TLA conference, June 2009

last updated:25 Aug 2009

Extracts from a speech by GTC Chief Executive Keith Bartley given at the Teacher Learning Academy annual conference in London, 23 June 2009

The speech introduced the fourth CHECK annual conference of the Teacher Learning Academy, a national framework for professional learning devised and led by the GTC.

The speech was given before the publication by Government of plans for a ‘licence to teach’ in the recent White Paper, and prior to approval of a new Code of Conduct and Practice for the profession by GTC Council Members.

Check against delivery

Good morning, colleagues.

It is always a safe bet to choose the speech title “Changing Times” because education is cursed – or blessed, depending on your point of view - with a long and varied menu of change.

I am not sure I would have predicted quite what the pace of change would turn out to be since some of us met at the TLA conference in Birmingham last year. And I am going to leave the changes and developments within the Teacher Learning Academy to other colleagues but suffice it to say that the take-up and application of the TLA has far exceeded anything that I might have envisaged just one year ago – for example we have had teachers from well over 1,000 schools enrol in the current academic year.

But I do want to consider why the TLA is so important in the wider education context nationally and to do so I am going to refer to some of the sweeping issues which face us, and indeed other service professions.

Accountability and the teaching profession

There is a new spotlight on accountability and regulation internationally.  It is too early to say whether this focus will be helpful to teaching regulators or not. There has to be a risk that the desire for better regulation leads instead simply to more regulation, which despite my role as Chief Executive of a professional regulatory body, I emphatically do not believe is a good thing, necessary, or likely to be successful.

On the contrary, I believe that we need to be shifting the debate on regulation and accountability away from central prescription, and into the much more fertile and interesting arena of individual professional accountability and on to a debate about how we work together to develop a richer body of collective professional knowledge and a vibrant effective practice, the better to support children and young people. I really think we have been missing a trick in recent years.  I know, and you know, that teaching is a complex and creative activity; that good teaching cannot be based merely on a series of “hot tips for teachers” – it is rooted in a rigorous understanding of learning and requires skill and perseverance.

Parents regularly say “I don’t know how you do it….” 

The art and science of teaching

But the problem is …. We haven’t always been very good at saying how we do it either.  We need to re-engage with a concept that has not been fashionable in recent years – pedagogy – and we need to become much more articulate about the art and science of teaching. 

We also know – I have personally argued many times over the past year – that you need permission to experiment and learn from mistakes within the context of a professional rigour and disciplined creativity that you set for yourselves – as accountable professionals who are not going to experiment recklessly with the life chances of young people on the basis of hunches and guesses.

In this sense, the TLA community that you are a part of represents a groundbreaking move to enable the profession to take responsibility for developing its own body of knowledge, innovative but rigorous practice and professionally-led accountability for knowledge about the effects, outcomes and effectiveness of practice and professional learning.

In that sense the TLA represents part of another national and international tendency … an emergence of ‘grassroots’-led responsibility to deliver children’s entitlement in ways which are locally appropriate and accountable. It also represents part of a movement to assert transparent forms of accountability from within practice itself. The presentations which you make, in the TLA, of your work to improve your practice and which you offer up for trained peers to scrutinise through the TLA verification process is an important contribution to that transparency of individual and collective accountability.
So to accountability first – because the agenda is genuinely changing quite fast.

Gaining ground on assessment

The Children’ Schools and Families Select Committee conducted an enquiry into assessment and testing which was published in May last year and it is currently  nearing the end of a broader enquiry into school accountability.

The GTC gave evidence to both.  We were greatly encouraged to see our evidence,   drawn from practising teachers, like yourselves, and from the research base strongly reflected in the Select Committee’s report and recommendations. The GTC has been arguing for radical reform of the testing and assessment system for a number of years now, and gradually, we are gaining ground. Every now and then, after a period of apparent stalemate, a breakthrough is achieved.  In this shifting environment, what changes can we expect in the arena of accountability?  We have the new Ofsted inspection framework starting in September; and we have planned legislation on school report cards. These have the potential to give a more rounded and accurate picture to parents than the current combination of school profile and performance tables – but I remain to be convinced of their usefulness if they are reduced to a single numerical rating for schools.

In our evidence to the Select Committee enquiry on accountability, the GTC argued that intermittent periodic inspection by Ofsted only fulfils one part of the accountability task – it provides the snapshot. To gain a true picture of a school’s capacity for growth and improvement, and to support further capacity building, a longer term dialogue is required. 

Accountability – seeking a better balance

And where is the place for individual professional accountability in this context?  We know from our research with Demos on professional values; and with the Office for Public Management on the new Code of Conduct and Practice, that teachers have a very highly developed sense of personal accountability to the children they teach, their parents, to the wider local community and to the school.  How could this individual accountability be brought into a better balance with the levers and measures that hold the school as an institution to account? You might expect me to answer: through the new Code of Conduct and Practice that the GTC has developed in consultation with teachers and other stakeholders – and I do think that is part of the answer – but only a part.  The new Code, if approved by our Council in July, will affirm the shared values, behaviours and norms of practice that the public expects of teachers and that teachers expect of themselves.  The new Code will sit well with school mission statements and should help teachers, working in a huge variety of very different settings, to make consistent ethical judgements in the interests of the children and young people they serve. The Code states teachers’ commitment to expanding their professional knowledge, understanding, skills and practice, as their experience grows in role.

You might also expect an employer, or Government, to answer: – through a contractual model that holds each teacher to account for their practice.  Some of those mechanisms exist – we have a performance management framework which is part of a teacher’s contractual entitlement and responsibility. Admittedly it is in its early stages and remedial legislation has been required to make sure it is fully implemented, but there is a mechanism that should ensure that each teacher’s development needs are identified and that clear performance objectives are set which work to support the schools’ improvement agenda.

Investing in proven, effective approaches to staff development

So while an entitlement to CPD combined with a requirement can raise participation levels - and given that we know effective CPD impacts positively upon both teacher practice and the learning, behaviour and achievement of all children and young people - a study by PARN recently revealed that a requirement is by no means an indication of competence. The known variability in performance management implementation and function around the country obliges us to assert the need for a thorough national evaluation to inform the quality assurance and development of model that supports, challenges and inspires in intelligent ways.

We need quality assured practitioners, with access to quality assured professional learning opportunities, working in a quality assured workplace. Therefore, schools that are investing in proven, effective, approaches to developing their staff are much more likely to have the resilience they need to thrive. When good attention is paid to the rigorous identification of professional learning needs, when the impact of changes in practice is evaluated carefully, and when professional insights and learning are shared between teachers, children and young people are likely to draw down greater benefit from their lessons. When staffrooms echo with passionate debates about the art and science of teaching, then we really will have seized responsibility and demonstrated professional accountability in its most meaningful sense. That is what I see and heads and teachers tell me is on offer in the Teacher Learning Academy.

Licence to teach

So far so good. But Government is planning more. The White Paper may contain a proposal for a Licence to Teach model – which would require teachers to demonstrate that they are, and remain, fit to practise. It is a model widely used in other professions and it has some advantages. It does not seem right that any professional could go from the beginning to the end of their chosen career, perhaps with several extended breaks along the way, without showing that they have refreshed their knowledge and skills. We’re talking about nearly a quarter of the workforce (based on the most recent set of statistics – and that’s not including maternity leave) – and almost half of those who work on a part-time basis. But in order to do this, existing levers need to be enhanced; new requirements and incentives need to be introduced. So I sincerely hope that if the expected proposal does emerge, we will be able to fashion the Licence to Teach into something meaningful and useful – something that has genuine benefits for teaching and learning.  Otherwise it is simply not worth it.

We do not want a tick box model. The last thing that teachers and schools need is another layer of bureaucracy – more bureaucracy in search of a purpose.

We know that mere time spent on an activity does not equate to learning, nor sadly, does professional development activity necessarily lead to practice change and improvement.  I wish it did.  

But in the case of the Teacher Learning Academy – it invariably does. I know I am in danger of preaching to the converted, but just let me say congratulations to you all – for choosing to be part of a learning community which recognises the commitment both of the individual– and supports the collective commitment of whole teams; departments and schools. This is accountability in action – a tangible, practical demonstration of a commitment to change and improvement, rooted in research, adaptable and responsive and sustainable in the long term.