There are many types of continuing professional development (CPD). Identifying different kinds of activity that constitute CPD will give you a clear picture of the different forms CPD can take, including opportunities you may have overlooked or not been aware of. Some opportunities are more cost effective than others and it’s important to be realistic about what your school can afford.
Opportunities for individuals
Examples include:
- reading books, periodicals and the educational press
- self-directed study
- watching programmes (eg Teachers TV)
- keeping a learning log or reflective diary
Opportunities within school
These enable staff to learn with and from each other, and from their pupils. As a CPD leader you can help staff identify colleagues who have skills and experience they can pass on. Advice and suggestions from experienced, or particularly skilled, colleagues can help other staff gain new skills and improve their performance.
Examples include:
- working with different colleagues
- coaching or mentoring
- buddying
- peer support and networking
- professional development days
- staff or team meetings
- observation, such as watching a colleague teach a lesson
- discussing a lesson or group activity
- collaborative planning
- teaching as a team
- listening to pupils’ views
- observing pupils
- trying to see school life through the eyes of a pupil
- action research and school-based enquiry
- trying new ways of working
- taking on a new role on a temporary basis to find out what it involves
- providing advice and support to colleagues, particularly those on initial teacher training placements, early career teachers and new members of staff
Opportunities through cross-school networks
Cross-school collaboration provides opportunities to share and develop good practice.
Cross-school networks include:
- formal or informal networks
- visits to schools similar, or different, to your own
- online discussion forums, such as the Times Educational Supplement online staffroom
- working with staff from other schools
- job swapping between schools for a short period of time
- shadowing colleagues with similar roles in other schools
- networks of local schools or ones set up for a specific project
- developing people from other schools
Accessing further expertise
External continuing professional development opportunities can provide a source of expertise not available within the school.
Examples include:
- one-day events
- courses leading to a qualification or status
- blended learning programmes, combining external expertise with school-based activity
- conferences
- working with, or seeking advice from, consultants, local authorities or community groups, universities, Government agencies and professional associations
See also
