When recruitment is tough and academic expectations are rising, governors and leaders realise that they need to move funding away from sticking-plaster interventions and into sustained support and development for their most expensive assets, the teachers and other staff who work with students every day. While professional development can take many forms, the best available research shows that the most effective professional development practices share similar characteristics. As far as we can tell, theres a smooth gradient of teacher quality. TES subscribers can read the list in full here. 2 great blogs on feedback and becoming a better teacher | joannemilesconsulting, Pingback: Hello! But research can tell teachers where their efforts might be most fruitfully directed, and right now there does not appear to be any more cost-effective way to improve achievement than helping teachers to make their feedback more effective. A culture of improvement: reviewing the research on teacher working conditions, School Improvement through Professional Development, The TDT Associate Qualification in CPD Leadership, Standard for Teachers Professional Development, Voices from the TDT Network: Jane Kennedy, Education Durham, What you need to know about the new NPQEYL, Coaching in Schools: Voices from the TDT Network Webinar video. The late Professor Ted Wragg, of Exeter . Dylan Wiliam: Every Teacher Can Improve. Dylan Wiliam Center Eighty-six per cent of Australian teachers reported attendance at courses and workshops, and 56 per cent reported attendance at education conferences or seminars. While there is no one solution to school improvement that holds true in every classroom every time, there are two clearly identified aspects that improve the odds of school success: implementing a curriculum focused on developing knowledge, and supporting . Institute of Education, University of London . If the love it and truly want to help students learn and love their subject, then it will show in the students as time goes on. For this reason, the most successful schools are protecting or even expanding their professional development budget, time and leadership even in the face of reductions elsewhere. 0000001322 00000 n Dylan Wiliam. But, like all habits, we need to unpick and analyse if we are to really make sustained improvements. The expectations of the students are also important. Wiliam makes it fairly clear what we need to focus on in schools in his latest book. Teaching is about relationships, and these relationships are best when they involve mutual respect. If you are not failing you are just not paying attention. We use cookies to optimize our website and our service. The Standard sets out a clear description of what effective continuing professional development (or CPD) looks like for teachers. "Research will never tell . Participation in any professional learning activity needs to be driven by a desire to improve identified student outcomes. Creating a culture of continuous improvement in schools helps all teachers get better at what they do. Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care If youre excited about the promise of cog sci, or leading implementation in a school, then digging into the nuance of the evidence: how? Academy of Management Journal, 52(6), 11011124. Additionally, I write edubooks and offer consultancy. We see how feedback from mentors who have faced the same challenges as the teacher being mentored can help and how school leaders can create environments in . They undertook a large scale consultation with hundreds of individuals and organisations from across the sector and sought out the highest quality research on what types of professional development seem to make the biggest difference to teachers and students learning. They began by reviewing existing advice and standards from across the world and across different professions. Furthermore, when teachers themselves make the decision about what it is that they wish to prioritize for their own professional development, they are more likely to make it work. We need to focus upon the 80/20 rule (otherwise known as the Pareto principal ). Innovation Grants Report. This is something you are never going to have to worry about. John Hattie School Leadership, John Hattie on School Leadership | The BB2 Collaborative, Scurvy Seadogs and Using Research Evidence - Think Education, Scurvy Seadogs and Using Research Evidence. Aug 1, . More importantly, focusing on an alleged number of incompetent teachers, whether it's 15,000 as Chris Woodhead claimed, or some other number, creates the . Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, Melbourne. More importantly, focusing on an alleged number of incompetent teachers, whether its 15,000 as Chris Woodhead claimed, or some other number, creates the impression that the rest are all the same, and theyre not. The Standard therefore represents a sharp move away from programmes that attempt to generically improving teaching through one size fits all briefing sessions. It would increase, by half a grade, the GCSE grades of the 5% of kids who have a terrible teacher, but would make little or no difference in the scores of the other 95% of students. The Rationale Behind the Hinge. The ultimate test of any teaching is long . Dylan Wiliam's clip on how every teacher can improve supports this idea clearly. In recent years, governments throughout the world have been more and more vigorous in making changes in pursuit of this aim. Is it just resistance to change, or something deeper? For that reason, between 2003 and 2006 working with colleagues at the Educational Testing Service, I co-developed and piloted a number of models for supporting teachers. Again, I was lucky, but for a very different reason. The problem with continuous professional development is that the continuous bit is too often missing . When I ran a PGCE, many of the student teachers told me that they were worried about whether their pupils would respect them. The last time that we spoke in Melbourne you shared your tips for teachers and leaders who want to change their practice. However, the research evidence shows that teachers are slow to change their classroom practice. . Viewed August 5, 2014 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1LL9NX1hUw&feature=youtu.be&a. . Of the organisations profiled in the Horizon Scan, the most successful examples support their staff to engage in professional learning that has been designed for impact, that is aligned to an identifiable need, and that is cognisant of the learning preferences of participants. 1. Subscribe for just 1 per month for the next 3 months to get unlimited access to all Tes magazine content. The document instead draws on a strong body of research to show that teachers must have access to training which is more directly relevant to students and classes they teach, with more subject-specific content. Cole, in Linking effective professional learning with effective teaching practice (2012), states that in schools with rich learning environments, classroom observation and feedback are commonplace, professional learning opportunities are built into day-to-day operations and a culture of collaborative learning and risktaking are the norm. The accuracy of the results of the national tests in English, mathematics and science taken by 11-year olds in England has been a matter of much debate since their . Where it was once commonplace to outsource, schools are increasingly drawing upon their own resources. "Every teacher needs to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better." (Professor Dylan Wiliam) We are all teachers of literacy. Then how to understand the problems of students because I dont have any physical contact with them???? Recent research from the US shows that having good teachers in a school improves the performance of the teachers around them. Alternatively, you can subscribe for just 1 per month for the next three months and get: You can subscribe for just 1 per month for the next three months and get: Subscribe for just 1 per month for the next 3 months to get unlimited access to all Tes magazine content. In this article, we consider recent international data and the potential implications for Australian educators. Is the comfort derived from developing good habits of behaviour management and easing our attendant stresses a bad thing? When teachers start from the basic assumption that the pupils in their class are people - sometimes little people, to be sure, but people, with all the human rights that we accord to adults - then good things tend to follow. To use a simple analogy, if you think about a top golfer, they practice specific shots, with a coach giving immediate feedback, typically including a series of corrective tweaks. To make good practice happen, action must be taken by school leaders, from teachers and from external providers or experts. If so, how do you anticipate it will aid you in improving student learning outcomes? This is not meant to imply a slavish following of the latest research findings, but that teachers should be literally accountablethey should accept that they should expect and be able to render an account of why they have chosen to develop one aspect of their practice rather than another. Lets focus on the idea that each teacher can and should improve their practice for their entire career, and provide the most supportive environment for doing that. NOTE: If you get an error message after Submitting, please double-check that your email address has been entered correctly. Here are Dylan's five tips. I never trained as a teacher. https://www.theconfidentteacher.com/2023/02/5-free-research-reads-on-retrieval-practice/, What is the problem with skills in schools? To improve we must undertake what can be a frustrating process with grit and resilience. Dylan is an absolute legend in the world of education and has always had an acute focus on teacher professional development and . "Every teacher needs to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better." Dylan Wiliam As the most important profession for our nation's future, teachers need considerable knowledge and skill, which need to be developed as their careers progress. Educational Leadership, v71 n6 p16-19 Mar 2014. We have more evidence about what works in the classroom than ever before, but how much of that knowledge is in the hands of teachers? Dylan Wiliam is Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at University College London. TLC meetings create accountability to help teachers implement their plans. Teach. As a result, teachers may need to modify the way techniques are introduced. 0000003266 00000 n A dozen years later, when I was running a PGCE course, I found that this was not an isolated example. Australian teachers readily access and are heavily supported to undertake professional learning. As well as choice of what to prioritize in their development, teachers will also need to modify ideas developed by other teachers to make them work in their own classrooms. You have to prove that someone does not have the capacity to improve, and that takes time, which is why some teachers jump before they are pushed, and so the whole process begins again. Across Australia, some schools are demonstrating new approaches to professional learning. Dylan Wiliam. Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, Melbourne. The effect would be so small as to be undetectable. Deliver ITE programs. The issue is that we often undertake the wrong sort of practice and our hard work lacks direction. In other words, we have [] Once a leadership team has the right conditions for team effectiveness in place, it's important to focus on the instructional vision.