Diminishing real-terms pay. Unmanageable workloads. Challenging student behaviour. Ofsted pressures…The list of reasons given for the recruitment and retention crisis in teaching seems endless and leads to over 30 per cent of teachers leaving the profession within the first five years.
And, while many factors undoubtedly contribute to this, one critical issue often goes overlooked: the ongoing training and development of teachers.
Failure to provide high-quality continuing professional development (CPD) can lead to teachers feeling undertrained and unsupported, and ultimately results in us losing great people from the profession.
A recent survey of over 9,000 teachers shows that attitudes about the impact of CPD on performance are not positive. The survey asked whether CPD helped to improve their performance; a quarter of teachers said it had not.
We need to think harder about who’s teaching the teachers and how we can ensure they are doing it effectively.
Despite our best efforts, teachers often feel like professional development is something to endure, rather than a process designed to help them reach the peak of teaching proficiency.
And when you look at the time and the costs of CPD, it all adds up and can paint a pretty gloomy picture. Across the sector, we invest millions of pounds and many more hours on professional development, without always seeing a return on this investment.
So…what is the solution?
The power of instructional coaching
Both of us have seen the impact of instructional coaching first-hand in recent years.
We’ve been able to implement this at scale, particularly as a result of the national infrastructure around initial teacher training, the Early Career Framework and national professional qualifications.
But many teachers are still missing out on effective CPD, so it’s important to have an approach that can be implemented at a school level, in a way that doesn’t rely on external consultants or experts.
At its core, instructional coaching is the process of regular, low-stakes lesson visits (10-15 minutes a week) followed by a short but focused conversation aimed at honing specific knowledge and skills.
At its best, it is a responsive, dynamic and stimulating approach to professional development that is highly valued by teachers across all stages of expertise.
And the evidence base is strong. In 2007, a review of 31 studies found instructional coaching boosted student achievement by about four months. Another study, this time from 2019, found that instructional coaching helped teachers make dramatically more progress than a group receiving the same content through traditional CPD approaches.
In short, when done well, instructional coaching is best in class - outperforming other forms of professional development for teachers.
Quality mentoring is key
At Ormiston Academies Trust, developing great teaching is one of our top strategic priorities and we are implementing instructional coaching in many of our 42 schools. The key to this being successful is the quality of leadership and mentoring in our schools.
One of our assistant principals, Peter Monaghan, has been leading implementation in Ormiston’s Shelfield Community Academy. He speaks passionately about the impact so far, having trained eight coaches, each of whom is providing fortnightly coaching sessions for one or two teachers.
And while some teachers were initially a little sceptical, after just a few weeks of working with a coach they have begun to see the benefits of the process. What’s more, the school as a whole is beginning to see improvements in both behaviour and learning for their students.
But, implementing whole-school (or whole-trust) changes to professional development is not easy - and it can’t be done overnight. Effective implementation is important, and takes time and attention.
So, how do we get this right?
Across Ormiston’s schools, we’re prioritising the following 5 steps:
- Establishing a culture of trust - getting our teachers and leaders into each other’s lessons and encouraging them to share the positive things they see.
- Separating the process of professional development from performance management and removing bureaucracy wherever we can.
- Building an ethos of development with more opportunities to practise where teachers can rehearse classroom approaches in a low-stakes environment.
- Thinking hard about implementation, and understanding that in a national trust, delivery on the ground will always need to be adapted to local context.
- Investing in coaches and mentors. The success of such an approach rests heavily on the quality of teachers and leaders who have the expertise and experience to support the development of others well.
With resources so tight, it’s important we make every penny and every minute count.
And as the new government grapples with the recruitment and retention crisis in schools and looks to bring to life its manifesto promises on a professional development entitlement for teachers, instructional coaching is an approach for us to continue to learn from. Implemented well, it’s cost-effective and something teachers enjoy.
Most importantly, it helps to develop teaching that improves outcomes for children.
Josh Goodrich is founder and CEO of Steplab and author of Responsive Coaching: Evidence-Informed Instructional Coaching that Works for Every Teacher in Your School. Tom Rees is CEO of Ormiston Academies Trust
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