Teacher Professional Learning

Annex A. Reflection questions for a process of change

In line with this paper offering a ‘vision’ of professional learning, the below reflection questions are framed with a view to the future and what could be possible, but they could also be transformed to focus on the present and gauge the current state-of-play.

Ambition 1: Build the initial foundations of an effective and meaningful career

Process for selecting candidates for the profession

• How can entry requirements to initial teacher education (ITE) and, in connection, certification, best drive quality standards forward?

• How do the pathways to the classroom foster quality as well as a diversity of candidates?

• What could be the role of incentives to further attract quality candidates?

• How can the overall selection process send positive signals about the teaching profession?

Nature of the preparation for the classroom and profession

• What blend of mechanisms and criteria could best promote quality provision of initial teacher education?

• How is information on the quality of provision used to support further learning and development among ITE providers?

• What could be the balance of quality control with supporting the need for innovation and flexibility?

• How can teachers be supported to develop a coherent, foundational body of theory and knowledge?

• How might teachers be supported to go beyond theory to develop their actual classroom practice through quality experiences?

• How can coherence across the content taught by teacher educators, as well as other actors like schools, be ensured?

• How can the knowledge-base and content of ITE programmes be updated in tune with evolving research and evidence?

• How can teachers be supported early on to develop a critical, reflective stance towards their own practice to help its ongoing development?

• How might foundational research and inquiry skills be developed to support a teacher’s lifelong learning?

• How might a teacher’s self-concept and sense of purpose as part of the profession also be attended to in ITE?

Attending to the transition into the classroom and school

• How can resources and capacity-building be used to promote quality coaching and mentoring experiences?

• What can support all teachers to have access to quality induction supports?

• What structures could enable meaningful dialogue between ITE providers and schools to ensure that different needs are being appropriately met?

• How might induction contribute to wider learning in the school by introducing new ideas or questioning received wisdom for greater clarity?

Ambition 2: Develop an infrastructure that incentivises and recognises excellence

A clear and attractive vertical career structure

• How can each stage of the career, as well as the connections between them, be clearly defined and communicated?

• How could clearly defined teachers’ standards with their expected knowledge, skills, values and attitudes underpin career stages?

• How can ownership and shared understanding of teaching standards and career structure be developed?

• What may be the role of financial incentives in career progression?

Opportunities to specialise through horizontal diversification

• How can specialist roles be clearly defined, from tasks to expectations for success?

• What features of the career structure may incentivise teachers’ engagement with specialist roles?

• How can effective fulfilment in specialist roles be ensured through sufficient resources, from time to financial resources to the learning opportunities that may be included?

• How are specialist roles accredited to teachers to ensure they are suitable for this role?

Trusted evaluation mechanisms

• How can evaluation positively shape career progression?

• What is the potential to draw upon multiple measures, including the perspectives of different stakeholders, to address the complexity of teaching in evaluating?

• What mechanisms can support the reliability and validity of measures? (e.g. capacity of evaluators, auditing, calibrating)

• What can be the role of more regular and ongoing internal formative evaluation in supporting professional learning?

• How can learning needs from summative evaluations be identified and harnessed for positive formative experiences?

• How can both individual needs be identified for teachers, but also wider school and system needs by school or system leaders?

Ambition 3: Facilitate quality, meaningful ongoing learning that enables the profession to grow and face future challenges

Provision of relevant learning opportunities

• How can the responsibility for the provision of professional learning opportunities be best addressed for high-quality learning?

• What could be the criteria and mechanisms for promoting high-quality offers of professional learning?

• What might be the right balance of agency and choice with more mandatory learning opportunities?

• How can the provision be designed with evolving needs of teachers, schools and the wider system?

Delivery of quality learning opportunities

• What resources could support structured communities of learning? (e.g. time, physical resources, capacity-building)

• How could data and research provided to support structured communities of learning?

• How can a culture of learning be embodied in the system and across schools?

• What opportunities can exist for quality coaching and mentoring in the system?

• What enablers in terms of resources (e.g. time) and capacity-building could support effective coaching and mentoring?

Incentives to engage in professional learning

• How can potential barriers to teachers’ participation in professional learning be addressed? (e.g. cost, time)

• What could be the approach to recognising and tracking professional learning participation?

• How could recognising and tracking support sustained reflection on professional learning?

• What measures can be used to gather teachers’ and school leaders’ views on professional learning opportunities and drive further improvement?

• How can the overall quality across the provision and delivery of professional learning be monitored and used?

Ambition 4: Create an ecosystem for collective learning and sharing to ensure opportunities for excellence for all

A culture of collaborative inquiry within and across schools

• How can structures (e.g. networks) and roles (e.g. facilitators) be used to support collaborative inquiry within and across schools?

• What resources can be provided to support collaborative inquiry within and across schools? (e.g. time, physical resources [e.g. videos, digital tools], capacity-building)

• How can practitioners enact agency over defining tangible focusses for collaboration?

• What role can data, research and artefacts play in grounding collaboration?

• How can additional actors be drawn upon to enhance collaborative processes?

• How could best practice around collaboration be more widely shared?

Developing engagement with research

• What mechanisms can support access to high-quality, relevant research?

• How could teachers and school leaders be supported to develop their research literacy?

• What system-level infrastructure would enable a culture of effective, sustainable research engagement?

• What role could teachers and school leaders play in shaping the research agenda?

Systematising and disseminating knowledge

• How could new knowledge from school-level actors be coherently and systematically captured?

• What could be the role of different actors in generating and curating new knowledge?

• What tools could enable an evolving knowledge base to be accessible to a wide range of actors?

Key implementation considerations

• How do the career structure and professional learning opportunities coherently build upon the foundations of the system of ITE?

• How can the different roles of stakeholders across ITE and professional learning be defined and coordinated?

• How might the voices of different stakeholders – across teacher professional learning – be heard and considered to foster buy-in and ownership?

• How might the capacity of teacher educators and professional learning providers be supported and developed to increase their impact in ITE and in-service learning?

• How are the distinct needs of leaders met and considered in the career structure and system of professional learning, whilst retaining coherence with those of teachers?

• How can leaders be supported to become enablers of strong collaborative cultures in their school and more widely?

• How may the potential effects of market forces on the provision of professional learning be best understood and responded to?

• What could be the role of pilot programmes in supporting potential change?

• What could be the potential of identifying and supporting early adopters when implementing change?

• What might be the role of patience and incremental steps in the face of a time-consuming process of changing cultures?