Universal PD
South Devon College
14-18 & 19+
Further Education & Higher Education
700 professional staff
10,000 students
Paignton, South Devon, UK
SITUATION
Rigid appraisal process
The process we had inherited was rigid, infrequently and inconsistently conducted and dislocated from the needs of both teachers and students. We knew that the majority of teachers and line managers did not value it.
Need to support Early Career Teachers
Analysis of learning walks and staff surveys identified a significant number of newly qualified staff who had areas of their practice which they wished or needed to develop further. As their qualifications and associated relationships with mentors came to an end, there was more demand on Teaching and Learning Coaches to support them, however they had limited capacity to do so.
Mixed backgrounds of College Leadership Team
Leaders had undertaken different pathways into their roles, with some having backgrounds in teaching and learning and others having come from professional services, e.g. finance and HR. This resulted in varying levels of engagement, confidence and fluency with teaching and learning approaches and was reflected by different cultures within their curriculum teams.
Need for a shared Teaching & Learning vocabulary
Our internal initial teacher training team were starting to ensure new and trainee teachers were equipped with the emerging language and skills associated with evidence-informed teaching. The former and some of the latter were unfamiliar to those who had qualified longer ago and there was some fear associated with admitting this.
Random allocation of T&L Coaches (TLCs) to staff
Our team of TLCs was well-established but was hampered by an out-dated model of being randomly allocated to individual staff for coaching. This was a legacy from the now discontinued formal observation process. This was not effective and created resistance in some cases. There was also no in-built supervision for individual coaches.
THEORY
Coaching Cycles
We had been reading and reflecting on the literature around instructional coaching since the early days of setting up an initial model for our Teaching and Learning Coach team. Whilst completing the Level 5 Coaching Professional Apprenticeship, a member of the Quality team gathered multiple examples of positive feedback from coachees, which meant we felt confident that this was a model which could work for our teachers.
Evidence-informed CPD
We had previously trialled a range of approaches to teacher professional development including: cross-college Best Practice events; smaller Communities of Practice meetings; running the first CPD cycle with a curriculum team. We knew the “scattergun/fingers-crossed/hit-and-hope" approach to CPD did not work. Sustained focus would only be achieved if new input was followed up with coaching, peer observations and line manager support.
Develop Existing Processes
We mapped the WalkThrus against our Teaching and Learning Framework for coherence. We drafted a 3-tier model of CPD at college/team/individual level, with the theme of “Questioning and Feedback” initially selected for its universality and to avoid overwhelm. An appraisal working group was also set up to develop the system so that it had a much clearer focus on teaching and learning, with opportunities to review progress with this in-year.
ACTION
Structured autonomy within appraisals
We mapped the WalkThrus to the new process, adopting the principle of structured autonomy. This meant that teachers would be prompted to select one teaching and learning target from the list of WalkThrus Questioning and Feedback approaches, with a widening selection of targets aligned to the 4 career stages.
Evidence-informed programmes
We developed and piloted our first programme for College Leaders and Early Career Teachers. The former combined both taught sessions and individual coaching and was run by members of the Quality Team and Lead Teaching and Learning Coaches, four of whom were subsequently appointed to the roles described below. Based on feedback from participants, we started to develop a third programme for experienced teachers.
Quality Teaching and Learning Co-ordinators
Four new posts were created and filled by our most experienced TLCs. We allocated each of them to one of the College’s Departments along with a small team of TLCs to support them. Each QTLC and TLC would have a caseload drawn from the relevant department to provide greater coherence. QTLCs would continue to prioritise middle curriculum leaders for coaching cycles.
College & Curriculum Team level CPD
Self-assessment reports and Quality Improvement Plan templates were redrafted to ensure a distinct teaching and Learning focus. We reflected on the first curriculum team CPD cycle and created a case-study providing a suggested model which others could adopt or adapt.
RESULTS
Positive response from College leaders
We gathered video testimonials from participants on the Evidence-informed Leaders programme, which have since been used to promote the programme to new recruits. We have seen several staff subsequently promoted to more senior positions, with their fluency in the language of evidence-informed teaching and familiarity with WalkThrus a key strength noted by interviewers.
Evidence-informed Leaders Forum
Participants from the first and second cohorts have now progressed to become part of a wider cross-college group of senior and middle leaders. They meet half-termly and use the WalkThrus as the basis for Quality-related activities, such as learning walks, student voice and work scrutiny. The narrative of learning walk reports and work scrutiny shows a marked increase in reference to specific WalkThrus, including page numbers and examples for teachers to refer to.
Coaching Space
In part, due to the overwhelmingly positive feedback from staff undertaking coaching cycles, we have been able to secure a quiet room which can be used for both individual and small group coaching as well as training sessions on our Evidence-Informed programmes. Feedback continues to be overwhelmingly positive, e.g. “Reading through WalkThrus with a coach has helped me embed more strategies of questioning and feedback into my practice; I really gained lots from the process. It's also like a security blanket, knowing that there is someone checking I am still on the right track and available to help me develop myself as a teacher.”
Class Clips
During covid, we built up a bank of video recordings from online lessons to provide peer support. This has now been relaunched with contributions from a range of staff who are keen to demonstrate use of a particular approach from WalkThrus, e.g. No Opt Out and Feedback as Actions.
Increased number of PPDRs (%)
The increased join-up between individual targets and team/college focussed CPD activity has resulted in greater collaboration between staff and increased appreciation of the impact on students. Feedback on the benefits to students and staff after a recent whole-college Training and Development Day included: Students will feel the benefit of more meaningful immediate feedback; Not only utilising strategies to develop retrieval practice, but also making learners aware of their own practice; Better organised, confident delivery of the module, better able to support the students.
Collaborative CPD
We have seen a significant increase in the number of peer observations this year, as these start to become key features of CPD cycles and partnerships form to provide mutual support with progress towards a shared target. The use of WalkThrus terminology to log the questioning approaches seen is striking, e.g. Using probing questions, D was able to involve all the learners and treat them all as professional adults.
Time to regularly and collaboratively review schemes of learning in line with WalkThrus is also being valued by staff, e.g. More sharing, making time to share ideas, we get too engrossed in our individual tasks we lose focus on our team ability, a dedicated CPD session weekly would be awesome with the team to share ideas.
Regular CPD cycles
In response to this and other feedback, we have reintroduced protected weekly CPD slots to allow for attendance on the programmes outlined above; team CPD cycles; individual coaching cycles and self-study. We have also continued to offer cross-curricular events, including Practice Development Groups for staff from different areas who are working towards the same WalkThru target, e.g. Think, Pair, Share. The college CPD calendar now also includes half-termly opportunities to collaboratively review schemes of learning in line with relevant Curriculum Planning WalkThrus.
More joined-up Quality Processes
An increased focus on Teaching and Learning at both College and Curriculum Team level, along with QTLC support for curriculum leaders has resulted in the development of more robust CPD plans. Middle leaders are themselves starting to design and develop their team’s CPD cycles in line with priorities identified within their Quality Improvement Plans.
TAKE-AWAYS
Start at the top and share the rationale
Leadership buy-in is crucial and providing College leaders with the experience of being a learner has been invaluable. Promoting the concept of solving the learning problems helps to win over members of the folded-arms brigade.
The power of a pilot
Case-studies, testimonials and regular feedback have helped us to evaluate and adapt our initiatives in a much more responsive way. We learnt a lot from working online during Covid, building our confidence to use video tools, quick polls and other teaching and learning platforms which we’ve used with and modelled for staff.
Teaching + Coaching = success
Providing ongoing coaching support for middle leaders has proved particularly successful, building relationships between new QTLCs and teacher-leaders with varying degrees of experience. We’re seeing a gradual shift in mind-set so that leaders are no longer so reliant on QTLCs to plan and lead CPD sessions and are starting to feel more confident that they themselves can develop and deliver more robust curriculum team CPD cycles.
Staff awards
Recognising participation in the new programmes has helped to sustain momentum, -e.g. our annual staff awards ceremony featured those middle leaders who attended the most recent programme regularly, completing the various assessments and sharing their journeys via vlogs. Our aim is to create ambassadors for the coaching process who can promote the benefits to their teams and reduce any perceived stigma.
Don’t just focus on those who need improvement
We have separated off the developmental process for staff who require more significant interventions. They may still receive coaching support from a QTLC as part of this process, but their line manager is responsible for action planning and monitoring at every step. This is helping to remove any final vestiges of stigma associated with coaching.
Invest in training and development of coaches
All of our coaches are qualified to at least level 3 and team meetings provide further opportunities for peer coaching practice and development, e.g. watching and discussing videos of instructional coaching in action, incorporating Action Learning Set approaches and exploring e.g. the BASIC coaching model included in WalkThrus.
Join it all up
Wherever possible, we highlight links between quality processes, using the language of WalkThrus consistently across e.g. our Teaching and Learning Framework, appraisal forms, Initial Teacher Education programmes, Quality Improvement Plans, Learning Walks, Work Scrutiny templates.
Next steps
One of our next steps is to undertake specific training in supervision in order to ensure individual coaches have access to regular support. We also need to review the remitted time for existing TLCs. A new coaching and mentoring policy has been approved and will also align the two approaches to ensure that staff are supported throughout their teaching career
Written by
Nicky Hawkins