university.nae.school
Professional Development thoughts
Nord Anglia invests heavily in professional development across the organisation through NAU and also the activity in each of your schools and offices. It is fundamental to the organisation that our staff and students continue to develop and improve, in essence this is part of what distinguishes us from our competitors. But how do we know that the activities that we create for NAU will have that impact on student learning outcomes? After all, if they don’t have an impact why are we doing them? This question of impact has become increasingly important to the Education Team and we have been researching around this topic and developing our methods of analysis and tracking data. As part of my research I have found the CUREE report incredibly useful, it is a review of international research and practice in Educational professional development with a focus on finding which practices have the most ultimate benefit for students and learning outcomes. The report authors found that the activities which have the most impact invariably include elements of peer collaboration between staff. To be successful they must also have clearly stated learning expectations that relate to student outcomes and their focus must also be embedded in school culture. All other factors they investigated have some but not as much impact and this includes the quality of any professional development courses and learning activities that you take. The impact on student outcomes comes through your acknowledgement as a department, school, region and our organisation of the focus of professional development and where this exists professional development will be successful.
So how do we develop this impact? We work with your Principals and professional development leads to ensure that the learning that you need is available, and your school SLT have also been using the self-evaluation framework to identify student outcomes (and therefore professional development) that they will be focusing on in the coming year. Your role is to take part in the peer collaborations that are available and to ensure that you ask about the learning expectations for your professional development if they aren’t already stated to you. If you don’t understand why you are being asked to do it then it is unlikely to have a long lasting impact.
Developing great teaching – ensuring our PD has an impact on student learning outcomes
Joanna Lay
Programme Lead for NAU
Education Team