Train

To meet the challenge of teaching so that every single student in a class learns, we face the challenge of ensuring that our colleagues are active learners. David Weston was close to getting it right when he said, “If we are going to have more schools where teachers keep improving, we need to [make] staff learning just as much of a priority as student learning”. I say David was close to getting it right, because what we really need to do is put teacher learning first, and then, when our teachers become increasingly good teachers, our students will make even better progress.

Any teacher, at any stage of his or her career, has to accept, continuously, the professional obligation to improve his or her teaching. Period. And once the teacher has accepted that obligation, the school has to accept the responsibility of providing the very best teacher learning opportunities. School leaders cannot just wish teachers to improve their teaching.

School leaders have to put their staff’s learning needs first, before those of the students. It is the most effective way of creating an expert teaching team.

So, what does such a professional learning programme look like?

First, you have to make the time for teachers to improve their practice. Teacher learning time has to be woven into the fabric of a school’s structure. Any logistical hurdles can be overcome if providing time for staff to work on their practice is genuinely prioritised. Tom Bentley said at a NCTL conference in 1996 that “once you have found your core purpose, change your school’s existing structures to accommodate your core purpose rather than accommodate your core purpose around your existing structures”. If the development of teaching and learning is your priority, you have to find the hours during the school week for your staff to work on their practice. No ifs, no buts. You must not expect them to do it all in their own time.

Beyond finding the time for teachers to focus upon their learning, you need to ensure that you provide high quality training. If improving the quality of teaching is so difficult, then you need to follow two principles when designing teacher learning opportunities. Firstly, you need to scrutinise diagnostically the impact that current teaching is having upon students’ learning in order to identify as well as you possibly can which specific area of practice requires improvement; secondly, you need to turn to educational research to see what the evidence says has the best chance of working within the area of your practice you have identified warrants improvement.