The Trainer Toolkit

A guide to delivering training in schools

Alison Borthwick, Paul Ellis, Mark Winterbottom, Author

• Publisher: Corwin UK
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781526493712, 9781526493729
• eBook ISBN: 9781529726077
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Administration

A practical toolkit for educational professionals working in the continuing professional development of teachers.

This book is for anyone delivering training and cascading learning in schools, regardless of phase, age or subject. It gives you the tools to become a fantastic trainer, and to think about how to measure and evaluate your impact.

Contains 50 tried and tested training ideas, reflection activities, anecdotes, tips and lists to help you become the best trainer you can be.

1 Professional development

Key Words in this chapter

• reflection
• professional
• development
• participants
• motivation
• viewpoint
• course
• outcomes
• training

In this chapter you will:

• reflect upon your own experiences of professional development;
• consider the characteristics of effective professional development;
• understand the different reasons participants reflect positively, or not, upon their experiences of professional development;
• observe professional development from a variety of viewpoints.

Reflecting on your own professional development

What does professional development look like in schools?

Before we begin thinking about how to train other teachers and education professionals we must first consider what ‘professional development’ could look like in our own contexts.

Professionalism is not a fixed set of rules or procedures. Professional development enables you to change yourself, to have professional agency and autonomy.

Professional development is something we all do. When we do it on our own, professional development depends on us reflecting with purpose on our practice.

This may happen when we:

• read a book, article or blog;
• watch a YouTube clip;
• observe a lesson but from a distance;
• keep a journal;
• write a thesis for a Master’s degree or doctorate.

However, a lot of professional development happens with other people, either with a colleague or as a group during face-to-face training. In each case, our active engagement, communication and interaction with others helps us to think about our practice.

Such opportunities could include:

• attending a one-day course;
• being part of a 20-minute staff meeting;
• engaging with 13 half-day sessions over a nine-month period;
• having one-to-one coaching;
• listening to a keynote;
• attending a book club;
• observing a lesson.

So, what makes professional development effective?

Effective professional development has the power to change your practice and your attitudes. It enables you to bring about that change yourself. Effective professional development will be dependent on many variables, including the mode, duration, style and person delivering or receiving it.

But what do you consider effective professional development to be?

• Is it the acquisition of new knowledge?
• Is it the sharing of knowledge?
• Is it the opportunity to engage in some task or activity?
• Is it the reassurance that you are doing everything right?
• Is it more to do with the room, refreshments or people and less to do with the content, tasks or outcomes?
• Is it the opportunity to network with colleagues?
• Is it all of the above?

Take a moment

Can you remember a professional development event that was a really positive experience for you? What was it that made it memorable?

What about a professional development event that was not particularly positive? What was different about this one compared to the previous?

Good experiences

We are sure we can all recall an example of a professional development event that we considered to be a success. However, this judgement is subjective, so it depends on what you consider the role of professional development to be.

Often a good experience can be just one moment during a professional development event. For example, you may think of an idea, engage in an activity or have a conversation with someone else which causes you to reflect.

Here are some of the most frequent reasons that our participants have suggested when explaining why a professional development event was good:

• friendly trainer;
• menu and/or venue;
• feeling relaxed;
• made me think;
• impact on learners;
• challenged;
• opportunity to reflect;
• content matched pre-course outline;
• empowered.

A few years ago I was encouraged to attend some training. When I entered the room, I got the feeling it was going to be pitched at ideas I already felt comfortable with, and wondered if it would be worth me staying. I think my face must have given away my feelings, because the trainer came over immediately.

He encouraged me to stay and, after not very long, I was glad I did. Not only did I soon discover that I did in fact have plenty to learn, but much of this learning came from my interactions with the other participants. Even if they might have had less experience than me, many were often more expert. I was also able to see more clearly in the light of their ideas and comments the knowledge and habits – both good and bad – I’d picked up over the years.

At the end of the workshop, I thanked the trainer for opening my mind and for facilitating a session where we all felt comfortable to share, regardless of our experience and expertise. Many of the skills I picked up from this one workshop have positively affected me as a trainer today. And many of the participants remain firm friends.

Bad experiences

Just as we can recall plenty of good experiences, we are certain we can also remember those professional development events that could have been better.

We’ve all been to training courses which we didn’t like. But why is that?

I remember a course when I was a newly qualified teacher. The whole science department had to go to the local training centre for a course on key skills. Thirty minutes into the course, we were all annoyed, and the more questions we asked, the more frustrated we got.

So what had gone wrong?

First, our presenter didn’t understand what he was trying to teach. Key skills was a government initiative, and he didn’t understand how they differed from a previous initiative on skills. Because of this, we felt like we were wasting our time.

Second, he had simply chosen to give us a PowerPoint presentation. We did not have professional respect for him. He was supposed to be a trainer, and he was using methods which we as teachers were discouraged from using.

But finally, he was up against it from the start. We all knew each other and building a relationship with such a tight-knit group was always going to be a challenge unless he’d really thought about it in advance. There was one positive: I knew how children felt when not taught well!

Considering the professional development events that the three of us have attended, here are some of our thoughts about why an event may be ‘less than good’:

• trainer not well prepared;
• room layout not helpful;
• lots of activities but little substance;
• not enough resources to go around;
• pace of event too slow;
• lack of clarity;
• lack of purpose;
• lack of objectives;
• lack of challenge;
• lack of time to reflect;
• I/we were not in the right frame of mind;
• trainer was ineffectual.

Your own experiences of profess...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Acknowledgements
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Illustration List
• Table List
• About the authors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part A Setting the scene
• 1 Professional development
• 2 Knowing your audience
• 3 Working with adults
• 4 Disseminating learning
• Part B Getting ready to train
• 5 Planning
• 6 Materials
• 7 Environment
• 8 Presentation
• Part C Training activities
• 9 At the start
• 10 In the middle
• 11 At the end
• Part D Evaluating and reflecting on your training and developing yourself as a trainer
• 12 Self-evaluation
• 13 Observing and being observed
• 14 Self-development
• Appendix 1 Toolkit Checklists
• Appendix 2 Trainer A−Z
• References
• Index