Thring: Issue 1, January 2022

Issue 1 – January 2022

Thringboard

A journal for teacher development and research

Contents

Editorial How does routine, deliberate, class-time Retrieval Practice add value in performance, improve confidence and reduce test anxiety in Upper Sixth pupil performance in the 4-week lead up to A Level exams? Tom Davies, Head of Geography

4-5

What is the impact of coaching on both autonomy and self-motivation when preparing 16+ pupils for Drama School applications? James Holroyd, Head of Academic Drama

6-7

Investigating the impact of small-scale continuing professional development on early career teachers’ self-efficacy. Rachel Attenborough, Assistant Head: Teacher Development

8-9

No Punishments.

Richard Hegarty, Housemaster of Highfield An exploration of the role that regular professional conversations in a secondary school can play in supporting teacher learning using grounded theory Rachel Attenborough, Assistant Head: Teacher Development

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3

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Editorial

Welcome to this, the first-ever edition of Thringboard. Inspired by the great man, and published just weeks after the celebrations to mark the bicentenary of his birth, Thringboard is a publication by teachers for teachers. The sort of teachers that Thring would describe as educators. On the contrast between true educators (referred to here by Thring as “teachers”) and mere instructors (here, “hammerers”), he wrote: “the teacher knows his subject to be infinite, and is always learning himself to put old things in a new form. The hammerer thinks he knows his subject, and that the pupil ought to know it too”. Thring, ever the innovator, was one of the first Headmasters to insist that his masters learnt how to improve their teaching.

Thringboard is anticipated to be a biannual publication, and will provide a space for Uppingham School teachers to write about any pieces of research they are and have been doing in the interest of their, and others’, professional development. It aims to inform, engage and inspire teachers to learn about and implement others’ evidence-informed findings, and to encourage them to conduct their own projects too.

This first issue gives you, amongst other articles, an insight into the Chartered Teacher Programme via three colleagues who have recently completed that qualification to gain Chartered Teacher Status. An individual research project marks the culmination of that programme and requires participants to write up their findings in the form of an A3 poster: the three published here cover a range of interesting topics. In addition, you can find out more about Highfield’s ‘no punishments’ culture and - though from a year or two ago so not as fresh as the other contributions - a Master’s degree dissertation on the role of regular professional conversations in supporting teacher learning.

I hope there is at least something for everyone, and that you find this first issue interesting and stimulating in equal measure. And, if the articles in this issue aren’t for you, do turn to the back page for a taster of what’s coming up next time, and to check out the regular ‘Top CPD pick’ feature.

If you have any feedback on this first issue of Thringboard, and/or any constructive suggestions on how to improve it before Issue #2, I’d love to hear from you.

Rachel Attenborough Assistant Head: Teacher Development

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How does routine, deliberate, class-time Retrieval Practice add value in perfor performance in the 4-week lead up to A Level exams? By Tom Davies, Head of G

My goal behind this research project is to help Retrieval Practice (RP) become a regular part of classroom practice and our regular vocabulary (both pupils and teachers).

What is Retrieval Practice (RP)?

“Getting pupils to pull out information from their minds without looking at their notes”.

(Agarwal and Blunt 2019)

Key Data (initial findings from 15 pupils in U6th Geography class) on 15 March 2020 How do you revise? (N=15, more than one option can be chosen) (blue bars could be classed as RP, red bars are not) 12

12

8 6 4

100

‘Other’ involved revising with a friend (1) and highlighting notes (2)

11

10 Number of pupils

Summary of literature

4

90

4

4

Number of papers

80

2

70 60

3

3

Testing myself using past papers

Other

50 40

0

30 20 10 0

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

Making summary notes whilst looking at my textbook/notes

Re-reading my notes

Making flash cards

Testing myself using essay plans

Making ‘blind’ summary notes

Year

Karpicke (2017)

This graph demonstrates the number of papers on “Retrieval Practice” since 1991 an (on Web of Science). Despite this growing trend, I would have hoped that Retrieval Practice is a more commonly used and talked about practice in schools.

Some of the recent researchers on RP: • Robert Bjork, Henry L. Roediger III and Jeffrey D. Karpicke have demonstrated that tests and quizzes improve learning • Agarwal (2006) studies about the value of low stakes quizzes • Karpicke and Blunt (2011) Retrieval Practice is more effective than other common study methods • Agarwal and Bain (2019) review and advise on retrieval practice alongside other “power tools” • Jones (2019) embeds Retrieval Practice alongside other important teaching and learning practices in her ‘teaching and learning’ puzzle.

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Have you ever heard of “Retrieval Practice”? (N=15) n Yes – I know what it means n No – never heard of it n Yes – but I can’t really remember

If you have used ‘retrieval’ in your revision so far, what % of your revision has involved testing? (N=15) Vast majority of pupils barely, or do not use, RP in their revision

What words come to mind when you see a ‘test’ as part of a lesson?

Pupils are very much focused on “have I revised”, otherwise panic and anxiety set in

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n I have not used any form of testing n Between 10% and 40% n Less than 10% n Between 40% and 60%

20% 40% 20% 20%

revision worried

anxious depends

excited

thanks okay

revise

consolidation

cry

panic

revised

rmance, improve confidence and reduce test anxiety in Upper Sixth pupil Geography Putting it into practice – what I set out to do

In brief: our students often revise by trying to put information into their brains.

That is: they “go over”/ re-read the material and make notes. I planned to: 1. Find out how pupils in my U6th class normally revise, what they feel about being ‘tested’, and whether they have heard of Retrieval Practice.

2. Introduce pupils to the concept of RP and Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve.

3. Design a 4-week revision plan based around regular retrieval practice of Physical Geography Topics using a variety of retrieval practice methods (or quizzes).

4. Measure and monitor confidence levels in the material after each week.

5. Set up a focus group of five randomly selected pupils to discuss findings more openly.

6. Use IRIS connect and observations to monitor pupil confidence on retrieval in class.

7. To compare pupil experiences and confidence across a ‘control’ group (same pupils, but different teacher and different approach to revision) via focus group interviews and surveys.

8. COVID-19 caused school closure on 20 March and public examinations were cancelled. Thus, only one week of the designed practice was carried out.

9. My follow up plan would be: • How can RP be practised remotely online for remote learning?

• How can RP be implemented in the classroom post-lockdown to improve confidence and retention of material covered during lockdown?

• Which RP exercises are most valuable when transitioning from ‘Zoom to room’.

• How can RP improve value from note making?

• How can RP be specifically useful in Geography?

Key Words • • • • • • • •

Retrieval Practice Working memory Interleaving practice Deliberate practice Spaced learning Cognitive load Desirable difficulty Metacognition

Involve everyone in the retrieval practice and review process Specify the knowledge: it’s better if students know the set of knowledge and retrieval will be based on, so they can study, prepare and self-check Vary the diet and mix it up

Make checking and correcting accurate and easy to do

Keep it generative

Make it time efficient

Make it workload efficient

Sherrington’s summary of the key principles of retrieval practice (2019, in Jones, 2019 pp 43)

Bibliography Agarwal, P.K. & Bain, P. M. (2019) Powerful Teaching: Unleash the science of learning.

Jossey-Bass San Francisco.

Gonzalez, J (2017) The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast Episode 79: Retrieval Practice: The Most Powerful Learning Strategy you’re not using. 24.09.2017 accessed via Apple iTunes 20.06.20 Karpicke, J. (2012) Retrieval-Based Learning: Active Retrieval Promotes Meaningful Learning. Current Directions in Psychological Science 21 (3) pp157-163 Karpicke, J. (2017) Retrieval-Based Learning: A Decade of Progress available on: http://learninglab.psych.purdue.edu/downloads/inpress_Karpicke_Retrieval_Based_Learning_Review.pdf accessed 04/07/2020 Jones, K (2019) Retrieval Practice: Research and Resources for every classroom. John Cap Education Ltd.: Woodbridge Karpicke, J. D., & Blunt, J. R. (2011). Retrieval practice produces more learning than elaborative studying with concept mapping. Science, 331, 772–775. http://www.retrievalpractice.org accessed 21.06,20 http://teacherhead.com/2019/03/03/10-techniques-for-retrieval-practice/ accessed 20.06.20

Strengths ✓ This project stimulated plenty of valuable discussion in the pupil body and department over the concept of Retrieval Practice. ✓ The value of, and science behind Retrieval Practice is now embedded in Lower School learning.

Limitations ✗ The main limitation with my research project occurred due to school closure and the cancellation of A-level exams. This meant that the focus of teaching moved away from exam preparation and towards preparation for university. ✗ Further limitations with my initial research project are that I am not comparing RP against other common learning methods. ✗ The limited time meant that RP activities had to be quite narrow in focus, and hence only covered a small part of the course content – this might falsify confidence levels ✗ When assessing pupil confidence on material, it is difficult to obtain a truly accurate, non-biased and reliable source of data on this as pupils may have a perceived improved confidence created by the awareness of the benefits of RP ✗ Using Likert scales, confirmation bias, small sample size, short treatment time, lack of control group could all affect the validity and reliability of conclusions.

Conclusion

My initial findings revealed that pupils were generally unaware of the concept of (or science behind) Retrieval Practice and generally Retrieval Practice (or ‘testing’) is underused or poorly used in their revision process. Pupils also revealed that ‘testing’ appropriates anxiety and panic in their minds.

Regardless of the potential limitations the research initiated valuable focus on Retrieval Practice as a learning tool.

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What is the impact of coaching on both autonomy and self-motivation when p

By James Holroyd, Head of Academic Drama Project Rationale The success of my departmental initiative in developing pupil autonomy and motivation through the House system and an interest in the use of coaching, both in and out of lessons, led to my project choice. I hoped to link these two areas together when preparing Drama School hopefuls for the application process. The most common feedback for unsuccessful applicants is that they are lacking in self-confidence and a clear understanding of why they have applied. By using coaching to improve both their autonomy and selfmotivation for the process, I hoped that this would be measured by the increase in number of pupils given places.

Data (initial findings from School A) U6th Drama School applicants were introduced to the concept of coaching and their interest was determined.

Six pupils were selected as a result of this process (one pupil dropped out due to concern over time commitments) – shown below:

For the purpose of this research project I have defined the relevant terms as follows:

On a scale of 1-5 (1 being low and 5 being high), how self aware do you think you are?

Responses

equality, questioning, coaching expertise, present and future focused COACH

shares personal experience, questioning and answering MENTOR

theraputic, past focused, expert COUNSELLOR

inequality, tells, subject expert CONSULTANT

TEACHER

Directive

spans directive to less directive, inequality Figure 1 – Comparing directive and non-directive approaches (Graydin, 2019)

A form of professional and personal development in order to improve behaviours and performance through reflection and learning.

(Aguilar, 2019 and Deans et al., 2006) Autonomy An innate human need where an individual has ownership over their choices, which helps to increase motivation when met and decrease motivation when not met. (Deci and Ryan, 2000 and Jim Knight, 2019) Self-Motivation The willingness of an individual to undertake tasks and make decisions without the involvement of extrinsic factors leading to increased motivation.

(Jim Knight, 2019) Through research, it became apparent that coaching had been used to develop pre-service teachers’ confidence. However, there was little evidence of the impact of coaching on pupils behaviours. This presented both an opportunity and a challenge.

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n Yes – 7 n No – 1

8

Coaching

Non-Directive

Based on initial impressions, would you be interested in one-on-one coaching sessions?

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3.63

Average Number

The selected pupils (N:6) were coached each week and asked to complete a reflection journal and weekly survey (process points 3-5) before completing a post-survey.

Some example data from point 5 shown below: Did coaching today help you become more self aware?

6

Responses

«««««

4.33 Average Rating

Did coaching today help you feel more in control of your life choices?

6

Responses

«««««

3.17 Average Rating

The initial data suggests that coaching did impact pupils selfawareness (see increase in average rating). However, the long term benefits were inconclusive due to limitations brought about by COVID – see limitations.

Key Coaching Terms Directive/Non-Directive Fulfilment Wheel & Order of Importance Three Ms of Listening Inner Team Effective Questioning Future Pacing

preparing 16+ pupils for Drama School applications?

Process 1. Identify pupils applying to Drama School from U6th cohort.

2. Determine their initial impressions of their own self-motivation and autonomy over the application process through a survey.

3. Have weekly one-on-one coaching meetings to build understanding of coaching.

4. Pupils tasked with entering a reflection in their ‘Coaching Journal’ once a week.

5. Pupils asked to complete a weekly survey on how self-aware and autonomous they were feeling over the application process.

6. A post-survey (same questions as in pre-test), taken after Drama School applications were sent off.

7. Anecdotal references collated from Houseparents and tutors throughout the process.

8. The same process undertaken with six pupils from a ‘comparison group’ at local state school Strengths • Evidence based approach to coaching consistently applied throughout process • Same year group, subject and short term ambition (applying to Drama Schools) of participants • Specified method would have resulted in plentiful data for analysis and evaluation

✓

Limitations • • • •

Data is subjective and difficult to measure Small sample size Coaching is ‘non-directive’ and so by design cannot follow the same ‘formula’ for every participant School closure meant that collection of accurate data was more difficult to obtain

✗

Conclusion From the initial data, there was some evidence to support the claim that coaching makes pupils more self-aware, which could lead to a greater degree of autonomy and enable the development of self-motivation. However, it is hard to quantify how much this can be aIributed as a direct consequence of coaching and not external factors. Regardless, the project was curtailed by the impact of COVID which resulted in some pupils not applying for Drama School altogether but instead choosing to pursue a more secure industry.

Future steps • The questions used in the survey need to be refined to be more measurable and to make them more accessible to pupils.

• Use a wider sample of pupils to gain a greater reliability of impact.

• Ensure a uniformity of approach to coaching in an attempt to make the process more valid.

Bibliography Aguilar. E. (2019) You can’t have a coaching culture without a structure. Educational Leadership, ASCD, v77 n3 p22-28 Deans, F., Oakley, L., James, R., & Wrigley, R. (2006). Coaching and Mentoring for Leadership Development in Civil Society. Coady International Institute, INTRAC-PP14 Graydin Learning Platform, Defining Coaching. Last accessed 10/02/2020 Knight. J. (2019) Why teacher autonomy is central to coaching, Educational Leadership, ASCD, v77 n3 p14-20 Ryan. R.M & Deci. E.L (2000). Self determination theory. https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/SDT/documents/2000_RyanDeci_SDT.pdf Last accessed 14/11/20

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Investigating the impact of small-scale continuing professional development o

By Rachel Attenborough, Assistant Head: Teacher Development Within a context of increased focus on Early Career Teachers (ECTs) and their needs, and following an exploration in the literature of important and relevant concepts such as wellbeing, professional development and identity, I set out to use an action learning approach to a series of three hour-long twilight CPD sessions for ECTs, whereby they would work in groups (see photograph) to support each other to problem-solve specific issues they brought to the group. I used the Ohio State Teacher Efficacy Scale (OSTES) (see Table 1) to measure teachers’ selfefficacy over time (before the first twilight, and after each of the three subsequent sessions) in order to evaluate its impact.

Whilst the sample size was small, there were some interesting trends of change in selfefficacy over time (see Figure 2, Table 3, and Figures 4 and 5) and the implications are potentially useful in informing my ongoing development of the professional development programme for academic staff.

Self-efficacy score

Descriptor

1

Nothing

2 3

Very little

4 5

Some influence

6 7

Quite a bit

“To what extent could a series of Action Learninginspired twilight CPD sessions impact on Early Career Teachers’ self-efficacy?”

8 9

A great deal

Table 1 – the OSTES tool scale (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001)

Question

Average change in reported self-efficacy

1

How much can you do to control disruptive behaviour in the classroom?

0.56

2

How much can you do to motivate students who show low interest in school work?

1.04

3

How much can you do to get students to believe they can do well in school work?

0.46

4

How much can you do to help students value learning?

1.04

5

To what extent can you craft good questions for your students?

1.00

6

How much can you do to get children to follow classroom rules?

0.94

7

How much can you do to calm a student who is disruptive or noisy?

0.56

8

How well can you establish a classroom management system with each group of students?

0.90

9

How much can you use a variety of assessment strategies?

1.04

10

To what extent can you provide an alternative explanation or example when students are confused?

0.71

11

How much can you assist families in helping their children do well in school?

1.67

12

How well can you implement alternative strategies in your classroom?

1.52

Table 3 – the average change in reported self-efficacy for each of the 12 questions in the OSTES tool

Bibliography • Ado, K. (2013). Action research: professional development to help support and retain early career teachers, Educational Action Research (21:2), p.131-146 • Fox, A. & Wilson, E. (2007). Viewing recently qualified teachers and their networks as a resource for a school, Teacher Development (12:1), p. 97-99 • Hobson, A. & Maxwell, B. (2017). Supporting and inhibiting the well-being of early career secondary school teachers: extending self-determination theory, British Educational Research Journal (43:1), p. 168-191) • Le Cornu, R. (2013). Building early career teacher resilience: the role of relationships, Australian Journal of Teacher Education (38:4), p. 1-16 • Morgan, M., Ludlow, L., Kitching, K., O’Leary, M. & Clarke, A. (2010). What makes teachers tick? Sustaining events in new teachers’ lives, British Educational Research Journal (36:2), p. 191-208

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on early career teachers’ self-efficacy

Keywords: action learning, self-efficacy, Early Career Teachers, professional development

Figure 2: Line graph showing how four individual teachers’ average reported self-efficacy changed over the course of the project 8.00 7.50 7.00

Summary of findings:

6.50 6.00

1

2

3

4

Figure 4: Line graph to show changes in teachers’ reported self-efficacy over time for questions 1-6 8.00

• The total amount, and trajectory, of change in selfefficacy varied considerably by individual, and by area of practice.

7.50 7.00 6.50 6.00 5.50

1 Q1

2 Q2

3 Q3

Q4

Q5

4 Q6

Figure 5: Line graph to show changes in teachers’ reported self-efficacy over time for questions 7-12 8.00 7.50 7.00 6.50 6.00 5.50

• Teacher self-efficacy increased (by 15% on average) over the course of the project.

1 Q7

2 Q8

3 Q9

Q10

Q11

• Colleagues were generally very positive about their experiences, but we must not assume a causal link between the action learning and the perceived increases in self-efficacy (and sample size was small).

4 Q12

• Ovenden-Hope, T., Blandford, S., Cain, T., & Maxwell, B. (2018). RETAIN early career teacher retention programme: evaluating the role of research informed continuing professional development for a high quality, sustainable 21st century teaching profession. Journal of Education for Teaching, 44(5), 590–607.

• Revans, R. W. (1998). The A.B.C. of action learning. London: Lemos & Crane.

• Tschannen-Moran, M., & Hoy, A. W. (2001). Teacher efficacy: capturing an elusive construct. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17(7), 783–805.

• Turley, S., Powers, K. and Nakai, K. (2006) Beginning teachers’ confidence before and after induction. Action in Teacher Education (28:1), p. 27-39

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No Punishments

by Richard Hegarty, Housemaster of Highfield The following is true and has happened at least a few times in my early years in Highfield. During Chapel one morning, I noticed that a Lower 6th boy was missing; as I cycled up to Highfield after the service I came across the miscreant Chapel-misser and asked him where he had been. I listened to a few “dunnos” and “lost of track of times” etc. I then said that the standard (and therefore fair) punishment was for me to confiscate his phone for a period of time. This was greeted with some crossness and claims that this was unfair and that: “I’ve never missed Chapel before, it was just a mistake”. I acknowledged this but said that I felt that to be fair I had to be consistent.

Later that day the same boy’s parents rang with sad news, that a much loved elderly relative had died and would I keep a careful eye on their son, and check in with him. Keen to help, I did just that, knocked on the door of his study and asked if he would like to talk.

He said: “yes I would like to talk, but really I don’t want to talk with you, in fact I would just like my phone so I can call my parents.” I think this instance illustrates the problems with punishments. How could I try to help a boy in the evening with a complex personal difficulty, when just that morning I had confiscated his phone for missing Chapel?

Since April 2018, we have adopted a policy of having no punishments in Highfield and the primary aim of this is to allow people to feel more confident in speaking out about unkindness in the house, without the fear of landing someone else in trouble. However, as with lots of pilot schemes, we quickly noticed many benefits other than those relating to unkindness. The tone of the house changed and immediately became lighter. The boys seemed to be more reflective and mature. The tutors felt more relaxed on their duty nights and the boys felt they had a greater voice and more autonomy. For

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my part I strongly felt that to provide good pastoral care I should not be issuing punishments to boys for minor errors of judgement and laziness.

There are often instances in the day to day work of Houseparents where you spend time discussing a mistake that a pupil has made and trying to find ways to repair the situation. These conversations can be very helpful and positive, however I found that at the end of the conversation I might have to issue a sanction. As soon as the sanction is established, the pupil – quite understandably – forgets all about the previous ten minute conversation and can think only about the punishment. “How was your conversation with Mr Hegarty?”

“Oh fine, I just have to clean the boot room.” I imagine the conversation is a little more… blunt.

And then the question arises about fairness; for some, having their phone confiscated will be a major privation and for others it will not be a problem at all. I feel, quite strongly, that each individual should be treated in their unique situation and that applying the same punishment to everyone in a similar situation is actually unfair. I think consistency and fairness are not the same. But of course I recognise that this is hard for people, how do they know where the line is if it is not enforced consistently? My proposal is to remove the sanction and to ask two simple questions; questions that avoid judgement and are more related to a coaching approach. When someone makes a mistake in house we sit down with them and ask: what happened? and how can you make amends? These questions promote a more reflective and responsible approach, and I daresay it is the sort of question that every Houseparent asks; but when you take away the punishment at the end then the self-reflection is effective and clear.

Thringboard Issue 1 – January 2022

Now, there may be some who are reading this with frustration, and the following words are coming to mind: woke-liberal-mumbo-jumbo-hippieclaptrap. If that is you, then simply consider which might be the sterner sanction: cleaning the Highfield boot room (depending on the time of year, a ten minute job, if you bend your back) or spending fifteen minutes with your Housemaster talking about why you smashed the picture frame. I think removing punishments is the harder approach and it is also the approach that leads us all to learning more about ourselves. This approach builds relationships, develops trust, encourages reflection, makes people listen and does act as a deterrent – if that is needed.

If you would like to talk about this, then I would love to hear from you – particularly if you don’t think it’s a good idea!

An exploration of the role that regular professional conversations in a secondary school can play in supporting teacher learning using grounded theory My focus was on the nature of regular professional conversations, in the form of fortnightly one-to-one meetings, between Heads of Department (HoDs) and teachers at Uppingham School. I aimed to establish what these meetings are used for and how, and to identify some characteristics of the dialogue which are perceived to lead to promising or even ‘fruitful’ outcomes in terms of teacher learning, particularly those relating to professional or organisational development. My sample comprised three volunteer HoD-teacher pairs who audio recorded their regular twenty to thirty minute meetings over the course of a term. Following each meeting they also completed a short online questionnaire which guided some brief self reflection by individuals on the meeting and its outcomes.

Every response to the reflective questionnaire suggested that participants felt their meetings were time well spent; interestingly, a particularly productive meeting tended to follow a less productive meeting, and vice versa. As you would expect, the structure and style of the meeting varied considerably between pairs but, typically, each meeting covered between five and six topics.

The most frequent topics of conversation were: a teacher’s class and/or specific pupil(s) they teach; that individual teacher (their expertise, their development, their wider professional life); discussion around departmental initiatives / activities.

HoDs tended to lead the conversation and initiate discussion topics; providing opportunities for teachers to lead the conversation could contribute to increased teacher ownership. Empathy being demonstrated by the HoD helped to build confidence and trust, and HoDs offering thanks - as well as help - contributed to positive relationship-building. Positive, trusting

relationships facilitated open and honest reflection on professional practice. Regardless of experience, teachers frequently sought HoD approval, which helped to build their confidence: HoDs should not underestimate the importance of this to all teachers. Open-ended discussion prompts (rather than informationseeking questions) tended to unlock more detailed description that tended to facilitate a greater degree of self reflection, and meant the HoD was better-placed to provide constructive support. Combining affirmation with a healthy degree of constructive challenge was characteristic of a productive relationship. Teachers tended to be more motivated to change their practice if it were placed in a context of collaborative, social learning (e.g. a small group or department or whole school) rather than as individuals.

4.

Using continuity of conversation - i.e. be explicit that you will follow up in the next meeting and make sure that you do! - to ensure action points are addressed: busy teachers want and need to be held to account by each other.

5.

Establishing and agreeing some ground rules (i.e. some explicitly agreed norms and expectations of these meetings) could enhance the effectiveness of these sorts of meetings for both participants.

Rachel Attenborough, November 2021 (summary of Masters thesis completed 2017-19: Master of Education in Educational Leadership and School Improvement, Cambridge University)

I concluded that one-to-one meetings do have the potential to be ‘fruitful’ and there is evidence of existing excellent practice within the school.

The challenge is to leverage the impact on teacher learning as far as possible and as consistently as possible throughout the school. Strategies that might help to achieve that leverage include: 1.

Building positive relationships and engendering teacher ownership within a context of collaborative learning.

2.

Talking more often about how we teach rather than what we teach.

3.

Making reference to values, which typically gave the dialogue a greater energy (teachers typically have a strong sense of moral purpose).

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Are you an aspiring Thringboard author?

Do you have something we could publish, now or in a future issue?

If you have been – or are currently – doing some small-scale research that would be appropriate to include in this journal and haven’t been invited to contribute, please accept my apologies and let me know! (rra@uppingham.co.uk).

Next issue

The content of the next issue of Thringboard will include research outcomes from colleagues working towards: • Chartered Status • Oxford University’s Masters in Learning and Teaching • BSA Diploma in Boarding Practice (Leadership) It will aim to present another eclectic mix of articles from the experience of overseas pupils from a pastoral angle to a more academically-focused exploration of written feedback and its impact.

Timings permitting, we might also be able to include an update on the variety of action research projects launched just before Christmas.

Remember to check out the “Professional Development” pages of Uppnet (within “Staff Room”) for information, recommendations, testimonies, resources and more!

Top CPD pick: Great Teaching Toolkit foundation course

Never one to miss a chance to highlight some quality professional development opportunities, each issue of Thringboard will highlight a current “favourite”.

Given our recent subscription to Evidence-Based Education’s Great Teaching Toolkit, the five-hour foundation course is my selection for this issue. Hopefully its self-paced flexibility is attractive, and it offers something useful for everyone.

And, if you can’t even find one learning point for yourself, completing it should at least help us all to use a common vocabulary in our ongoing conversations about teaching and learning.

As always, head to the Professional Development area of Uppnet to find out more.