Lots of interesting chat came up in the two sessions, so I’ll try to share everyone’s thoughts in the major threads we discussed…
Incentives
Time and incentive (not only monetary, but seeing the value of it), motivation, providing choice.
A credit-style system, does it actually work? Are people actually participating actively or just in it for the credits? You would need to reflect on quantitative and qualitative data to see whether it’s actually having an effect. National conferences often have some sort of accreditation system.
Is it different for freelancers / people contracted in a company?
Are people contracted to be at work for a certain number of hours (e.g. in the building 8 hours, but teaching 4)? In-house training is paid and contracted in some schools. Some schools also have a training budget to support teachers to do courses such as NILE, DELTA, etc. There might also be possibilities to miss one day to attend a conference and have a substitute provided.
Reasons NOT to get involved in CPD
Why do I need to learn more? (though how can someone working in education think like that!?)
Coping with people who don’t have that drive for CPD – a realisation that your perspective isn’t the same as everyone else’s. CPD does need to take a different form for people at different stages in their careers – why should we force people to engage? If they’re not motivated, they won’t get anything out of it. If they do have gaps in their knowledge, you can approach and discuss things with them and find what would be suitable for them. However, education is constantly changing (as we saw just with the pandemic, but even now with ChatGPT and other new websites, apps, etc). Potentially have a list of what’s available in terms of training and have teachers identify what they’ve attended/feel comfortable with.
CPD can sometimes get confused with administrative work in in-house training.
Mental health also plays a role – people are more cautious of taking on extra stress to take a long-term course (like DELTA) or go through the process of preparing and delivering a session. There are also people who are long-term TEFLers who are content being ‘just’ teachers – they’re happy, they do their lessons, they prepare things well, but don’t have the desire / motivation to do anything more – fair play to them!
Suggestions
A longer-term initiative, e.g. action research over a period of time. Teachers can choose a topic specific to their interests.
Peer observations – do teachers have a choice of who you observe, so you can feel that you’re learning from someone with more experience (in a certain area). Providing teachers with guidance on how to give feedback (and feeling you have the right to). Knowing what questions to ask to, especially if there are awkward moments in the lesson.
Building a more positive attitude around observation so teachers feel more open to the process. Many experienced teachers feel nervous about the experience.
Collaborative planning is a nice option (e.g. working together to plan an FCE class) – helps to share ideas and build a useful ‘project’ so teachers have something tangible to take away. Can be something more general to support teachers who don’t teach the same group, e.g. a reading skills lesson (steps, discussing stages).
Relevance
What are the prospects for the future? How will this CPD help me?
Is it possible for people to opt-in for CPD? Or does it have to be done by everyone?
Importance of planning and having a long-term view of it – can people see the connection between different sessions (threads) over a period of time?
Appropriacy for their own context (reflective questions as well – what would you use? Why wouldn’t you use other elements?).
Time appropriate too – does it come at the time of need (rather than after)?
Each classroom is different – what can I learn from your experience?
In the pandemic, we were all quite motivated and attended everything! Temptation to do more as things were available online – but doesn’t necessarily mean it’s all good. Being more selective now that work is back on track. Need time to let things sink in as well and to REFLECT on what worked and what didn’t.
Presenters
Big names attract more attendance – but have the big names moved away from the classroom? Do they address the gap between theory and practice? Are veterans just saying the same thing they said twenty years ago? New speakers bring something new to the table and might have a different energy.
Collaborative sessions – with two teachers presenting together. We’re all alone in our classrooms – does this perhaps make people feel they don’t need that connection?
Giving teachers a voice – e.g. a mini-seminar with each person presenting for 15 minutes. Also helps to build rapport – you go along to support your colleagues. Provides experience for teachers to become conference speakers or teacher trainers. Everyone has something to offer – whether you’ve been teaching for a year or twenty.
How can you encourage people to deliver or lead in-house sessions? Do teachers feel coerced into taking on a training role if they’re asked to deliver a session or mentor a new colleague? Delivering sessions requires a different skill set – there might be gaps in people’s knowledge which you need to know how to fill (the curse of the expert).
Some centres run sessions on delivering sessions which builds to either an in-house conference in large organisations or a regional conference.
How can conference organisers encourage new voices? Shorter sessions might be less daunting (20-30 minutes)
Guest Speaker schemes in some teachers’ organisations – a teacher from one member school does an input session in another member school.
Other thoughts…
Is there a ‘social’ element to CPD? Meeting colleagues, building rapport between the team?
The staffroom is also a place for unscheduled CPD – if there are times when people are all together there but not ‘busy’ (e.g. dashing off to their next class). More immediate collaboration and helping in those moments of need.
A distinction perhaps between training and development – personal /professional development which teachers do in their own (‘free’) time (e.g. setting up a blog, getting better at FCE marking, etc) vs. attending conferences, taking courses, going to webinars, being involved in mentoring/ coaching.
People in academic management positions also need to lead by example and be role models for their team. Some of us are CPD junkies!
NILE management course – co-constructed, highly recommended. Generational differences around incentivisation – younger generation want to be paid for their time, older generation were more inclined to do things for free. Do younger generation want a more immediate return / instant gratification? Before you did things because it could be beneficial for your future (if I do it for free this time, perhaps they’ll pay me next time). Personality type as well – are you a yes person? Have a tendency to say yes to things and end up lots of extra work. Knock-on effect of paying speakers…increases the cost for participants. Building your brand – lots of teachers have social media channels as part of their brand – exposure!
“Hygiene factors” affect what people are looking for, e.g. money, contract, pension contributions, days off. It’s about life cycles of teachers – as you stay in the industry your needs change.