Evaluating My Independent CPD

In the spirit of the advice and tips for NQTs as they start off their first week of teaching, I wanted to write a little about some advice I’ve give to my NQT self and any other ‘pedageeks’ out there.

I’ve always been a keen reader (unsurprising for an English teacher) and vividly remember piling up 15 books at a time from the local library to take home and devour during the summer holidays as a child.  Imagine my delight then when, as a trainee, a retiring host teacher gave me her copy of ‘A Teacher’s Toolkit’ by Paul Ginnis.  I’d discovered a whole new genre of books about teaching which was only fuelled by getting myself involved with edutwitter, educational blogs and journals such as those produced by the Chartered College of Teaching, ResearchEd and NATE.

However, I recently came across a list of ideas and strategies that I’d compiled after the ‘Team English National Conference 2019’, which listed lots of things I wanted to trial or develop in my teaching during the following academic year.  Many of them had fallen by the wayside, either after one attempt or completely forgotten by the time I was back in the classroom.  Finding this list has really made me question the way I manage my own CPD and the extent to which I practise what I plan for the CPD of others in my department, school and trust.

In comparison, I have actually managed to develop my understanding and use of dual coding in my teaching after Oliver Caviglioli’s brilliant presentation at the ResearchEd National Conference last year.  The difference is that I actively worked to make it into a habit by deliberately focusing on it as a strategy and, after reflection and feedback from others, continually practising it until it became part of my practice.

What I want to do differently this year is a process I wish I’d considered more in my earlier career, ensuring that I acknowledge:

• The limits of how many new things I can improve at a time
• The importance of the ‘continued’ in CPD (seeing new ideas/concepts as a developing thread rather than a single event)
• Remembering that I need to consciously practice a habit repeatedly before it becomes automatic

Hopefully, the process that I’m introducing my department to (using a version of the ADAPT model from Caviglioli and Sherrington’s ‘Walkthrus’ book) will help me enable my department to do the same (see this previous blog for more details).