…begins with support.
Hello all. This is our 100th edition of this newsletter! And we are very proud and happy of how consistently we have put up quality material weekly. But your support and encouragement have been instrumental in giving us the energy to write even on difficult days. This week’s edition is about how teacher professional development should look if it is well rounded, accountable and supportive. We lay out our model of a good teacher professional development ecosystem.
We have been writing about Teacher Professional Development (TPD) for years now. We have worked with more than 50,000 teachers across the country, from rural government schools to urban elite private schools, from state board to CBSE to IB and IGCSE, from preschool right up to class 12 (and a few sessions with teachers of undergraduate courses as well). It would be fair to say that we have had a decent amount of experience working with teachers from almost all parts of India (and a few other countries). Given the variety that we see in teacher experiences, lifestyles, exposure, technology use, and socio-economic location, it would be hard to pin down one strategy that works for all. At the same time, we expect teachers to do the same with a little or no support.
So what does a good TPD ecosystem look like?
Pedagogical expertise needs to be as important as subject matter expertise.
Consistent and frequent check-ins with teachers are paramount
Support and accountability should be in the right proportion.
Which should lead to:
A culture of continuous learning and growth mindset.
Making new habits and breaking old habits.
Trust in the process and the people involved.
And of course the main goal of all of this is to ensure that students learn deeper and remember for longer.
To operationalise this, we chose the exposure-practice-observation-feedback model.
Exposure
We need to ensure that teachers have the knowledge, skills and attitudes to ensure better learning for students. For example, if a school is looking to move some of their curriculum to be taught in a project-based learning (PBL) approach, then it is important that teachers are first aware of what project-based learning is and how it manifests for their subject and for their students.
Awareness
At this step, teachers are exposed to new knowledge or skills. They get familiar with it. They understand the basics of it. Taking the example of PBL again, here the teachers need to understand the main components of PBL, understand what skills they will need to take the PBL approach to class, what a PBL class looks like, and so on.
Understanding
This next step is for teachers to go deeper with the topic – PBL. And answer questions like, ‘What does PBL look like for my subject? What are the topics in my subject that would benefit from a PBL approach? What skills or knowledge will my students need before they can be exposed to the PBL approach?’
Engagement
After understanding the topic (here, PBL) deeply and also understanding the topic in their specific contexts, it is important that teachers plan out a PBL lesson. So essentially, apply what they have learned to a real lesson.
Exposure to new teaching strategies for teachers comes from what they may read or listen to. We have created courses (in-person and online) to help teachers get exposure to multiple pedagogical approaches, classroom management techniques, and many more. Online sessions are particularly good for the awareness stage, while in-person sessions are better for understanding and engagement. We also have online resources for teachers to help with their lesson planning.
Practice
Once the teachers are confident to try out their newly formed lesson in class, they need to do it immediately. The more they practise, the better they will get at it. The more they practise, the better they understand what works for their students, what does not, and what they can do to make their teaching more effective for student learning.
Trying it out and practising in the classroom also builds confidence in teachers. During this time, support for the teachers is important. Creating a space and budgeting time for conversations on what is working and what is not, among the teachers, and less frequently with the experts is a good idea.
Observation
Classroom observations are a must to ensure that the teachers are actually implementing the ideas that were discussed in the TPD courses or other sessions. It not only holds the teachers accountable, but also the trainers/experts. If the teachers are not able to implement the discussed techniques in class, then the trainers need to figure out a way to solve this.
Feedback
Apart from accountability, observations also help in supporting teachers. When school leaders, section heads or even external experts observe teachers, they can help them out by giving them feedback from an outsider’s point of view.
It is good if the feedback is as objective as possible and comes with possible solutions to the issues that may have been observed. As alluded to earlier, the feedback is also to the school management and experts as to how the TPD plan should look like in the upcoming year. For example, if the teachers are facing issues with assessments when they are using the PBL approach, then assessments in PBL should be the focus for next year’s TPD. If the teachers are struggling with classroom management, whether they use direct instruction or PBL, then the school should take a step back and focus on building a good foundation of classroom management to make PBL more effective.
The last three steps - practice, observation and feedback - ensure that the TPD programme is integrated into the school system.
We have been building this ecosystem for the last few years. And this month, we have put an important piece of this ecosystem in place – online TEPS Courses. Please go check it out, we are continuously putting out new courses there!
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Edition: 4.07
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