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Holding up the mirror … Dear Cleo: developing expertise through analysis of and reflection on critical learning episodes Graham Carter & Carolyn Nye City of Bristol College. What should CPD be about?. CPD has tended to be - prescriptive of practice Dear Cleo is intended to be -
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Holding up the mirror … Dear Cleo: developing expertise through analysis of and reflection on critical learning episodes Graham Carter & Carolyn Nye City of Bristol College
What should CPD be about? CPD has tended to be - prescriptive of practice Dear Cleo is intended to be - descriptive of practice
Derek Betts co-founder of and consultant to the Institute for Learning (IfL) • 3 principles for CPD • It is outcomes focussed - it is more concerned with impact than input • It is focussed on the individual, developing capacity person by person, but drawing on the collaborative, the community as much as possible • It is about keeping the teacher in control
DEAR CLEO – aims and objectives • encourage experienced teachers to engage critically with their own practice from a position of expertise • provide professional development which is genuinely ‘continuing’ • connect teaching practice to concepts in the research literature • provide teaching staff with research methods training, particularly data analysis • establish a framework in which professional expertise is shared among staff and new contacts are made
What is a CLE? • a segment of interaction in the classroom in which the following three characteristics can be identified: • boundaries • centre of gravity • significance
It’s worth seeing • Teacher is eliciting from students the types of film they like seeing as • introduction to work on writing film reviews. Several students have offered • their views and St 1 is talking about how she decides which film to see. • 1 S – I ask a friend if it’s worth to see • 2 T - …worth seeing • 3 S - …if it’s worth seeing • 4 T – yes • 5 S – [slight hesitation] Not ‘worth to see’? • T – No [shaking head] • S – I ask a friend if it’s worth seeing • T – OK [nodding head] … now, how about you Maria? … • S – [writes correct structure in notebook]
Structure Initial meeting Participating teachers and project staff to discuss timetable, concepts and aims Session 1 Key concepts outlined, research frameworks and tools presented In between Participating teachers are observed & filmed by one of the project leads for 1 hour during a normal teaching session. One (or more) CLE is identified by the observers – an email exchange is then initiated in order to develop analysis of the episode jointly constructed by the observer and teacher
Session 2 Analysis & discussion of CLEs are presented to the groups by the observers and participants in between participants identify CLEs during their own practice and enter into email exchanges with a buddy for analysis Session 3 participants present & discuss their analyses in between participants evaluate the project in term of it fulfilling its aims
Session 4 Input session re the Craft of teaching, followed by group discussion of experiences and an evaluation of the project. What next? After participants write a 500-700 word essay on the Nature of my Expertise
Stumbling Blocks • Personal • Lack of readiness to engage in reflective practice & insight into own practice • Risk of lack of depth of analysis during sessions – too polite? • Lack of engagement with theoretical frameworks in analysis of episodes • Interference of previous CPD expectations • Maintaining commitment to project between sessions and fulfilling obligations – blog, the buddy system and email discussion • Indefinite outcomes – where’s the product? What’s in it for me? • How will I profit?
Administrative • The CLE – lack of clear definition and inability to recognise one • Group need to see leaders as experts rather than facilitators • Pressure of time due to work commitments and demands of private life • Non-attendance at sessions • Balance between making the project worth committing to • and being too onerous for participants to complete • Participation of non-ESOL teachers
quotations from participants (from Reflections on the Nature of my Expertise) This research project has reassured me that there is some value in our hard won craft. Episode analysis has raised my awareness of the notion of teaching as craft and, thus, a sense of the value of my own expertise. I believe the really useful part of this project came from the recognition that teaching is not just about lesson plans and schemes of work, but is more about the way students and teachers interact and the skills teachers develop to make this relationship work.
….. the analysis of even the smallest episodes, with my partner’s help, has had a powerful ripple effect and has challenged some of my very basic, almost unconscious assumptions. Having the freedom to follow where questions lead, rather than any prescribed syllabus, is a rare and positive event I like the idea that one can notice many things from a specific episode … and read typical patterns of behaviour into a few moments
final thoughts ‘It is clear that this project has opened up far more questions than it has answered. What should you do to encourage efficient learning? Well, it all depends…’
