focusing on the INSPIRE ‘checklist

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 iv. What did we do in
Centre of English
Studies

www.ces-schools.com
 Next steps?
What were ours?
1. Admit that there is a problem.

2. Think: What type of teacher do you want?

3. Think: How can we best shape this type of teacher?

4. What would best support the teachers currently in

the institution in becoming the type of the teachers
we would like them to be (while continuing to be the
type of teacher they want to be??)

5. Systematic, recorded, reflected, grounded in solid

theory
 Core Issues
1.Lack of clarity regarding Teacher
Role (Training vs Practice)
2.Lack of Clarity in Lesson Planning
(Coursebook vs Curriculum)
3.Lack of Rigour in
Testing/Assessment (Teacher vs
Student expectations)

www.ces-
 Core Solutions
Curriculum Redevelopment: Move towards a
Behaviour-led Curriculum.
• Culture change in approach to teaching
• Mentoring scheme to be top down and
instructive until CFD project implemented
• PDGs set up to foster ‘critical friends’,
disseminate best practice
• Future: Mentoring as ‘touch base’ activity

www.ces-
Thank You!
Chris Farrell, Head of Teacher Development,
Centre of English Studies UK and Ireland

@ChrisPatrickF