Leading & Managing Continuing Professional Development

Developing People, Developing Schools

Sara Bubb, Peter Earley

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9781412948289, 9781412948272
• eBook ISBN: 9781446231111
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Praise for the first edition:

?Peter Earley and Sara Bubb bring together, in a very accessible way, theoretical and practical aspects of CPD and suggest how leadership and management can be applied in this vital area of staff development. This book will help co-ordinators and school leaders to develop their most important resource - the people who work with the children? - Richard Stainton, Education Journal

?The most obvious target user for the book is the (not rare) person suddenly hoist with the staff development responsibility petard: but, thoughtfully used, most staffrooms will include several people who could benefit from thinking about its contents and putting some of the ideas into practice? - British Journal Educational Technology

?This book is a welcome and practical guide to the wealth of publications on Continuing Professional Development… [M]akes an excellent contribution to the current and widening debate on the nature of Continuing Professional Development. For School Leadership Teams it is an essential resource and reference for the managing of professional development and learning. It also serves as an excellent practical guide, and CPD coordinators reading this book will find themselves questioning and as a result developing their own practice. The book is written in accessible language using believable case studies to illustrate the wealth of research that has been carried out. The deeply embedded notion among some teachers that professional development consists of the one day course is challenged, and the reader is left in no doubt as to the range of opportunities that exist and need for them to be harnessed in order to ensure school improvement. The book is will surely act as a catalyst for the review and development of CPD in schools? - Stephen Merrill, Edge Hill College of Higher Education, British Journal In-Service Education

?A practical guide to all aspects of professional development which ought to be in the possession of every professional development coordinator in every primary and secondary school in the land - and their colleagues in leadership teams? - Tim Brighouse, TES Friday Magazine

This new edition of a best-selling book provides an up to date overview of Continuing Professional Development (CPD), combined with a guide to best practice.

Changes include:

- expanded sections on the professional development of support staff and the wider school workforce (particularly important in the light of workforce remodelling) and the evaluation of CPD

- more on making sure that professional development has an impact, and provides good value for money

- the common core of skills and knowledge for the children?s workforce, the new standards for qualified teacher status, induction, threshold, excellent teachers and advanced skills teachers as well as those for higher level teaching assistants.

Drawing on the latest research, the contents include:

- a clear explanation of CPD and latest developments;

- practical tips on how to lead and manage CPD for a range of staff in schools - identifying training needs, designing and implementing programmes and evaluating their impact;

- detailed guidance on CPD for staff at different stages of their careers.

Written in a clear readable style it covers the latest standards and offers examples of current good practice. It is an essential professional reference for all those responsible for leading and managing professional learning in schools (headteachers, deputies, CPD and staff development coordinators) and Local Authorities (LAs). It will also prove invaluable to training providers and universities.

1

Introduction: CPD Matters

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People matter

What is continuing professional development?

Is the focus on CPD new?

Taking CPD seriously

An entitlement to CPD

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The improvement of training and development of heads, teachers and support staff is high on both national and local educational agendas, particularly as delegated budgets and devolved funding have enabled all schools to become self-managing and increasingly autonomous. Teachers, researchers, policy analysts and politicians argue that professionalism must increase if education is to improve. Throughout the western world, the professionalism of teachers has been placed under considerable pressure by the move towards centralized curricula and assessment, and the use of performance data and outcome measures as a means to account for and improve what goes on in classrooms.

This chapter provides the context and rationale for the book arguing strongly that for schools and colleges to improve urgent attention must be given to their main resource – their people. It attempts to define continuing professional development (CPD) and to show that the focus on it is not new. This introductory chapter also provides a strong case or rationale for taking the management and leadership of CPD seriously, whilst also offering a framework for understanding CPD. Finally, it concludes that an entitlement to CPD or lifelong learning is the proper way forward and that all employees have a right to work in a learning-centred community.

PEOPLE MATTER

Educational reform, especially over the last 20 years, has made imperative the need for urgent and high-quality staff development and training. Teachers have delivered unparalleled curricular change including the introduction of a ‘National Curriculum’ in 1988; Key Stage 2 literacy and numeracy strategies ten years later and, more recently, the Key Stage 3 and Secondary strategy, thus placing well-documented strain on the profession, and promoting national concerns about teacher recruitment, retention and morale. The pivotal role of teachers in the delivery of the government’s reform agenda was acknowledged when it was clearly stated that ‘all our ambitions for education depend on teachers doing well in the classroom’ (DfEE, 2001a: 3).

There is a growing recognition that the management and development of people – human resource management (HRM) and human resource development (HRD) – is more effective in enhancing the performance of organizations, including schools and colleges, than any other factor. For example, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) argue for the careful management of people as the prime resource of the organization, claiming that managers get better results (in terms of productivity, customer satisfaction, profitability and employee retention) by managing and developing people better. Within the sphere of education, Riches and Morgan were probably the first to recognize that the truly key and scarce organizational resource was not finance or money but excellent people when they stated:

Of all the resources at the disposal of a person or an organisation it is only people who can grow and develop and be motivated to achieve certain desired ends. The attaining of targets for the organization is in their hands and it is the way people are managed so that maximum performance is matched as closely as possible with satisfaction for the individuals doing the performing, which is at the heart of HRM and optimum management. (1989: 1 original emphases)

People and their training and development – their continuing professional development – must be seen as an investment and it is therefore essential that each school establishes not only a CPD or HRD policy but also the means of its implementation through effective management and leadership. As funds and responsibilities are progressively transferred to schools they can be deployed in more varied and creative ways, leading to more responsive and effective systems of CPD. Schools and their governing bodies take the main responsibility for developing the quality, motivation and performance of their people – for managing and developing the human resources. The approach to CPD and its management presented in this book is to regard the training and development of staff as both a collective and individual responsibility – institutional and individual needs have to be regarded in a complementary and holistic way. Schools operating in this manner are likely to have a better motivated and higher-performing workforce.

Schools that do not look after their staff’s professional development usually lose the best people. The arguments for professional development are clear. We believe that it:

helps everyone be more effective in their jobs, so pupils learn and behave better and achieve higher standards;

improves retention and recruitment – word gets around about the places where you are looked after, and where you are not;

contributes to a positive ethos where people feel valued and motivated;

makes for a learning-centred community – the pupils are learning and so are the staff;

is a professional responsibility and entitlement;

saves money – the costs of recruiting and inducting a new teacher are high.

If the expertise and experience of staff are increasingly seen as a school’s most precious resource then the management and leadership of CPD must be seen as an integral part of managing the total resources available to the school. Some have linked CPD to objectives as identified in both school development and personal development plans. In this way it is likely that an appropriate balance will be retained between school (and group) needs and the personal and professional needs of the individual. Staff will always feel the need to be valued, and this should not be forgotten when considering the balance between identifying and meeting individual and institutional needs. The effective management of CPD should ensure that support is available and conditions created which enable staff to work together and to develop and improve their workplace performance. By head-teachers, CPD co-ordinators and other staff helping to create a climate or culture which is conducive to learning – of both staff and pupils – schools are well on the road to becoming learning-centred communities where investment in people is given the priority it deserves. Student or pupil learning is a key goal of all schools, whereas often the on-going learning of staff is not always prioritized or adequately resourced.

WHAT IS CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT?

One of the hallmarks of being identified as a professional is to continue to learn throughout a career. The professions, broadly defined, now cover over 20 per cent of the workforce – more if managers are included – and most are employed in large companies or the public sector. They range from the well established and powerful to those who are still trying to establish their professional status. The strongest are those of over 80 professions regulated by law, public authority and royal charter, where membership or registration is necessary to practise. Continuing professional development has become the phrase widely used for on-going education and training for the professions, whilst ‘workforce development’ is the more general term. If teaching is seen as a profession – and a case for this has long been argued – an important characteristic or hallmark of a member of a profession is the commitment shown towards self-improvement or development. This is not, however, for its own sake but to ensure that the beneficiaries or clients – in our case pupils and parents – are provided with the best possible service. The prime responsibility for securing individual professional development of staff is not, however, the exclusive concern of the employer – staff themselves must expect to play a key role – and professional development opportunities must be available for individuals to help them become better practitioners.

But what do we mean by the term CPD and is it different from personal development or staff development or in-service education and training (INSET)? Broadly speaking, continuing professional development encompasses all formal and informal learning that enables individuals to improve their own practice. Professional development is an aspect of personal development and, wherever possible, the two should interact and complement each other. The former is mainly about occupational role development, whereas personal development is about the development of the person, often the ‘whole’ person, and it almost always in...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• About the Authors
• List of Abbreviations
• 1 Introduction: CPD Matters
• Part I: Professional Development for School Improvement
• Part II: Leading and Managing the CPD of Specific Groups
• References
• Author Index
• Subject Index