Teacher Development
Select three of the following nine activities to submit to your leadership mentor.
Choose an activity based on your areas of interest and the results of the diagnostic review undertaken at the start of the course.
Implementation
Activity 1: Reliable data
In the practice scenario from Make the right choices on what to implement in the Implementation selfstudy pack, Jaz explained how the data he examined demonstrated children with SEND were not making the expected progress.
Read the EEF guidance on Gathering and interpreting data, paying attention to the section on recognising weaknesses in data.
What can you learn from the case study and EEF guidance about collecting relevant, reliable data?
What action can you take to ensure your own data is relevant and reliable?
Submit a summary of your response to your leadership mentor (maximum 200 words).
EEF (2019) Gathering and interpreting data summary
Activity 2: Active ingredients
The EEF’s School’s guide to implementation includes guidance on identifying and prioritising the core components or ‘active ingredients’ of a project. Read the guidance on pages 28 to 39, paying attention to the case studies and examples.
What key learning can you take away from the case studies?
How will you apply what you have learned to teacher development planning?
Submit a summary of your response to your leadership mentor (maximum 200 words).
EEF (2024) Schools' guide to implementation report
Activity 3: A shared understanding
One of the recommendations in ‘Putting evidence to work: A school’s guide to implementation’ outlines the importance of uniting stakeholders by creating a shared understanding of the problem to be solved and the intervention to be implemented.
Complete the first two columns of the implementation template for a small, recent implementation activity
How does this increase clarity and support a shared understanding of the project?
Submit a summary of your response to your leadership mentor (maximum 200 words).
EEF (2024) Implementation template
Activity 4: Reinforce initial training
The EEF's 'School's guide to implementation' includes guidance on supporting implementation with professional development on pages 38 to 43. Read the guidance, paying attention to the recommendation to reinforce initial training with expert follow-on support. Consider the implications of this for implementation activity in your school.
How will you apply what you have learned to your own activity to improve behaviour?
Submit a summary of your response to your leadership mentor (maximum 200 words).
EEF (2024) Schools' guide to implementation report
Identifying teacher development needs
Activity 5: Teacher appraisal
In the study pack ‘Identifying teacher development needs’, in the section on establishing teacher development needs, in the practice scenario Peter describes his school’s approach to teacher appraisal. Read this, the DfE Teacher Appraisal and Capability model and the DfE Making data work report.
Compare your reading to your school’s own appraisal model or policy.
How effective is your school appraisal model or policy at identifying teachers’ development needs?
How would you change the model to improve the assessment of teachers’ professional development needs?
Submit a summary of your response to your leadership mentor (maximum 200 words).
DfE (2019) Teacher appraisal and capability: Model policy
DfE Making data work
Activity 6: Exploring your school self-assessment and school improvement plan
In the identifying teacher development needs study pack, there is a recommendation that you explore your school self-assessment and school improvement plan and use the data used in preparing it to start a needs analysis.
Pick one improvement theme from your school’s SIP and explore the underlying data at the school, department and, if possible, the individual level.
What does the data tell you about the development need at the different levels?
How would you differentiate any subsequent professional development?
Submit a summary of your response to your leadership mentor (maximum 200 words).
Activity 7: Teacher assessment
The section on teacher assessment in identifying teacher development needs explores a range of teacher assessment methods and recommends that a range of methods are used to judge the quality of teaching and support teachers in their professional development. There is a specific recommendation that that review protocols are used to standardise reporting. Look at your own school’s teacher assessment or observation policy.
Reflect on why standardisation is important and its place in helping teachers develop.
How are judgements of teaching quality standardised in your school?
How might standardisation be improved?
Submit a summary of your response to your leadership mentor (maximum 200 words).
Activity 8: Understanding the teacher assessment frameworks
Explore the Teachers’ standards and the Ofsted inspection framework.
Discuss with your in-school coach how the choice and wording of the standards compare to your own understanding of teaching excellence.
How would you amend the standards to reflect your definition of teaching excellence and make them more accessible for teachers?
Submit a summary of your response to your leadership mentor (maximum 200 words).
DfE Teachers’ standards
Ofsted Education inspection framework 2019
Activity 9: Evaluating the impact of professional development
In the practice scenario in the self-study pack lesson, Evaluating the impact of professional development, Laura discusses how she and her team used data and evaluated the impact of their work.
Reflect on how you and your colleagues have recorded the impact of your work for a recent improvement project.
Apply Guskey’s levels of impact to a recently delivered professional development programme. (Keep this at a high level capturing the key points, perhaps in a table.)
Submit a summary of your response to your leadership mentor (maximum 200 words).
Guskey. T. R. (2002) Does it make a difference? Evaluating professional development. Educational Leadership, 59(6), 45–51
Guskey. T. R. (2016) Gauge impact with 5 levels of data. Learning Forward, 37(1), 32–37