Professional Capital

Improving Teaching Not Simply Measuring It

This is a post largely based on an article written for SecEd and published on 2nd May 2013.  I’ve added in a few more twitter suggestions to the the final “prayer” part (with thanks to Ross at @TeacherToolkit for advice on how you can do this) and also a link to a summary of our Teaching Improvement Programme, on which this article is based, can be found here:

Paper – Teaching Improvement Programme – April 2013

The Teaching Improvement Programme is an attempt to formalise a lot of good practice we have and ensure it is consistently applied across the College.  It also has a new idea to us around Research & Development Communities.

As the saying goes, “you don’t make a pig fatter by weighing it”.  At some point we must commit as individuals, schools and as a whole system to improving the quality of teaching and learning in a formative, consistent and holistic programme.

Everyone interested in education knows that “the quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of the teachers in it.”  The difference seems to be how best to achieve the desired outcome, of exceptionally high quality motivated teachers, and performance related pay simply won’t deliver this.  The research evidence is pretty conclusive that teaching is a far too complex profession for performance pay to have a positive impact.  Not only that but it has now agitated the teaching unions into industrial action and will cause a loss of the “discretionary effort”, which teachers and others working in schools give in such abundance and is crucial to a school’s success.  Not deterred and keen to avert disaster we are working on systemising key aspects of developing teaching and learning, here are my four wishes and a prayer.

Four Wishes

 1.       Student Voice

We’ve used student voice before on a number of occasions in a rather hit and miss way.  The programme we have now implemented is getting feed back, from students on twenty five different aspects of teaching and learning, at a whole school, departmental and individual teacher level.  With a programme written by John Jenkins, one of the ICT teachers, and the use of Google Docs just over two thousand seven hundred responses were inputted by students over a three week period.  At a whole school and departmental levels we can track impact in all twenty five areas and focus our CPD on specific areas.  However, the real power of the data is at a teacher level.  The information for each teacher is only available to her/him.  Each teacher has been asked to identify an area of strength and become “expert” in it.  As an expert they can provide support for any colleague who wishes to develop this area of their practice.  Each teacher has been asked to focus on one area of her/his practice which needs to develop.  This is about putting deliberate practice into action (see the piece on Deliberate Practice by @HuntingEnglish).  The data collection will be repeated every six months so we can track progress.  Everyone making small steps forward has a massive impact on the overall quality of teaching and learning.  The first set of responses at a school level are below with a comparison to data collected via The Measures of Effective Teaching Project where the questions were identical or matched:

These are the responses from the first full Student Voice survey of Teaching & Learning. Questions that were taken from MET/very similar have corresponding Upper & Lower Quartiles from the MET 2010 Analysis

 The first set of results are very encouraging with both the upper and lower quartiles for teachers at St. Mary’s being higher than the corresponding ones in the MET Project.

2.       Innovation Fellows

For about five years we have given teachers the opportunity to work as Innovation Fellows for a two year period.  Teachers apply for the position in about February/March each year giving an area of interest that they wish to research.  The only criterion is that they must have an “outstanding” grade in one of their lesson observations.  Each Innovation Fellow appointed has a reduction in their contact time from between one day a fortnight to one day a week giving them the capacity to do their work.  The Innovation Fellow will lead a research programme first of all working on their own or in a pair and in the second year extending it to a department, learning house or other group.  The Innovation Fellow also works alongside colleagues in the classroom in a coaching role to help further improve teaching & learning.

 3.       Formative Lesson Observation

How much do you honestly learn from someone observing your lesson?  Time to think about flipping the observation process.  This started with me observing a lesson alongside a trained Ofsted Inspector to moderate my judgement of lessons.  Then I would moderate senior staff’s judgements and they in turn would moderate heads of department.  What was soon apparent was the real value and richness of the conversations around what constituted high quality teaching & learning.  This year I worked with each new member of staff, to the school, in pairs carrying out joint lesson observation.  It is a real “light bulb” moment for teachers new to the profession to be able to dissect a lesson, in real time and understand the importance of viewing the impact of their teaching.  I once stood next to a very talented teacher who just kept saying, “OMG I do that, OMG I do that …”.  I think you learn a lot more by observing a lesson with a colleague experienced in lesson observation than you ever do being observed.  We are going to use the Autumn Term to carry out paired formative lesson evaluations with all staff new to the school and any current member of staff who would like to.  The only record kept will be a www.ebi (What Went Well, Even Better If – often used in formative assessment) set of bullet points that will be collated to identify good practice and areas for focus during CPD which we hold on Thursday afternoon from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m.

 4.       Research & Development Communities

This is a new idea for September 2013 that has engendered a lot of interest.  A R&D Community can be set up to develop and embed best or emerging good practice within the College.

• A R&D Community can be used to take forward an idea, innovation or approach by a group of staff that will lead to improved standards of attainment, levels of achievement, student well-being or student personal development.  A R&D Community can be set up by any member of staff. 
• Each R&D Community must have a named leader who will be responsible for the community, its outcomes and leading a group of staff between 3-8 people in size.  
• The lead member of the R&D Company will be given a period a fortnight reduction in contact time. 
• The leader of the R&D Community must commit to knowledge capture and transfer at the college, local and regional level as required.
• Each R&D Company will request a number of “cover vouchers” which they could use to free/keep free company members for meetings/activities as appropriate up to their allocation.  The cover vouchers will be redeemable through the College A&E process.
• Funding of £100 per person in the R&D Community will be made available to fund the community’s work.
• Funding will be released following the R&D Community’s idea and success criteria being accepted.
• Approximately half termly a voluntary meeting slot will appear in the calendar for R&D Companies that may be used if some/all of the company members wish to.
• Applications (see Appendix 2) can be submitted in April/May each academic year, but no later than two weeks before the late Spring Bank Holiday i.e. 13^th May 2013 for this academic year, and the funds will remain in place for the following academic year.
• Student research and developers may be useful additions to the R&D Community.
• The first set of ideas can be found in the blog post on “Upside Down CPD”

If you’re interested in leading a R&D Community you should look at the following guide which will be really useful in shaping this the action research: http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/uploads/pdf/EEF_DIY_Evaluation_Guide_2013.pdf

Alternatively the community might want to adopt a “Lesson Study Process” approach.  More details may be found at: http://lessonstudy.co.uk/the-lesson-study-process/

And a Prayer …

This is a little more hopeful and long term but I would like to help the staff understand how powerful twitter, blog posts and a simple application or programme for capturing storing and organising online material that is of interest and use to you.  Here’s how it works, get your self a twitter account and then put the twitter app on your phone so the two can synchronise with each other.  Follow some people who may be of interest to you.  There are loads to choose from but a few to start with are: @headguruteacher, @TeacherToolkit, @SSAT, @HuntingEnglish but there are lots of interesting people to follow.

Another great one for teachers is @pedagoo.  Ross McGill (@TeacherToolkit) suggested that it might be a good idea to look at some lists.  This link is to @TeacherToolkit site and if you follow it then click on the “List Members” you will see a number of people who contribute to TeachMeet in London.  Anyone you would be interested in following?

Other possible headteachers or leaders that I follow and find interesting include:

• @RosMcM
• @Carter6D
• @johntomsett

And if you want a guru or two I started with these:

• @alatalite (Alistair Smith – Learning to Learn Guru)
• @dylanwiliam (Assessment & Curriculum Guru)
• @SirKenRobinson (Creativity Guru)
• @HargreavesBC (Building Professional Capital Guru)
• @arti_choke (Pam Hook – SOLO Taxonomy Guru)
• @GuardianEdu (Upto date News)

Simply scan the tweets for useful information and links to articles that you might want to read.  If you want to capture one of these articles, to read later or keep for future reference, then Pocket is a neat little app and very easy to use.  As you get more advanced or depending on preference then Evernote or Diigo (PowerNote is the app for your phone) are different options to Pocket.  As a short aside, I introduce Sixth Form students who are doing their Extended Project Qualification with me to use twitter, for research, and Diigo to store and organise any key information they find.

Now you have Martini CPD, any time, any place, anywhere professional development at your fingertips and convenience.  You can use twitter to tap into some rich online content that is of interest to you and then start putting your own thoughts onto a blog.  I’ve been using WordPress for just over a month and find it very easy to use.

To borrow a few phrases from the hugely successful London 2012 Olympics, Better Never Stops … so just take the next step.

Redesigning Schools: Professional Capital – Building the Capacity for Improvement

We may have a national phobia about mathematics but understanding this formula is the key to leaders releasing the greatness within our schools, PC = f (HC, SC, DC).  Andy Hargreaves led a fascinating second day of the Redesigning Schools Symposia in Manchester focussed on building and releasing Professional Capital.  His full presentation can be found here.  This blog is an attempt to provide a summary of the day, with thanks to Andy and colleagues in the room for their inspiration, and a few thoughts of how we might release the massive potential in our schools.

Capital relates to one’s own group or worth, particularly concerning assets that can be leveraged to accomplish desired goals.” 

 (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012)

Current business model looks at teaching as a very simple process that doesn’t require much beyond a degree and passion. It’s not hard and can be picked up quickly. Online courses are equally effective as teachers but more efficient. The process is data driven – spot the gap and sort it.  This view differs massively from the Professional Capital view, established in most successful school systems in the World, that assume good teaching:

1. is technically sophisticated and difficult
2. requires high levels of education & long training
3. is perfected through continuous improvement
4. involves wise judgement informed by evidence and experience
5. is a collective accomplishment and responsibility
6. maximises, mediates and moderates online instruction

Andy Hargreaves explained his formula for transforming teaching, PC = f (HC, SC, DC), as the fusion of human capital, social capital and decisional capital that together combine to produce professional capital.

Human Capital

This consists of the qualifications, knowledge, preparation skills and emotional intelligence of the people employed within schools.  The “solutions” to achieving higher human capital are:

1. Recruit from the top academic tiers
2. Select for moral commitment & emotional intelligence
3. Rigorous preparation in theory & practice
4. Take pay off the table
5. Attractive working & collegial environment
6. Talk up teaching as a profession

The idea is simply to get the best possible people into teaching.  However, that is not enough as the best possible people working in isolation will either become disillusioned at the scale of the challenge or burnout.  The more that is needed brings in the idea of social capital.

Social Capital

This consists of trust, collaboration, collective responsibility, mutual assistance, professional networks and “push, pull & nudge” (leadership approaches).  Social capital exists in the relationships between people.  Its positive impact is explained through the quantity and quality of social relationships and interactions that increases individual’s knowledge and skills through groups sharing their collective human capital with each other.  This neatly explains for me the huge impact that the SSAT System Redesign work had on my own school as I learnt so much from the fantastic leaders involved.  It also gives me great hope that the new Redesigning Schools Network will be able to share and spread the human capital across those schools involved.  It may also help explain why cross phase professional development has such a positive impact – there is simply greater human capital, greater range of knowledge and skills, when teachers from different phases work together.  People improve with high social capital, the “right” people around you help to raise your game.  The story doesn’t end here as there is one more element that needs to be thrown into the mix.  Great people working together and increasing their skills and knowledge is a fantastic but it is how we put all this capital together for the benefit of the students we teach that puts the final piece in the jigsaw – decisional capital is required.

Decisional Capital

This consists of the judgement we show, case experience, practice, challenge & stretch and reflection. It is about how we develop wisdom (good judgement) over time that enables us to become more and more capable within our chosen vocation of teaching.

The solutions to increasing decisional capital are:

1. 10,000 hours of deliberate practice
2. Stimulating & challenging new experiences
3. Mentoring & coaching
4. Enquiry projects
5. Alternative & flexible career paths
6. Targeted career progression
7. Sabbaticals and study leave.

Having recently read a great blog “Becoming a Better Teacher by Deliberate Practice” by “huntingenglish” that resonated with research presented by Dylan Wiliam about the need for 10,000 hours of deliberate practice, not just any old practice, to master the craft of teaching here are a few thoughts on moving forward:

 Student Voice

We’re just about to undertake our biggest ever student voice exercise on teaching and learning using twenty five questions either adapted or based on the MET (2010) study plus a number focussed on areas of interest to us.  We trialled the questions and the software in the Autumn Term.  Once students have entered their responses on-line using google docs the genius of JJE’s deviously clever programme will deliver feedback to each individual teacher.  This will be collated to a departmental level and a whole school level and can be analysed in multiple ways.  The key to improvement will be what we do with this data.  Imagine each teacher takes a strength and works with other teachers who have a strength in the same area, in a focussed manner, to make it a “super strength”, that is they become expert.  Each teacher also chooses an area of weakness identified by the data and then works with an “expert” identified by the data to improve.  The teacher sticks with two simple foci and works on them for six months by which time the next student voice data collection will occur and they can see the impact of their improving practice.  The outcome will hopefully be increased human capital built through the use of social capital.  This can then be converted into the decisional capital of better and better decision making in the classroom about the approaches to take when teaching our students.

 Innovation Fellows

Innovation Fellows have evolved from the original idea floated with staff about three to four years ago involving a member of staff who wants to develop a radically new idea at the College.

“The new idea must lead to improved standards of attainment, levels of achievement, student well-being or student personal development.

• The Innovation Fellow must be committed to acting as a “Venture Educator”.  A Venture Educator:
  • Believes if it is already happening at St. Mary’s then s/he is too late and will move on to the next idea/innovation. 
  • S/he is continually scanning the educational horizon and reflecting on the new trends and opportunities that may be available.  S/he has the reasoning skills required to weigh up the evidence available concerning new and different trends, evaluate the potential benefits and reached measured judgements about the best way forward.
  • Is willing to take risks as s/he appreciate a number of the ideas/innovations will be losers but when s/he finds a winner students benefit big time.  S/he also understands the need to be responsible and that risk taking does not involve being reckless with young people’s education.
  • Challenges conventional wisdom and is willing to swim against the tide.  S/he is resilient and keeps going to develop new ways of thinking and doing things.
  • Backs his/her own intuition and is highly resourceful in developing the ideas as there is no well trodden path to walk or anyone who can tell you what to do.
• A Venture Educator’s “win” is world class standards, levels of achievement, student well-being and student personal development.
• The Innovation Fellow must commit to being part of a College based innovation group that will seek to capture and transfer knowledge at a college, local, regional & national level.
• Innovation Fellows will be appointed in March/April prior to the academic year in which they are mandated to undertake their work.”

Our innovation fellows are given a reduced timetable of between 0.1-0.2 fte for two years to take forward a piece of action research and work alongside colleagues as a coach in the classroom.  The area for the action research is their choice.  Innovation fellows are determined by the senior leadership team following receipt of an application letter.  If you’re interested in this idea you may want to look at the following guide which I think may be really useful in the action research element of the role http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/uploads/pdf/EEF_DIY_Evaluation_Guide_2013.pdf

 Innovation Companies

This was an idea I “magpied” from somewhere – unfortunately I can’t remember where so can’t acknowledge the source properly.

“Innovation Companies can be set up, using innovation funds, to develop and embed new cutting edge practice within the College.  They must be theme based and operate across departments or year groups.

• Each Innovation Company must have a named leader who will be responsible for the company and its outcomes and leading a group of staff between 4-12 people in size.  
• Innovation Companies can be set up by any member of staff who has completed the L2 Leadership Course. 
• The leader of the Innovation Company must commit to being part of a College based innovation group that will seek to capture and transfer knowledge at a college, local and regional level.
• The £50 bond per member of staff per annum will be invested in the Innovation Company and will be matched funded by the College.  Each person who contributes a bond must take an active part in the company.
• Innovation funds can be used to take forward an idea/innovation from a member of staff or group of staff that will lead to improved standards of attainment, levels of achievement, student well-being or student personal development.
• Requests can be submitted any time between June and October half term and the funds will remain in place for the academic year.
• Student innovators would be able to act as “shareholders” and invest a sum of funding, via a bond, to sponsor a particular innovation company.
• Funding released following the Innovation Company’s idea and evaluation criteria being accepted.”

It received exactly zero applications when I first launched it and so I took the hint and didn’t bother again.  However, I think it has real potential and does seem to link to building human, social and decisional capital.  Maybe it was a bit too complicated or my timing, just going into a really complex BSF/PCP build, was not exactly the best.  With the end of the build in sight and a really committed staff at the school maybe it is time to rethink the scheme and relaunch it.  I’m also wondering whether it would be better if a group of staff would be prepared to receive the applications for the Innovation Companies and determine which ones to back.

 “Good learning comes from good teaching. More and better learning and greater achievement for everyone requires being able to find and keep more good teachers.”

(Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012)

 Teaching “like a pro” means continuously enquiring into and improving own practice; planning and improving teaching in a high performing team and linking to the wider professional community and its development.

I would understand many school leaders looking at the above and beginning to glaze over then start to disengage as it all seems unrealistic.  We are an incredibly creative and resourceful profession and it is genuinely not beyond us to redesign our approach to professional development to encompass new and different approaches.  The cost of not doing so may be far more frightening than the cost of the redesign.

Thanks to Andy Hargreaves for a fantastic day and to Sue Williamson who is leading the SSAT onto fertile and crucially important ground.  Interested in Redesigning Schools?  Get involved.