Some thought inspired by John Tomsett

This much I know about - Love Over Fear: Creating a culture for truly great teaching

John Tomsett (2015)

Having had John Tomsett’s book on my Amazon Wish list, I eventually downloaded the Kindle version, which to be honest is not my favourite way to read an education text as I prefer to be able to write on books, as I argue/agree with the author, although my own kids tell me off for this!! This book is a wonderful read, both from an educational perspective and also a human perspective, John is very honest in his reflections and engaging in his writing.

The clinching line for me is “fundamentally students need to feel loved” (p64). Isn’t that so true? and not just for our student! If you examine your core values somewhere lurking there is a love for children and an honest ambition to try to help them be the best they can be, this is all bound up in the complex things called ‘relationships’. In an accountability age,  instead of measuring students’ progress and attainment,  we need to focus on the ‘human activity’ of showing love for our students and their lives, as John says “the relationship between teachers and student is fundamental to whether a student learns” (p13).

We need to ensure that the ethos of our schools supports teachers to help our students to become successful individuals. Having worked in the same school with three different headteachers I know that the ethos and culture is very strongly influenced by leadership. Unfortunately, in some schools the culture is not positive, usually driven by an managerial accountability agenda that is not compatible with quality experience for students and teachers. John puts it thus, “until educators accept the fact that fear and quality work are incompatible, there can be no real improvement in the quality of the educational system” (p90), insightful and honest but who is listening?

The value leadership teams place on professional learning is fundamental to the culture of professional trust and “we need to foster a growth culture which is founded upon the belief that all of us can improve” (p26). Once the premise of improvement is agreed then each establishment should “define what great teaching is in their context and target all their CPD to this end” (p155). This is so important that we learn to be confident in our own context and respond to the needs of the students and not cherry pick or ‘grab and go’ with ‘what works’ but find out what do we need to change before we decide how to make that change and sustain it. For teachers, the buzz around research and using research should “address questions to which teachers really need an answer” (p178), again how sensible that we look at our context first and not always look outward for solutions. We are professionals and need to be confident that we are doing the ‘right thing’ for our students and most importantly, teachers need to stop asking for permission to make a change.

I wish more headteachers would follow in John’s confident footsteps and take responsibility for their own context and not become enactors of policy but instead be creators of happy, confident, successful students and teachers. I love the quote from Mike Hughes’s that John uses to shield him from educational fads,

“the most effective leaders seem to have erected a sheet of Polaroid across the school gates: all the confusing, paradoxical and frustrating initiatives hitting the school, as they pass through the Polaroid, emerge as parallel lines, harmonious with our plans and processes”

I really enjoyed this book and found it to be refreshing and heart-warming and I would recommend it to you.

References
John Tomsett  (2015) This much I know about  - Love Over Fear : Creating a culture for truly great teaching, Crown House publishing limited, UK

Mike Hughes, Tweaks to transform. Improving Teaching: A practical Handbook for School Leaders (London:continuum-3PL, 2002)

How can GTC Scotland support my engagement with research?

GTCS acknowledges that finding resources to support practitioner enquiry can be difficult if you do not have access to a University library.  To support teachers, GTCS have purchased resources which can be accessed by any teacher registered with the GTC Scotland.

The EBSCO resources are:

Education Source – EBSCO

Education Source – EBSCO provides access to over 1,700 education journals.

Some journals provide full text access (you can download the full article as a PDF or view online). However, some journals provide restricted or 'embargo' access to the most recent issues. You will find that these journals will only let you see the abstracts of the articles published in the last 12 months. There are some journals that only offer 'abstract only'.

The Leadership and Management Learning Centre

The LMLC provides resources specifically related to issues of leadership and management. This includes journal articles, eBooks and video resource content.

Ebooks

We have purchased a range of eBooks which have been categorised under the following broad research themes, they relate to key aspects of the Standards.

Education HUB

EducationHUB is an interactive online platform that provides an opportunity for education practitioners to share, discuss and review unpublished practitioner produced research and enquiry.

EducationHUB provides a framework and guidance for any GTCS registered teacher to publish their own research work and participate in professional dialogue with their peers across Scotland. Whilst this is not a 'peer reviewed' published journal, clear criteria is provided which should help individuals consider the rigour and value of the practitioner research.

You can contribute to the EducationHUB project in two ways:

·         By publishing your own (unpublished) work to EducationHUB (research posters or summaries, practitioner enquiry articles, dissertations, theses, etc.)

·         Reading, reviewing and discussing articles

Navigating the GTCS website to access the on-line support:

Load the GTCS website

Click the Research Tab

Click Online Access to Education Journals

Log in my GTCS

REMEMBER: Your username is your six-digit GTCS registration number (without the forward slash). The Date of Birth format is DD/MM/YYYY.

Click into Research

Scroll down to:

‒    Education Source

Visit Education Source – EBSCO for articles and journals.

‒    Leadership and management learning centre (LMLC)

Browse by theme.

‒       eBooks

                List of ebooks or browse by theme.

 Next week starting the 26^th October, the GTCS Research Engagement Group will host a slow chat (Monday – Wednesday) to discuss how teachers are using Education Source – EBSCO, LMLC, ebooks and the Education HUB to support their professional learning.

Join the conversation by following the hashtag #GTCSpl or better still use one of the resources and share your thoughts and learning.

Are we professionals or are we policy enactors?

The flagship policy of the Scottish Attainment Challenge with its laudable aspiration to raise the level of achievement and attainment for all pupils across Scotland cannot be argued with. However how this policy is being pursued within Scottish education could lead to tensions between the ideas of teachers as professionals versus teachers as policy enactors.

The Government has ploughed funding into the Scottish Attainment Challenge and will use the lesson learned from London Challenge to raise attainment for all, here. The tension arises when one of the first projects announced by the Scottish Government is standardised testing for primary pupils, here. The First Minister in launching this proposal is quoted to have said

"The basic purpose of the improvement framework will be to provide clarity on what we are seeking to achieve and allow us to measure clearly where we're succeeding and where we still need to do more” and  "by doing that, it will enable us to raise standards more quickly.”

This is countered in the public press by Stephen Curran, Glasgow City Council's executive member for education, here, as he warns of the creation of league tables by those out with Government as a means to control the attainment agenda and the First Minister accepted this could happen. How this plays out raises tensions for teachers as in imposing standardised testing treats teachers as policy enactor and does not take into account that teachers are professionals.

The notion of professionalism is a contested one, Torabain (2014:46) drawing on the work of Hargreaves, Whitty and Sachs, outlines some of the traits of teacher professionalism as “autonomous discretion, extended specialised training, social prestige, reasonable income, ethical codes of conduct and active unions”. Geopel concedes that there are ‘competing versions of teacher professionalism’ (Whitty 2000:282) and the views are not static. Instead they are influences by government, policy and the profession as well both the public and the media.

 ‘Autonomous discretion’ is important to teachers as they feel that teaching is more than enacting policy. Policy enactment gives a mechanistic approach to teaching and most teachers are rightly also concerned with the social and emotional aspects of teaching. Policy enactment limits autonomy by prescribing ‘best practice’ without taking into consideration context. It focuses on young people’s economic capital as we guide them through exams to support them be ‘market ready’ post 16. Thus as discussed by Torabian (2104:54) “teacher professionalism then is a form of professional control of teachers to ensure services to those in power rather than a way to stress the inherent qualities of teaching (Ozga, 1995).”

 Alongside autonomy is accountability. Teachers recognise that they have public accountability as they are public servants. Teachers are accountable to the Government as they through local authorities pay the salaries of teachers and in times of austerity when there are lower public budgets, teachers along with all other service providers, come under more scrutiny as ‘best value’ is sought.

 Part of being a professional means that each teachers has both an internal and external accountability system. This accountability systems requires balancing the moral and ethical stance of the individual within the collective of the profession against external performance accountability by Government, in the form of data, including young people’s attainment and achievement. In other words, professional conduct balanced against enacting policy with limited criticality. Mausethagen (2013:425) draws on the work of Charlton (2002) when he states that “accountability is closely related to responsibility, trustworthiness and being answerable to one’s actions” and Biesta (2004, 2010) when he goes on to say that “teacher responsibility can be conceptualized as teachers’ ‘internal accountability’ in terms…of being accountable to students, parents and the wider public”. External accountability tends to be more mechanistic, technically defined and measured by limited data sources. However, there is a balance to be made in the internal and external accountability system for teachers as they balance their needs as an autonomous professional with expertise, skills and abilities that have been developed and honed, with the needs of the government to provide public accountability for the expenses of education and also the social and economic capital being built by the young people of Scotland.

 The politicising of the education agenda is a fundamental aspect of how the government and teaching profession engage with each other and the level of trust within this relationship. The relationship between successive governments and the teaching profession stem from the different objectives each holds and is viewed from differing perspectives.

 This raises the tension between the purpose of education and the purpose of schooling and how ‘professional’ teachers are ‘allowed’ to be. Teachers use their professionalism to guard against policy enactment that does not align with their values and leads to as Torabian (2104:55) states “strategic compliance (Shain & Gleeson, 1999), but not total obedience”

 References

Biesta, G. (2004). Education, accountability, and the ethical demand: Can the democratic potential of accountability be regained? Educational Theory, 54(3), 18.

 Biesta, G. (2010). Good education in an age of measurement. Ethics, politics, democracy. Colorado: Paradigm Publishers.

Charlton, B. G. (2002). Audit, accountability, quality and all that: The growth of managerial technologies in UK Universities. In S. Prickett & P. Erskine-Hill (Eds.), Education! Education! Education! Managerial Ethics and the Law of Unintended Consequences. England: Imprint Academic.

Geopel, J. (2012) Upholding public trust: an examination of teacher professionalism and the use of Teachers’ Standards in England: Teacher Development; Nov2012, Vol. 16 Issue 4, p489-505

 Mausethagen, S. (2013) Accountable for what and to whom? Changing representations and new legitimation discourses among teachers under increased external control; Journal of Educational Change; Nov2013, Vol. 14 Issue 4, p423-444

Ozga, J. (1995). Deskilling a profession: professionalism, de-professionalisation and the new managerialism. In H. Busher and R. Saran (eds). Managing Teachers as Professionals in Schools. London: Kogan Page.

Torabain, E. (2014) WTO/GATS and the global governance of education: A holistic analysis of its impacts on teachers' professionalism, Educate, Vol 14, Issue 3, p44-59

Whitty, G. 2000. Teacher professionalism in new times. Journal of In-Service Education 26,

no. 2: 281–5.

 

 

 

 

 

Lesson Study

Friday 2^nd October I had an early start to get to Imperial College London for 9.30 a.m. to attend the Lesson Study London Conference with another 350 delegates.

If you haven't heard about Lesson study, here is a link to Lesson Study.co.uk

Prof. Charles Desforges, Emeritus Professors University of Exeter, opened the conference and discussed how he thought that Lesson Study was the ‘most promising approach to Professional Learning’ as it closes the gap between teaching and learning. He went on the say that, we, as educators, need to deepen our understanding of learning and Lesson Study provides a vehicle to do this.

 Employing a Lesson Study approach allows teachers to start where the learner is in their learning, and then build on this. It supports teachers to thinking about ‘thinking’ by being ‘intellectually active’ and learn new skills through the feedback within the trio. This is consistent with the Teacher Learning Community approach and always work best when teachers have ‘choice’ about their focus, taking responsibility and being accountable for their own learning. This, in turn, leads to a happier workforce who feel they have ownership of their own learning and are not relying on inputs from other sources. The learning for teachers comes through the sharing of the process and is a powerful tool to support improvement. Greater impact could be achieved if a more systemic approach were adopted, where all teachers use evidence as part of the ‘craft repertoire’ to build a learning experience for pupils which will improve life chances.

 A more radical concept of bringing in the students as collaborators on the learning was touched on. I like this idea as we know all children love to learn and will be persistent in learning given the correct circumstances. The example used to illustrate this point was street children, who show amazing entrepreneurial spirit and learn complex business models without formal education. So children know about learning, we need to help them and teachers need to develop new vocabulary to talk to each other about learning. In schools we become too abstract too quickly, pulling analogies and references to illustrate the point when we should perhaps be context driven and make the learning relevant.

 We need to consider different forms of learning and the challenge each brings;

Form of Learning                                              Challenge

Incremental/accumulation                          link new to old

             Practice                                                           speed based: reflection
             Enrichment/application                                promote active knowledge base,,
                                                                                        application skills, 'can-do' attitude  
             Re-structuring/re-thinking                           hypothesis testing
             Revision                                                           all of the above

 

Prof Desforges finished by saying that Lesson Study is “potentially the most powerful form of CPD for classroom practice and learning”.

 In Workshop 1, Sarah Selenznyov, programme leader from IOE discussed how she supported the evaluation of the London School Excellence Fund project to develop leadership in lesson study, led by the Rosendale Children’s’ Centre. The project involved teachers from Lambeth Council developing leaders of lesson study. The initial method of developing leaders was through the Cascade model.

Each cycle considered two questions;

Ideally, what qualities will students have when they graduate from our school?

What are the actual qualities of our students now?

Akin to one of Covey’s Habits of Effective People ‘begin with the end in mind ‘.

 The support and challenge for teachers is least often discussed but is probably the most important aspect, in this model it was found that it was better to go bottom to top rather than the more usual professional learning model of top to bottom. Again the importance of the language to articulate learning was highlighted as a skill that teachers need to continually improve.

 Within Lesson Study the role of Koshi (expert) is crucial to support and challenge the trio by coaching and showing a high degree of emotional intelligence. The Koshi who uses questioning and listening skills very well to improve the experience and outcomes for the teachers and thus the pupils.

 The main challenges found were the commitment of the SLT. This commitment comes in many forms but the biggest barrier is when time is not given to support Lesson Study. This enquiry model requires dedicated time for planning and evaluation. If this is not available then the impact will reduce as teachers then pay lip service to the methodology and do not change their practice.

 On a gloriously sunny October day sitting outside I have a quick lunchtime chat with David Weston. We chewed the fat around some commonalities and spaces where Scottish and English educators can support each other and collaborate.

 Workshop 2 was ‘How teachers learn in lesson study: results of Cambridge research into teachers learning through talk’.

The study involved 60 schools, the researchers recorded and analysed the evaluation talk of each lesson cycle to focus in on how talk was used as a ‘social mode of thinking’. The researchers analysed the talk into two moves, dialogic moves and supportive moves. The conversations were very revealing in the nature of emotional input from the teachers. The teachers observed initially felt exposed and needed reassurance and ‘permission’ about the lesson. Once trios were established this type of conversation moved from the personal to more professional and the language moved to descriptive processes and interpretative processes of evaluating lessons.

 Final address was from Professor Christine Kim-Eng Lee from National Institute of Education, Singapore, she discussed how lesson study was being implemented in Singapore to improve outcomes for our 21^st century learners. The Ministry of Education, Singapore, have detailed a list of 21^st century competencies.

“Globalisation, changing demographics and technological advancements are some of the key driving forces of the future. Our students will have to be prepared to face these challenges and seize the opportunities brought about by these forces.

To help our students thrive in a fast-changing world, MOE has identified competencies that have become increasingly important in the 21st Century. These competencies, represented in the following framework, underpin the holistic education that our schools provide to better prepare our students for the future. It is envisaged that schools and parents need to work hand-in-hand to help our students develop these 21st Century Competencies.”

Framework for 21^st Century Competencies and Student Outcomes

http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/21cc/

Familiar???

Professor Lee spent some time discussing what were the benefits and challenges.

The perceived benefits were;

Curricular knowledge improved

Understanding of student learning

Opportunities to learn from colleague

The perceived challenges were;

Competing demands of time

Capacity of teachers to facilitate

Lack of tools/artefacts to support teachers

Lack of Koshi

Teacher ownership

 Overall an enjoyable day, with key messages about the power of Lesson Study if it is done well and time is devoted to allowing this approach to become embedded practice. But the questions to be addressed are around building capacity in teachers, finding Kochi who can support and we need to develop our skills in how we talk about learning.

Scottish Learning Festival #SLF15

Day 1

Excitement on the train as I head towards Glasgow to my second ever Scottish Learning Festival

 

When I arrived after a slight hiccup at Central Station, I couldn’t find platform 17 to get the train out to the SECC! I joined my GTCS colleagues at our stand in the show village.

Lots of interesting stuff in how PLAN C can support teachers of computer science to adapt pedagogy to make the learning up to date and relevant. Commonality in all STEM subjects are the language barriers from natural to formal language.

 Next stop keynote from Angela Constance MSP

Great aspirations for our education system but how do we achieve this?

The idea of sharing your inspirational teacher is wonderful but will that encourage more people to teach? It is always good to hear the direction of travel but the devil is in the detail!

After a wee stint on the GTCS stand – which was great fun, I went to hear Education Scotland’s take on Transforming Learning and Teaching for the 21^st Century.

I am liking the phrase (below) repeated a few times throughout the festival by Education Scotland

It just reminds us to be continually looking for improvements, some may be small incremental, some may be a whole cultural change but who can help us improve our practice to be the best we can be.

 

Next stop was to support the boss @GTCS_Tom and Lindsey

Before I worked with GTCS I had an ‘itch’ around values, I think we need to discuss our values more, make them more up front and be honest about what it means to be a teacher. What behaviours, dispositions and actions are essential for us to say we are ‘professional’ and what is the basis of our not only ‘why did you come into teaching?’ but then ‘why do you stay in teaching?’

Explicitly linking my journey with values I then attended Learning for Sustainability. LfS is not just Eco schools, outdoor learning, getting your hands dirty (I don’t do dirty hands!) but the values that underlie our practice who we are as teachers, the commitment to social justice, trust and respect, integrity and professionalism. 

And so bring to an end day 1 of the Scottish Learning Festival. I decided to go to the #SFLteachmeet to lurk and listen to colleagues discussing their practice, and having a chat with @MissJ0nes about the forthcoming Pedagoo #enquirymeet.

Day 2
My joy for today was I got to stand up all day and talk to people! Yeh! I know it sounds lame but going from school into an office environment it is amazing the things you miss!

Day 2 started with the HGIOS 4 launch, I am always interested in the partnership model and how the is achieved in the ‘real’ world. The aspiration cannot be argued with but within the busyness of school and learning and teaching how do we create time, space and energy to create and sustain partnerships

What do we need to stop/change doing to create the space for partnerships?

HGIOS 4 looks like an excellent tool for self-evaluation and was described by @GTCS Ellen as a ‘white shark’, it looks beautiful and impressive but has teeth to get into what we need to do to support improvement.

For the rest of the day I was at the GTCS stand talking with practitioners, aspiring practitioners and being asked mental maths questions by some primary pupils. @MartinOsler was impressed with the mental maths, he had to do the calculation and share his thinking then he was ‘schooled’ in different ways to do mental maths by 8 year olds! Great learning and sharing learning strategies.

For me, a great couple of days, my highlight was being on the GTCS stand, being able to talk with teacher and other educators, it is such a buzz to share learning experiences and help dispel some myths around Professional Update.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Professional Conduct and Ethical Decision Making

Most professions have a clear and transparent set of agreed ethical principles that is agreed upon and adhered to by the members of that profession which guides their decision making.

For teachers in Scotland this can be found in key documents;

·         Code of Professionalism and Conduct (CoPAC)

o   Sets out the “key principles and values for registered teachers in Scotland” (p4) giving “a baseline professional standard”. CoPAC links teachers fitness-to-teach with public accountability and gives guidance on the behaviours, skills and dispositions expected of teachers.

·         Social Justice Social Justice Professional Values and Personal CommitmentTheme 1: Professional Values and Personal Commitment within

o   Standard for Registration

o   Standard for Career-long Professional Learning

o   Standard for Leadership and Management

Professional Conduct is a complex area as teachers have to examine their attitudes, beliefs and professional relationships. They have to consider their own belief system and how their attitudes and behaviours impact on their practice and also how they conduct themselves in a professional arena. Some teachers find they have a poor understanding of themselves, themselves as a teachers and the responsibility that is entailed within this role. Some fail to live up to the expectation of the profession and are challenged by the professional responsibility and personal integrity that must be evident in their practice. The restrictions on teachers in conduct, both in an educational environment but also in their own personal lives, may be an issue and teachers can find themselves being constrained or confronted by the obligations to model moral conduct that befits a person in a position of trust and respect. From personal experience, those who do not have the ‘required’ values or behaviours have to be respectfully challenged. This can lead to situations that are emotionally fraught as it can be very difficult to challenge a long held view or core trait that composes that person as an individual. However, if this is not challenged, are we really carrying out our professional duty of care to the individual?

Professional Conduct is rarely given space to be discussed throughout a teacher’s career, spanning ITE through to exiting the profession. However our ethical decision making and professional conduct underpins our relationships with student, colleagues, parents and partners, so is it not worth discussing? If we neglect our ethical decision making and professional conduct we become victims to interpretation where teachers become selective in the rights and responsibilities they enact in their classrooms. Opportunities to explore ethical decision making and professional conduct through time during in-service would support teachers to re-construct their professional identities. Teachers would be made uncomfortable and be challenged by some ethical dilemmas and therefore may choose not to engage.  Of greater importance however, is the responsibility for those delivering the in-service to also demonstrate professional conduct and a commitment to supporting teachers develop their own critical awareness of ethical decision-making.

 

 

 

 

A Book that Changed my Teacher Journey

My favourite book that has ‘disrupted my thinking’ and changed the direction of travel as a teacher is ‘Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher’, Brookfield, (1995).

You know when a book arrives through the post and you unpack it and flick through it; well, I had read the first two chapters before I knew it and was excitedly telling my daughter all about it while she rolled her eyes!

For me, Brookfield gave me ‘permission to question’. Chapter 2 “Becoming Critically Reflective: A Process of Learning and Change” discusses how we need to;

“find lenses that reflect back to us stark and differently highlighted picture of who we are and what we do” (p28)

This stopped me in my tracks and took a little bit of thinking, not so much in the validity of the statement but how can I do this? What other lenses are available? Do I create my own? Do I borrow? What other perspectives are valid? Which aren’t as valid but are worthy? What am I missing? Brookfield goes on to discuss four lenses which are autobiographical, students, colleagues and theoretical literature. These lenses helped me to ‘challenge my assumptions’ and to support me as a reflective practitioner, to stop and analyse situations from multiple views before making big or small decisions. Please don’t think that I am so tied up in viewing through multiple lenses that I become incapable of acting but it becomes a’ habit of mind’ to take a wider perspective and very quickly make an informed decision that takes into consideration than more than one point of reference.

In chapter 9 ‘Storming the Citadel – Reading Theory Critically’ Brookfield discusses how you can use educational literature to;

“investigate the hunches, instincts, and tactic knowledge that shape our practice” as this leads to a “understand better what we already do and think” (p185)

This was my validation and permission to pursue what I ‘thought’ was right but had not had the confidence to put out there. There are so many endorsements within this chapter which supported my dispositions in teaching and leading such as (p186)

Theory lets us ‘name ‘our practice

Works wonders for our morale and self confidence

Theory breaks the circle of familiarity

I felt Brookfield was speaking directly to me and supporting me to discuss education from a theoretical point, affirming my instincts as a teacher and leader, to use research to provoke and challenge current practice, both my own and practices within my learning community.

In this chapter Brookfield goes on to discuss how literature can be engaged with, to develop a criticality of mind so that when I read an article I engage by questioning and do not accept the ‘facts’ without interrogation of  the purpose, the voice being heard, the validity of the methodology, ethical and moral issues, the bias.

“To be critically reflective teacher means that we regard both our personal and collective experiences and our reading of formal theory, research or philosophy an important elements in our critical journey” (p194)

If you are starting on the journey of engaging with educational literature, I would recommend this book as a great starting point.