CPD for teachers

Smith, Connelly and Rebolledo discuss types of action research and how this related to the design of their CPD innovation project, working in the extremely challenging conditions of state secondary schools in Chile. They paint a picture of a school system which has been blighted by under-investment and historical associations of teaching as a 'subversive' profession, where teachers have low incomes and low status and teach on average 38 hours a week in classes with 40 or more students. Little wonder that teachers suffer from demoralisation and are reluctant to engage in professional development programmes. This does not seem fertile ground for a project which would involve teachers in additional work by engaging them in research. Nevertheless, Smith and his colleagues decided that they needed to move away from the traditional one-off, top-down, INSET courses which had been the staple of ineffective CPD in Chile for so long, and to attempt to involve teachers in their own professional development through voluntary teacher action research. They also felt that Chilean teachers' sense of vocation and commitment to their students' learning, despite the conditions of their work, which had been found by Ávalos and Sotomayor (2012), gave them cause for optimism.

Their description of the difficulties they faced provides important lessons for anyone designing similar programmes. They discovered that decisions on such things as the choice of online platform and even when to begin the project had important implications for teachers' capacity to become involved. However, what is striking is that, in spite of the difficulties, the project showed that even in conditions which seem hostile to CPD there will always be teachers whose sense of vocation and whose desire for self-improvement will push them to overcome obstacles in their path. Yet they also found that teachers' commitment needs to be complemented by enabling conditions that take account of contextual constraints and provide forms of engagement which fit the pattern of their everyday lives. A significant enabling condition was an official Ministry of Education letter approving teachers' participation in the project, another example of the importance of top-down/bottom-up synergy for effective CPD evident in other chapters in this volume. Ultimately, the project succeeded in demonstrating the capacity of teachers to engage in research as a form of CPD, despite their difficult working conditions. Teachers' own narratives exemplify the professional learning that took place, their capacity to analyse their own practice, and its impact on their relationships with their students. Above all, teachers felt empowered by the experience, or in the words of one teacher: 'You realise that you can make a change and that it is in your hands'.

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The professional development activities designed solely by respecting the instructors and the trainers are mostly presented to fail to reflect the operations at schools of foreign languages. Hence, continuing professional development programs need to include the directors of the schools, and their preferences about the practices. To this end, the current study is of significance in terms of highlighting the opinions of the directors about CPD process in Turkey. The study was conducted at two state and two foundation universities through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Purposive sampling method was utilized while determining the participants of this research. Having filled in the questionnaires which include some statements about their educational background, personal preferences of CPD, and the operationalization of professional development process, four directors gave answers to some of these questions in an interview to explain critical points thoroughly. According to interpretations of the data gathered from the directors, it was concluded that the directors at state universities could not have equal chance to adopt and serve opportunities for the instructors compared with the foundation universities. Nevertheless, the directors whose educational background has been grounded to ELT were noted to be more successful in implementation of CPD events.

ABSTRACT
This paper explores the attitudes of English language teachers towards inclusive teaching to visually impaired students and the factors that affect teachers’ attitudes.
The subjects of the study were 25 English language teachers who were assigned to teach in inclusive classes in the three metropolitan cities in the Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia. A questionnaire was employed to collect data for the study.
The results of the study revealed that teachers in all variables other than experience of teaching visually impaired students (in which those with no experience showed negative attitude) were found to have positive attitudes towards inclusive education.
It was also observed that among their demographic factors teachers’ attitudes were highly influenced by their educational background, training on special needs education or inclusive education, and experience of teaching visually impaired students.
KEYWORDS: Inclusive education .disability, visual impairment, attitude.

Futures thinking is used by governments to consider long-term strategic approaches and develop policies and practices that are potentially resilient to future uncertainty. English in Action (EIA), arguably the world’s largest English language teacher professional development (TPD) project, used futures thinking to author possible, probable and preferable future scenarios to solve the project’s greatest technological challenge: how to deliver audio-visual TPD materials and hundreds of classroom audio resources to 75,000 teachers by 2017. Authoring future scenarios and engaging in possibility thinking (PT) provided us with a taxonomy of question-posing and question-responding that assisted the project team in being creative. This process informed the successful pilot testing of a mobile phone-based technology kit to deliver TPD resources within an open distance learning (ODL) platform. Taking the risk and having the foresight to trial mobile phones in remote rural areas with teachers and students led to unforeseen innovation. As a result EIA is currently using a mobile phone-based technology kit with 12,500 teachers to improve the English language proficiency of 700,000 students. As the project scales up in its third and final phase, we are using the new technology kit—known as the ‘trainer in your pocket’—to foster a ‘quiet revolution’ in the provision of teacher professional development at scale to an additional
67,500 teachers and 10 million students.

As knowledge is dynamic, what is new today becomes obsolete tomorrow which warrants the need to upgrade or update one " s professional understanding of the field. The purposes of this study were twofold: unveiling the current status of continuous professional development (CPD) implementation and divulging those factors that affect teachers " engagement in the practice of CPD. Participants were selected purposefully from teachers, principals and supervisors, and data were collected using interviews, focus-group discussions, open-ended questionnaires and informal discussions. Using qualitative data analysis methods, major categories emerged. From the results, it was found out that the status of CPD practice was not that much effective and all the stakeholders were hesitant about its effectiveness. Teachers engaged in CPD were not making the most effective use of it. They associated it with other issues often unrelated to the purposes of CPD. Emphasis on generic contents of training materials, lack of ownership, inconsistencies on its provision, disparity of knowledge among teachers, and supervisors and principals, and conceptual problems about CPD were among the identified factors that hindered its effective implementation. More importantly, the core owners, viz.; teachers, also seemed to have a gloomy picture of its effectiveness. Some possible interventions were suggested based on the findings.

Continuous Professional Development (CPD) plays an important role in ensuring ongoing quality teaching. In Ireland, the majority of teachers engage in CPD voluntarily. Compulsory CPD is offered to Irish schools on an ad hoc basis. In Finland, compulsory CPD (VESO training) must be completed annually. This study examines three forms of CPD available to Finnish primary teachers (compulsory training, voluntary training and informal learning), identifies pros and cons of these CPD approaches and discusses potential contributions to the enhancement of CPD for teachers in Ireland. The results suggested that there is value in the compulsory VESO training, though Finnish teachers were sometimes unhappy with the training’s structure and content. Hence, they choose voluntary courses which were more in keeping with teachers’ individual and school needs. Finnish teachers also recognised the importance of informal learning but expressed dissatisfaction with the frequency of informal learning opportunities. Some recommendations for Irish CPD are suggested by the results, namely; CPD should reflect teachers’ personal and school needs, be collaborative in nature and be run when teachers’ energy levels are at their highest. Additionally, it is suggested that Irish primary teachers be given financial support when engaging in CPD and participate in some compulsory CPD annually. See pages 39-54 of the full text document.

THIS IS YOUR CUE: TIME TO TAKE ACTION
Call upon the community or general public, parents and youths, mental health professionals, physicians and nurses, educators, Facebook and other internet social media, religious groups, athletes, celebrities, secular and SBNR, school administrators, news media, Hollywood, academia, scientists, employers and employees, business owners and managers, private individuals and public officials, to join their talents, opportunities, and influence to support student mental health and end school shootings. Sharing this article is one way you can help https://www.academia.edu/35809557

It is widely recognised that the standard of physics teaching that students receive in school is a major influence on their decision to follow the subject at university (Woolnough 1994, 1996). With the majority of school pupils of age 14-16 being taught physics by teachers without a physics related degree and with physics teachers often being alone in schools (Dillon et al, 2000) the Institute of Physics set up the Physics Teacher Network to provide face to face support for those teaching physics. This paper describes how the Network operates.

This presentation focuses on the challenges of designing, and the potential design of effective CPD for teachers. These slides are for a workshop delivered for a delegation of school leaders from India. It was delivered at the University of Bath. The series of workshops this formed part of were supported by the British Council.

he article targeted to investigate whether the present mode of professional development, INSET continued to be an effective means for shaping instructors' way of thinking as well as a way augmenting professional competencies of practitioners or not. A case study and quasi-experimental designs were combined as preferred approaches for a critical examination of the problem. Using purposive sampling about 59 academics and program leaders were taken part as a means for sources of information. The result revealed that INSET was the unwavering main gateway for the present professional development initiatives. Academics who took part in professional development training had shown more consideration about the importance of professional development program than those who have no experience in professional development initiatives. Academic staff members assured that they need more time to assimilate trainings and implement new theories into their classroom practices and to share good practices with colleagues. Suggestions for improving professional development focused on the necessity to prioritize individual needs, decreasing the duration of the training and improving the quality of the training manuals. More importantly, time to reflect, follow up on the outcome of the trainings and resources for implementation of the professional development trainings found to be in short supply and in need of systematic attention.

This was a one-year research project, funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Villiers Park Educational Trust. The funders had become increasingly concerned about an apparent decline in participation in subject-based continuing professional development for teachers. The main aim of the research was to review current subject-based professional development opportunities, to identify gaps in provision and to make recommendations for improving future provision. It was conceived as a study that would engage with practitioners at a ‘grass roots’ level.

Instructions: There are 90 questions. All questions are compulsory. This is a multiple choice test. Each question has 4 options. Select the option you feel is the most appropriate and mark it on the answer sheet given to you. The best option carries 5 marks, second best option carries 3 marks, third best option carries 2 marks and the fourth best option carries 1 mark. Max Marks scored = (Marks obtained/450)*70.

What makes great teaching? Review of the underpinning research
by Robert Coe, Cesare Aloisi, Steve Higgins and Lee Elliot Major.
October 2014 for the Sutton Trust

A framework for professional learning
This review set out to address three apparently simple questions:
What makes ’great teaching’?
What kinds of frameworks or tools could help us to capture it?
How could this promote better learning?


Great teaching is defined as that which leads to improved student progress. We define effective teaching as that which leads to improved student achievement using outcomes that matter to their future success. Defining effective teaching is not easy. The research keeps coming back to this critical point: student progress is the yardstick by which teacher quality should be assessed. Ultimately, for a judgement about whether teaching is effective, to be seen as trustworthy, it must be checked against the progress being made by students.
Schools currently use a number of frameworks that describe the core elements of effective teaching. The problem is that these attributes are so broadly defined that they can be open to wide and different interpretation whether high quality teaching has been observed in the classroom. It is important to understand these limitations when making assessments about teaching quality.
Overall, sustained professional learning is most likely to result when:
1. the focus is kept clearly on improving student outcomes;
2. feedback is related to clear, specific and challenging goals for the recipient;
3. attention is on the learning rather than to the person or to comparisons with others;
4. teachers are encouraged to be continual independent learners;
5. feedback is mediated by a mentor in an environment of trust and support;
6. an environment of professional learning and support is promoted by the school’s leadership.

The aim of this action research study was to develop and test a Video Observation of Self and Colleague(s) (VOoSC) intervention to support reflective thinking development for early years’ pedagogues.  This is the first implementation of VOoSC and recommendations shall be made at the end. 

A mixed methods approach was taken that used video to record two pedagogues at work and later present vignettes back to them for video observation.  There were 5 video recording sessions and 5 video observation sessions. The video observation sessions were supported by the facilitator/researcher using Mezirow’s ten phases of transformative learning to guide the sessions.

The results of this research show that VOoSC is a powerful instrument in supporting early year pedagogues develop higher levels of reflective thinking; an exciting prospect going forward in the development of early years’ education in Ireland.

Futures thinking is used by governments to consider long-term strategic approaches and develop policies and practices that are potentially resilient to future uncertainty. English in Action (EIA), arguably the world's largest English language teacher professional development (TPD) project, used futures thinking to author possible, probable and preferable future scenarios to solve the project's greatest technological challenge: how to deliver audio-visual TPD materials and hundreds of classroom audio resources to 75,000 teachers by 2017. Authoring future scenarios and engaging in possibility thinking (PT) provided us with a taxonomy of question-posing and question-responding that assisted the project team in being creative. This process informed the successful pilot testing of a mobile-phone-based technology kit to deliver TPD resources within an open distance learning (ODL) platform. Taking the risk and having the foresight to trial mobile phones in remote rural areas with t...

Ridgway, R. (2020). Diverse Classrooms: Professional Learning and Development Resources SEND and Inclusion CPD catalogue. CPD resources for Teachers. School of Education. Durham University. Durham, UK.

This catalogue of learning resources is designed to offer an introduction to different aspects of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and inclusion* for educational professionals.
Resources here have been collated from a number of different sources and put together to support professional learning.
It was compiled during May 2020 as a free CPD resource for Initial Teacher Education students and Newly Qualified Teachers in the UK.

It is shared here for free- please cite it if you find it useful!

This paper discusses part of a practitioner research case-study which I carried out with a class of thirty-seven college students learning chemistry in a blended learning context. The full two-year study involved a multi-method interpretivist approach using observations, unsolicited meetings, VLE tracking system, students' reflective journal, online informal discussions, questionnaires, focus groups and individual interviews. The study identified four key student online learning dispositions, i.e., the dispositions of resourcefulness, resilience, reciprocity and responsibility. These dispositions were identified as persona-related enablers for online learning and were found to be crucial for the students to develop a deep approach to learning. They were also instrumental for changes in the students as learners. These included changes in epistemological beliefs, study patterns, study habits and above all, changes in learner roles and learning identities. Notable changes occurred in a group of learners who were initially reluctant to learn from the online environment. This study showed that student learning dispositions may be transferred from one context to another. This includes a transfer of learning dispositions from the online environment to the face-to-face traditional classroom setting. Several educators argue that learning dispositions should be included as educational goals in educational curricula and should serve as practical strategies in creating learning environments. Learning activities should provide students with opportunities to develop and cultivate desirable dispositions for learning.

This paper explores the data provided by over 1000 schools in the UK related to their online safety policy and prac ce. By comparing with data from the previous year, we consider the current state of prac ce among UK schools and analyse progress over a 12-month period.

Often when the talk is about improvements in general or more specifically about how to improve education and educational institutions, people tend to focus on what is not working and how schools would benefit from changes-be it radical overthrowing traditional ideas about teaching and the organisation of schools or less dramatically small changes like stop doing something and doing something else instead. The way in which changes in teaching and educational organisations are organized is very often through 'projects'-initiatives that cut into a part of the organisation and replace existing practices. According to the Business Dictionary, projects are a " planned set of interrelated tasks to be executed over a fixed period and within certain cost and other limitations. " (​ Businessdictionary​) Within an organisation the project often establishes a logic of its own. Some people and other resources are allocated to the project that also gets a lot of attention from the management. It is, after all, something new and interesting and everybody is very curious to whether this new way of doing or organizing things will prove a better way; will generate a higher output with a higher quality and demand less input. Projects or initiatives are defined by what the organization and its embedded practices are not. It is exactly something new and the initiative is probably extraordinarily funded-it probably has its own project owner and a focused and engaged staff focused on proving the initiative to be the way for improving teaching and school. Because it is defined as something special, initiatives are separated from the 'normal', the existing practices. And because the initiative is defined from the outside and often also uses external resources known as experts, it creates a world of its own complete with a vocabulary, ways of doing things, celebrations when milestones are reached and expectations are met-it creates a culture of its own as a parallel to the organisation it is supposed to improve. For the organisation and its 'normal' practitioners who might be 'victims', the changes and the initiatives are seen as something unfamiliar and un-understandable; something inconvenient and time-consuming. Fortunately, from the practitioners' point of view such initiatives are only short-lasting, and they will go away again sometime soon.

This article evaluates the impact of a Continuing Professional Development programme to promote practitioner research, on the practice of classroom teachers and subsequent pupil learning. The theoretical framework that guided the construction of the programme is discussed before presenting the research methods and findings. Qualitative data derived from tutor field notes and student portfolios is presented and analysed. The impact that practitioner research had on the practice of the teachers is discussed through an analysis of teachers' reflective writing. The author concludes that the CPD programme described has supported the development of critically reflective classroom practice, which teacher participants believe has led to an improvement in pupil learning. She argues that higher education should take a lead in supporting the promotion and dissemination of teacher research because it has the potential to support teacher development, and transform practice in schools and classrooms.

Chinese Language is a subject offered in both Malaysian Primary and Secondary schools. Given that literary appreciation forms a part of the curriculum content, the Chinese textbooks used in schools have incorporated a good selection of localised literature, known as Malaysian Chinese (Mahua) literature. However, feedback from language teachers revealed that there was a lack of reference resources on Mahua literature, causing them to request for more support in this regard (Malaysia Sin Chew Daily, 6 June 2020). Their lack of familiarity with Mahua literature warrants a continuous professional development (CPD) programme. In response, the Chinese Studies Department of University of Malaya and the Writers' Association of the Chinese Medium of Malaysia jointly developed and implemented a 10-week online intervention course for Chinese Language teachers. The observations of the researchers yielded a pedagogical framework of Mahua literature encompassing four aspects, namely, (a) linguistic features; (b) imagery or object representation; (c) "pathos" or the affective aspect; and (d) "logos" or the motive of the text. In brief, this pedagogical framework can be termed as the "Language-Representation-Affect-Motive" (LRAM) framework. It is significant that Chinese Language teachers would view Mahua literature as being more challenging than Chinese literature from the Mainland to teach and prepare lessons for. Nevertheless, the research findings have, to a certain extent, affirmed that the LRAM framework was effective in addressing the felt needs of these teachers. The research also revealed that the LRAM was wellaccepted as a feasible pedagogy of literature in assisting both novice and experienced Chinese Language teachers to dive deeper into Mahua literature. The feedback and reflections from the interviewees discussed reflect the participants' opinions concerning the weightage of localised content in Chinese textbooks, as well as the literary value of Mahua literature. All in all, this study applies a socio-ecological approach in examining the LRAM literature pedagogy implemented in an online CPD programme on Mahua literature.

This summer, teachers around the country will be preparing to step into new roles. Many will be taking their first step into management as Heads of Department, a role that is often overlooked and which is generally under-researched. Yet as James Toop, Chief Executive of the charity Teaching Leaders argues, ‘no school can be a great school without getting middle leadership right’. So what does it mean to be a great middle leader? That’s what this report, co-authored with Meena Parameshwaran, Loic Menzies and Charleen Chiong on behalf of LKMco, and commissioned by Teaching Leaders, sets out to explore.

This research paper reports on the trajectory of a recently established HEI in the Middle East and the challenges faced in embedding PBL as the underpinning methodological approach for Teaching and Learning. This paper documents the implementation and subsequent review of teacher training and development activity at a tertiary education provider specialising in student centred learning (SCL). The paper seeks to draw from the research evidence base to propose a way forward in establishing a professional development (PD) framework which supports the continuing training and upskilling of teachers at Bahrain Polytechnic. The paper documents the chronology of such work in response to institutional research, operational challenges and ongoing review. The paper reports on the proposed adoption of a transitional professional development approach to provide sustainable PD in support of the facilitation of student centred learning at Bahrain Polytechnic, seeking to document the process thus far, report on the updated intra-institutional research findings and the subsequent attempt to construct a framework to support the implementation of a sustainable training and development offering for academic staff.

While games are a common classroom activity, not much empirical evidence supports the use of games in L2 grammar classrooms for late teens and adults. This intervention study focused on 34 Turkish learners of English as a second language. The intervention group was exposed to three class period of games, while the comparison group had three class periods of traditional instruction (e.g. worksheets and whiteboard explanations). A pre-test, a post-test, and a delayed post-test were given. T-tests were performed on the scores from each test and a mixed (with-subject and between group) ANOVA was conducted. Additionally a survey was conducted to determine the experience of the students. Results of the statistical analyses were not significant, but the students reported being motivated by the games. It is recommended that teachers use games in their grammar classrooms about once a week.