The CPD Curriculum: Creating conditions for growth
£14.99*
Pros
- The focus of this book puts CPD at the heart of what makes a school successful, by creating in-school CPD based on solid research, and equipping leaders with the ability to support their staff in achieving this end.
- Zoe and Mark consider key fundamental behind valued CPD, including considerations on intent, implementation and impact.
- The authors carefully consider many CPD practices, exploring the positives and challenges of each strategy, including whole-school session, practitioner enquiry, and departmental implementation.
- A series of case-studies are shared through the book, allowing reflections and explorations on the CPD impact that can be applied to different contexts.
- This is an ideal book for any school, or school-leader, who is struggling on how to best improve CPD practices across the school, offering tips, signposts and case-studies that can be easily adapted.
Supported by Crown House Publishing
Twenty years ago, Dylan Wiliam said: “The quality of teachers in our classrooms is one of the most important determinants of how much children learn in those classrooms, with the very best teachers generating four times as much progress for their students as the least effective.”1
So we have known for some time that the greatest influence on pupil outcomes is teacher efficacy, even more so than school structure, textbooks, computers, teaching assistants, class size, setting and extensive national strategies.
Furthermore, research shows an ongoing trend of falling retention rates for teachers beyond five years, coinciding with the point at which initial training and growth starts to plateau. Unsurprisingly then, repeated studies have shown that investing in teachers’ continued improvement increases commitment to the profession.
However, figures suggest that schools are spending less than 0.66% of their budgets on continuing professional development (CPD) – the aspect of provision which is repeatedly shown to make the biggest difference.
Of course, schools are facing significant funding issues alongside severely limited time and increasing workloads. So how can they balance this with the need to provide purposeful and effective CPD for teachers?
In their new book, The CPD Curriculum, Zoe Enser and Mark Enser share guidance on how to create conditions for teacher growth, and provide advice to schools on how to design and deliver CPD that truly lives up to its name.
Zoe says: “For many years, my own experiences of CPD were patchy to say the least. It often felt like I was lurching from one INSET day or course to the next, with little sense of purpose or direction. They were about quick wins and I will be honest in saying very little changed in the long term following some of these sessions.”
In Mark’s view: “When I started teaching, the term CPD was largely used to refer to those occasional opportunities you had to go out of school on a course; CPD in school was little better. It was when I joined my current school that I really saw CPD differently. Here, genuine professional development was prioritised and there was a clear curriculum so that the individual, department and school priorities could be recognised and support given. Most of those charged with leading CPD were teachers, most from within the school, and I now number myself amongst those who help to plan and deliver these sessions and their follow-up.”
When done well, CPD gives teachers the agency to make professional decisions informed by the best evidence and experience available to hand. The CPD Curriculum considers how we can enable this, by creating in-school CPD based on solid research, and equipping leaders with the ability to support their staff in achieving this end.
Split into three parts – intent, implementation and impact – the book covers a range of key areas, including: coaching and mentoring, subject-specific CPD, empowerment and self-efficacy, delivery methods and quality of materials. Zoe and Mark also examine the current issues and common pitfalls surrounding CPD and offer guidance on how it can be improved, with clear end goals in mind.
These three ideas, commonly used in schools following Ofsted’s latest inspection framework, are used in this book to structure the thinking around how schools make sure that teachers get the CPD they need and deserve.
1. Dylan Wiliam, Leadership for Teacher Learning: Creating a culture where all teachers improve so that all students succeed (West Palm Beach, FL: Learning Sciences International, 2016, p. 182.)
*RRP – Price correct at the time of review publication.
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