|
||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
|
| About the GTC | |
| Registration | |
| Standards and regulation | |
 |
GTC Networks |
 |
Achieve |
|
Connect |
|
Get involved |
|
Learn from each other |
|
Access resources |
|
Find out what's happening nationally |
|
Engage |
| Teacher Learning Academy | |
| Continuing professional development | |
| Policy | |
| Research | |
| Parents | |
| Events | |
| News and features | |
| GTC Publications | |
| Teaching: the GTC magazine | |
| Video section | |
| Useful websites | |
Putting together the CPD jigsaw at Penrice
How a community college in Cornwall joins up initial teacher training (ITT), workforce remodelling, the work of advanced skills teachers (ASTs), and accreditation.
"We want teachers to be reflective about what we do in classrooms; we want to be good at observing; especially as it’s so important for ITT, NQT and performance management. We also want teachers to have the time to talk knowledgably to each other about the work we do. We want teachers to make sense of what happens in classrooms by asking themselves, ‘Why did that work? Why didn’t that lesson work?’ To help answer these questions, we want teachers to access and develop research based evidence. Setting up a system of peer observation seemed the right way to focus on all of this at once.”
Where?
Geoff Dunn and Sally Griffin are Advanced Skills Teachers (ASTs) at Penrice Community College, an 11-16 comprehensive school in semi-rural Cornwall. The school has training school status, is a Specialist School for Languages, and has recently embarked on establishing an entitlement for all teachers to watch a peer at work in the class, and to be observed themselves.
What?
Teachers at Penrice have been given four sessions of additional non-contact time this term to use to watch a colleague of their choice teaching, and to be watched in return by the same colleague. The number of sessions also allows time for an initial meeting to identify a focus and time for the crucial feedback and discussion after teachers have been in class together.
How?
No official record of the initial observation or feedback is required so that teachers are reassured that peer mentoring is entirely separate from performance management and monitoring cycles. Teachers choose their own focus, and support is available for this part of the process.
In addition to the basic entitlement there is an option for teachers to attend twilight sessions developing skills that support successful peer observation, and some whole school training days have been used to launch and develop the programme. These enrichment activities have used a range of resources including the DfES Pedagogy and Practice materials and the Teacher Training Agency (TTA) ‘Doing ITT’ modules produced by the Teacher Training Agency (TTA). The sessions are delivered by outside experts or by those in-house who have expertise, and the school says that the chance to deliver workshops to colleagues has itself been a significant professional development opportunity for a number of teachers.
Sessions on the following issues have either taken place or are planned for the future:
• what to look for when observing
• the importance of body language
• skills for giving feedback.
Participating teachers have identified the ways that this has supported their work in class as well as their work with colleagues. Abi White, a teacher in her second year, said: "I spent most of my time in the classroom saying ‘why don’t you try…’ or ‘the next thing you can do to improve is…’ so to learn the skills for giving this kind of feedback to adults has made me think about the way that I work with the youngsters too.” Attendance at the optional sessions has numbered approximately 25 per cent of the staff, who are able to use what they learn to work towards an educational diploma accredited through a local university.
The work is supported by time that Geoff and Sally have negotiated with the LEA for ‘inreach’ rather than ‘outreach’ AST work. The cover to release teachers from class is provided by Teaching Assistant cover supervisors who are attached to departments within the schools where they build up their subject specialism.
What next?
The school is due to evaluate the first phase of its peer observation work at a day in January 2005 which will be led by those who have attended the additional twilight sessions. Next they plan to move to link the observations with Assessment for Learning, which is a new thrust within the school’s development plan. They are also interested in developing a similar approach for supporting the professional development of Teaching Assistants.
All teachers at Penrice were given a copy of the GTC’s Guide to Peer Observation,developed jointly with the NUT. For this guide and examples of how other schools have developed its approaches, visit:
www.gtce.org.uk/peerobservation
Some issues to think about
