Teachers’ professional learning – implications for ICT CPD

Teachers’ professional learning – implications for ICT CPD Becta Research Conference 2008 Caroline Daly Norbert Pachler

They are the main agents of change. They need to ‘make sense’ of their learning experiences to be able to take action CPD is about changes in them as persons as well as teachers – the two are joint aspects of professional identity Teachers at the centre How teachers “manage and ride the waves of change” (Day, 2000) are at the centre of any future education that meets the needs of young people We need to properly understand how teachers learn in order to design effective CPD

Teaching is a ‘lonely profession’? (Dawes, 2001)

The Networked Teacher (updated version) (Couros, 2006)

The ‘diffused’ teacher (Davis, 2008, in press)

How teachers learn Teachers are grown ups. Adult learning and WBL theory suggests that they learn better through on the job training and ‘real life’ situations • this means that school workplaces as learning environments are crucial • ‘restricted’ and ‘expansive’ AE models apply to schools (Evans et al, 2007). School leadership is core here. • informal as well as formal learning opportunities are important. Forms of non-formal work-related learning contribute to “significant changes in capability or understanding” (Eraut, 1997)

How teachers learn Professional learning is about who we are and become as well as what we do Moore (2004) emphasises the concept of ‘reflexivity’ in teachers’ professional learning – the autobiographical dimension which links practice-based learning with personal history. The capacity to act differently is developed through engaging intellectually with what happens as well as reflecting. It alters professional identities.

This does not mean that CPD is an individual matter • Eraut (1997) queries “personal knowledge” as insufficient to be able to perform effectively in many professional situations • Requires a collaborative approach to professional learning (Lingard et al, 2003; Bolam et al, 2005; Fielding et al, 2005) • Professional Learning Communities have been increasingly influential as theory and policy, but it can be hard to achieve authentic communities (Reeves et al, 2005)

Key themes in CPD literature • Community • Agency • CPD as a shared, complex and intellectual practice rather than the acquisition and rehearsal of skills (Day, 1999; Pickering, Daly & Pachler, 2007; Cordingley, 2007) • CPD needs to enable teachers to talk about practice with peers and discuss innovative aspects in a focused and reflective way (Eraut, 2000; Fullan, 2001; Wenger, 1998) • Collaborative CPD takes place both f2f and with technologies

Shared practice Collaborative approach New Designs for Teachers’ Professional Learning Pickering, Daly & Pachler 2007 More than an ‘exchange’ of practice. It leads proactively to changes in practice Draws on learning networks that are classroom-focused, non- hierarchical A critical, independent stance towards ‘best practice’. The fusion of theory and practice, involving active enquiry into innovation as part of professionalism Scholarly reflection on practice

Summary of key principles of effective ICT CPD Shared practice, collaborative & critical • a wide range of participants, locations and formats for collaborative work should underpin CPD activities. • a variety of stakeholders have a role to play (LAs, commercial providers, HE) Enquiry-based • ICT CPD needs to be focused on individual learner needs. Critical, reflective processes should be embedded in learning activities. This is needed to overcome the ‘implementation dip’ (Fullan, 2001) • HE has a role to play in supporting teacher enquiry which is embedded in CPD. Embedded within school ethos of learning and teaching • School leaders need to be fully engaged with CPD processes throughout. • Leadership which is informed, distributed and principled Integration of personal and professional use of technologies • access to Web 2.0 and flexible and informal as well as formal learning

Summary of effective core design principles • Shorter, smaller and more frequent CPD engagements • Flexibility and meaningful choices about the focus of ICT CPD • Skills training based on a mixture of Web 2.0 to underpin shared learning processes, and specialised options according to individual differences • Working in groups – within and across schools/subjects, with varied peer expertise levels • Equipment and up-to-date software needs to be available to teachers for their long-term skills development, to integrate their personal, social and professional use of technologies • Time for teachers to participate in enquiry-based and distributed CPD • Responsive support for technology skills training is essential. An ‘on call’ system may be unrealistic, but provision should be sufficiently flexible to support planned needs as they arise. Support does not have to be purely the responsibility of schools – creative LA programmes can impact here • Teachers should have a tangible sense of being valued as part of CPD

Issues/challenges • Informal, genuinely enquiry-based and collaborative practices for teachers and students require fundamental shifts in the ways that learning (for students and teachers) is currently organised in schools • The roles of ‘catalysts’ within effective learning communities for technology-related CPD are vital and complex. CPD practices are not necessarily ‘transposable’ or ‘transferable’ • How teachers appropriate new technologies in their personal, social and professional lives is an important pre-requisite for use in their classrooms • The role of a variety of stakeholders in models for ICT CPD needs to be better understood • Financing CPD which is long-term and transformational is costly in time and HR

Teachers’ professional learning – implications for ICT CPD