Professional Development

Editor’s Comment: The power of reflection

Can just anyone be a teacher? Graham Handscomb contrasts the simplistic government proposal that unqualified people can be teachers with a deeper understanding of the nature, purpose and skills of teaching.

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      string(5260) " Creative Teaching and Learning, vol. 4.4																							Professor Reuven Feuerstein and Professor Bob Burden, who were both very instrumental in establishing this journal and who had a huge impact on children’s education and welfare across the world, have sadly died in the past weeks.Bob Burden is probably the better known to English teachers – something he would have found a little ironic. He considered Feuerstein the greatest of all contributors to education in the recent period and he constantly railed against his lack of recognition as lesser figures built their powerful learning empires on his unacknowledged ideas.Bob would never have dreamed of such an offence. He had enormous integrity and commitment to children, and saw himself more as an academic activist than a great original thinker. Having discovered the ideas of Feuerstein, he tried tirelessly to get them embedded into the English education system under the rubric of thinking skills. He was an early member of the Department of Education and Science’s Thinking Skills Group in the 1980s and continued pressing Feuerstein’s insights into the way children learn, and fail to learn, through his articles and academic work.After Bob and I met at one of Feuerstein’s training fortnights in Israel, a plan was hatched to create the journal that eventually became Creative Teaching and Learning and he was an active founder member of the board.Bob made some important connections between Feuerstein’s ideas and the treatment of Dyslexia and as a result, the British Dyslexia Association (BDA) has since become a firm advocate of some of the key principles and intervention methodologies that Feuerstein proposed. His research also included the development of the ‘Myself as a Learner Scale’ (MALS), designed to assess the self-concept of pupils in their roles as learners. Imaginative Minds are the proud publishers of MALS and Bob approved a new updated and extended age version shortly before he died.MALS has literally gone round the world – it is used as widely in Mongolia as it is in the UK – and this ubiquity is a reflection of the power of this simple way of establishing some of the emotive blocks to learning, so that they can then be challenged. Bob’s book, ‘Dyslexia and Self-Concept’ (2005), is also regarded as a classic text. As Head of the School of Education at the University of Exeter and then Emeritus Professor of Applied Educational Psychology, Bob set up the Thinking Schools movement – a system of accreditation for schools pursuing a serious thinking skills strategy. Bob still had many projects underway when he died, not least of which was an adaptation of Feuerstein’s diagnostic tool to measure learning propensity, it was to be used in the classroom by ordinary teachers to uncover a child’s untapped potential and to isolate the missing elements that could release a higher order of cognitive functioning. He was also planning to write an article on the new MALS for CTL and the achievement of the Thinking Schools that had gained the award he had devised.It is hard to know where to begin with the achievements of Reuven Feuerstein. Many of the ideas that teachers now take for granted – that intelligence is a set of improvable skills not a fixed hereditary endowment, that cognition is a structure and can be impaired, and repaired, if an element is missing, that the brain is plastic and can be modified by teaching and environments – all stem from him. He seeded the idea that learning dispositions are critical to higher-order thinking and academic, or indeed life, success, and showed how only certain types of interaction between children and adults, and children and other children, are critical to laying down cognitive structures.Some of the insights, like the importance of oracy and dialogue in cognitive development, have been around since the time of Plato and Socrates but Feuerstein developed a theory of how and why they were so important. He also theorised the role of parent and teacher in child development that went far beyond the stages theory of Piaget. This is His theory of Mediated Learning, like all great theories, it is devastatingly simple – even obvious to us now – and states that parents, siblings and teachers stand between the child and the incomprehensible world and, by filtering stimuli, shape the child’s world according to their cultural pre-dispositions.In this way, Feuerstein could show how interaction with mediators, or the lack of it, could create small but important cognitive deficiencies and how whole cultures reproduced themselves.We will be coming back to the importance of Feuerstein in later editions of this journal. He was in his nineties and his death is only sad in that a great mind and a great presence has passed from us. Bob’s death is more of a tragedy – he was relatively young and had much, much more to contribute.To access articles from Creative Teaching and Learning:Please log in.To view the latest issue of Creative Teaching and Learning, please go to the Online Publications page or click here for the direct link.Alternatively, you can subscribe here. Call our sales team for the best rate: 0121 224 7599."
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Editor's Comment: Two great educationalists leave us

21 May 2014

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      string(5640) "This month’s NEWSWhen does the unremarkable become headline news?Usually when it’s to do with a bureaucratic burdenlike Ofsted. The suggestion that Ofsted should be splitinto two inspectorates, one for education and skillsand one for children’s care, would seem to be statingthe obvious. Good practice for child minders mayhave some similarities to good practice in a sixth formcollege, but there are also just one or two differencesthat make their inspection needs leagues apart. Surelywe don’t need an education select committee to tell usthat.Perhaps what I find most disturbing about the report isthe feeling that Ofsted do not know what they are doing andare decidedly unfit for purpose. I knew that from my ownexperiences of  specific teams, but am a little shocked to findstatements declaring that inspectors are not clear themselvesabout the purpose of  Ofsted and are a little removed fromfront line work. Lives are destroyed by Ofsted, and that’s not anexaggeration. How dare there be even a hint of  ineptitude intheir ranks.Editor’s CommentOther features this monthThe focus this month is on the Green Paper. We collect viewsabout it in our news section, we hear what NASEN have to sayabout it in our features and from a programme that it refersto. We run a feature on Aspirations for Life – a programme toencourage young people with disabilities and learning needsinto employment. A slightly longer article than usual, but a veryinteresting perspective accompanying some practical materials.It’s an important opportunity to comment on some radicalproposals. Reflecting on the Green Paper is worth the time andthe space in ECU.Committee UpdateIn every month’s news we will be bringing you a summary ofwhat’s happening in relation to children in Parliament. Thismonth it’s the Education Bill Debate and the Education SelectCommittee’s report on Ofsted.  http://www.teachingtimes.comThis month’s NEWSThe Education Bill wasintroduced into the House ofCommons on 26th January 2011.The Education Bill DebateThe Bill had its second readingon 8th February 2011 and iscurrently being considered by aPublic Bill Committee.Following Parliamentary debatescan be an interesting way of  findingout not only what MP’s views are butwhat those called as witnesses have tosay. So, for example as the EducationBill is debated by the Public Billcommittee we can see what keypeople in the world of  education aresaying about the proposed changes.During the first sitting,Academy Headteachers wereinvited to attend the committeeto answer questions and makecomment about aspects of  the Bill.One issue raised was the feasibilityof  primary schools being ableto find alternative provision forexcluded pupils. The issue wasraised that requiring schools to payfor provision for excluded pupilswould take money away from otherpupils.The new powers on detentionand search were welcomed althoughconcerns were expressed aboutpossible difficulties with no noticedetentions in the event of  a youngperson being a carer, for example.There was some anxiety around thepower to search but it was acceptedthat having this power does not meanthat you have to use it.The suggestion was aired thatAcademies are reluctant to admitchildren with special needs. However,that this situation exists was largelydenied by the Academy heads whopointed out that Academies are legallyobliged to follow the Admissions Codejust like other maintained schools.Not surprisingly, when the heads wereasked if  they thought there should bemore Academies and if  they were agood thing, they agreed. http://www.teachingtimes.comThis month’s NEWSThe Select Committeereport on Ofstedchildren’s care. Each inspectorateshould have its own head – a ChiefEducation Officer and a ChiefChildren’s Care Officer. Otherconclusions include:There should be greater clarity onwhat the purpose of  inspection isMore inspectors should be servingpractitionersLimiting judgements should beabandoned■■■More changes are due. We knowinspection is likely to be moretargeted at struggling schoolsand withdrawn for thoseclassed as outstanding. Whatdoes the select committee haveto say?The conclusions from the selectcommittee will not come as a greatsurprise. The main headline is thatOfsted should be split into two, onefor education and skills and one forThe committee were in favourof outstanding schools notbeing routinely inspected unlessa particular trigger such as aheadteacher leaving, exam resultsfalling or exclusions rising suggestedan inspection was needed.Perhaps most interesting wasthe suggestion that the categoryof  ‘satisfactory’ should be splitinto two. Satisfactory is an uneasycategory which can leave a schoolfeeling that they are in some kindof  limbo with no clear idea  ifthey’ve got the OK or not. Forsome schools at the top of  thiscategory it could give them therelief  of  knowing they are ‘better’than the rest. Those at the bottommight find themselves in a new landof  inadequate plus.The committee were in favourof  there still being some form ofvoluntary self-evaluation form.The previous SEF was not in factcompulsory. To have one out there,compulsory or not, will makeschools feel obliged to complete it. http://www.teachingtimes.comThis month’s NEWSThe SEN Green Paper– mixed reactionsNow there has been time to read through the Green Paper, noteveryone is in agreement – is it an opportunity to make things rightfor SEN pupils or a cost cutting exercise that plays to the media?The NASUWT has come out against the Green Paper. They suggest that it seeksto redefine special"
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Special Needs

Every Child Update Issue 16 News

1 Jun 2011

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      string(5598) "To access Professional Development Today Magazine:Please LoginTo view the latest issue of Professional Development Today, please go to the Online Publications page or Click Here for direct link.Alternatively, you can subscribe here. Call our sales team for the best rate: 0121 224 7599PDT ISSUE 17.1																							Graham Handscomb spotlights the challenge placed upon professional development to transform practice, and the particular implications this has for school leadership.IIf we are to make a difference for children and improve our schools the focus must be on the classroom. There is now a wide consensus that professional development that counts should involve clear benefits for improved teaching and learning. In short, professional learning must deliver classroom dividends. This somewhat daunting expectation provides the context for this issue of Professional Development Today.■■■ Leading teaching and learningThe challenge of how professional development can help bring about classroom transformation has wide ranging implications, particularly for school leadership. This is the focus of a number of articles as well as of our HOW TO section.  School vice-principal and former Advanced Skills Teacher, Marcella McCarthy begins by emphasising the importance of leadership focussing on the “front line.” Here senior school leaders enable the modelling of good pedagogic practice through fostering a “bottom-up” culture which develops and energizes teacher leaders. She looks in a very grounded way at the pressures on classroom teachers, with congested teaching loads and little space for reflection on how their lessons might be improved.  Against this background she argues that the regime of scrutiny and lesson observations by senior managers can prove additionally stressful and counter-productive. Instead we are presented with a rich alternative picture which combines “open classrooms”, virtual lesson observations, “plenary swops” and a collaborative approach to performance management.■■■ Transformation through collaborationIn their article Gary Holden and colleagues examine how the energies and dynamics of collaboration between schools can be harnessed to transform teaching and learning. A great deal of expectation has been generated around the prospect of how collaboratives of schools themselves can sustain and improve the education system. But what will this actually mean in terms of improving the quality of what happens within participating schools and their classrooms? This article reports on work done within a multi-academy Trust to practically explore “how a self-sustaining school-led system can be made to work effectively so that all children achieve good or better outcomes in their learning.”  They describe a coordinated approach which combined three professional development strategies to promote effective collaboration across schools:  putting coaching and mentoring at the heart of the appraisal process; promoting joint practice development through peer challenge; and using action research as a means of embedding evidence-based practice. The article is refreshing in its candour about problems encountered, as well as its successes.  So, for instance, we read that willingness to take part in joint working cannot be taken for granted, and that initially there was insufficient investment in creating a rationale for joint working, and a need for this to be embedded in senior leadership practice. What comes through powerfully is that any framework for effective collaboration must be underpinned by compelling shared values such as “the entitlement of all staff to exceptional support and challenge.■■■ Leaders transforming practiceIn the HOW TO section I provide a range of pieces on the contribution of leadership to the transformation of practice. These include:  the ingredients of successful leadership; the difference school leaders make to pupil outcomes; the vital contribution leaders need to make to teaching and learning; and the importance of teacher leaders. All the HOW TO pieces include a variety of professional learning activities to help readers apply the material to their own practice.■■■ A rationale for professional learningIn the first research article Karen Edge also looks at the potential impact of school leaders on practice. Her focus is on what is perceived to be a new generation of leaders, the so-called Generation X leaders, born between 1960 and 1980. In research carried out in the “global cites” of London, New York and Toronto, she examines the lives, leadership and aspirations of small cohorts of such leaders. Amongst some early findings claimed from this research are a criticism that much professional development of these new leaders is too traditional and slow to respond to the demands of modern day school leadership, and an outlook of Generation X leaders which places a higher premium on work/life balance.Headteacher David Sands then gives a rich account of his doctoral research into the impact of a school-based Master-level professional development programme. Significantly the research found that such a programme, whilst being bespoke and school-driven, incorporated the rigour of M-level development. It provided significant benefits related to teachers’ sense of self-efficacy and in turn resulted in clear reported improvement in classroom practice. There were also reported improvement gains in school leadership, policies and procedures. Perhaps most important was that, in an era which extols school-led"
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Professional Development

Editor’s Comment - Transforming practice

1 Aug 2013

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      string(5625) "n CONTENTSn  NEXT PAGE ››Since the coalition government came into power, the DfE has generally stood by its commitment to cut down ondocumentation. We have seen safeguarding advice and guidance reduced and a number of simplified documents linkedto behaviour.However, what we have seen is the shearing away of ‘extra’ from documents and guidance already in existence. We have seen littlethat has been released as completely new material to reflect the new approach to brevity, succinctness and clarity.Perhaps that’s why the new SEND Code of Practice is such a disappointment.It’s not what’s at the heart of the new approach to supporting children and young people with SEN that’s disappointing. Theintentions are good. The expectation of increased involvement from parents and young people shines out from almost every page. Weare told countless times that agencies must work together, share information, cooperate and contribute in the interests of the childwith SEN.The intention and spirit of the reform is there in abundance, what is missing is any really clear idea of how these ideals are to beachieved. The SEND Code of Practice is a lengthy and confusing document. Although there has been some tinkering with it in its finalstage, it remains a muddled and repetitive attempt to steer schools through the process of identifying and supporting pupils with SENwithout handing them the rudder.Editor’sCommenteverychildUPDATEwww.teachingtimes.comSuzanneO’ConnellSEN reform – is it all clear?http://www.teachingtimes.comn CONTENTSn  NEXT PAGE ››For example, what exactly are schools required to have on their website? In the last issue of ECU, we looked closely at theLocal Offer and what West Rise Junior School has prepared in readiness for September. However, schools are also required topublish a Governors’ SEN information report. The content of which includes many areas of overlap and a lack of any really defineddistinctiveness. Schools and LAs are confused and who can blame them?What happens to pupils before an EHC needs assessment requires close scrutiny and some imagination. There is no clear structure tothe cycles that are indicated – the entrances and exits – just a frightening never-ending spiral leading to vastly underfunded services.And why are LAs being left to create so much for themselves? If they cannot be trusted to run our schools, as we are frequently told,why should they be trusted to create their own EHC plans, devise their own Local Offers and create a new system almost from scratch?Moving on to multi-agency working. Fine words announce a new partnership across services, a dropping of boundaries, a spirit ofco-operation. What is missing are the services themselves.In this issue of ECU, we look specifically at the mental health guidance which holds up CAMHS as the saviour for schools. Speak toalmost any school about the CAMHS service and they will bemoan the time taken in referral, the lack of staff, the high thresholds. Andit’s getting worse.The services which should be working with our schools in the interests of our children are depleted. As such, there is no chance ofthem being able to provide the depth and integrity of multi-agency working that this new code promises.This editorial paints a depressing picture. One that its readers might not recognise. But a ‘code of practice’ implies a clear set ofguidelines that will provide a structure for those involved in its implementation. What we have here is a blob of good intentions and aproblem-solving exercise at best. › Editor – Dr. Suzanne O’ConnellEditor’sCommentEvery Child UPDATE nwww.teachingtimes.comhttp://www.teachingtimes.comn CONTENTSn  NEXT PAGE ››Given all the confusion, uncertainty and lack of time to prepare for the SEN reform, headteachers and their SENCos continue to do their best inreadiness for the new term. Elisabeth Carney-Haworth describes what Torpoint Nursery and Infant School has been doing to prepare itself for the‘unknowns’.Concerns about the mental health needs of pupils are high. The DfE has released guidance and advice that we report on in our documenthighlights. Unfortunately, many of the strategies referred to in ‘Mental health and behaviour in schools’ are therapies that are out of the reach ofmost schools. However, nurture provision continues to be an accessible possibility. Edurne Scott-Loinaz gives advice on how you might start suchprovision and why it is so beneficial.Sharing food is a key feature of nurture groups. It’s importance is also emphasised in our special report this issue. Gurpinder Lalli shares theresults of his research into the ‘pedagogic meal’ and the value of sitting together.Our Child File materials continue with the theme of mental health needs with some practical materials for supporting schools in this challengingarea. Finally, Trisha Waters introduces us to Story Links and how this can help schools engage with parents to improve their child’s emotional andbehavioural needs.EDiTOriAl OffiCEPUBLISHERHoward SharronEdItoRSuzanne O’ConnellSUB EdItoRMaisie GoulddESIGN MANAGERDevinder SonsanaAdVERtISING dEPARtMENt0121 224 7590/91MARkEtING dEPARtMENtGay Hardicker0121 224 7591CUStoMER SERVICES0121 224 7599Company registration number 02445043© Every Child Update 2014No part of this publication may bereproduced, copied or transmitted in anyform or by any means.Every Child Update is an independentmagazine. The views expressed in signedarticles do not necessarily represent thoseof the magazine.The magazine cannot accept anyresponsibility for"
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Special Needs

ECU 32 Editor's Comment: SEN reform - is it all clear?

29 Sep 2014