Who’s stolen our wood and planted these trees..?
Creating a well-informed, evidence-based culture of continual improvement based on excellent pedagogical knowledge and skill.
Blackpool & The Fylde College
SITUATION
Blackpool & The Fylde College, a nationally recognised institution with extensive FE, HE, apprenticeship, and commercial programmes, faced a significant post-COVID challenge. Essentially, because of the disruption caused by the pandemic to their professional development, monitoring, and support programmes, there was inconsistent teaching practice across the College.
THEORY
To address this, the College aimed to build a culture of professional excellence centred on pedagogy. If the College established a shared understanding and common vocabulary around teaching, then staff could apply consistent and effective techniques, improving overall teaching quality. The plan was to develop a comprehensive pedagogy programme with 100% participation from teaching staff, integrating both theoretical knowledge and practical techniques to enhance classroom practice.
ACTION
The College's Executive team and Senior Management Team committed to a unified vision, emphasising the importance of a common language and consistent teaching techniques. They initiated the project with a core group of passionate staff members across various levels, who advised on the pedagogical techniques that they believed would best enable staff to deliver consistently and effectively, whilst retaining a flexibility of approach. A plan was then drafted by the College’s Quality team, which was then implemented.
This ambitious plan consisted of a staged process. The first element was an engaging ‘soft launch’ to garner interest and enthusiasm. Training then began with a central focus on the twelve key techniques that had been selected by the initial group. These training sessions were delivered by external speakers, which helped to engage and interest staff in the chosen techniques. Afterwards, the focus shifted to bespoke training programmes delivered within departments for staff. These sessions were carefully designed to meet specific needs. For instance, if staff were struggling to apply a particular technique, this then became the focus of any training or one to one support.
Alongside these developments, a pedagogical approach that linked the twelve selected techniques together was created and disseminated. This approach, which was drawn from the Walkthrus, established the routines that all staff used in the classroom to suit the needs of their learners.
Crucially, time was strategically freed up during the summer term to support staff development and address workload issues.
RESULTS
By Easter, well over four hundred staff had completed the initial phase, developing the twelve core techniques. The rollout of this pedagogical model led to significant improvements in morale and increased confidence in discussing teaching practices. Moreover, the new common vocabulary and routines fostered a positive teaching environment, as evidenced through the findings from the College’s quality systems. Staff also reported a greater enthusiasm for further development. The approach succeeded, therefore, in creating a consistent methodology to teaching and learning.
TAKE-AWAYS
Autonomy within a structured framework is essential to enhance professional growth.
Allocating dedicated time is essential to promote collaborative teamwork and the sharing of best practices.
Fostering a low-stakes culture of improvement to alleviate anxiety and encourage engagement.
Prioritising depth over breadth in development initiatives.
PROFILE
Blackpool & The Fylde College is a major educational institution providing a wide range of FE, HE, apprenticeship, and commercial courses. The college faced challenges in standardising pedagogical practices and managing classroom effectiveness after the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Written by
Simon Hughes, Principal