Putting the new DfE Standard for Teachers’ Professional Development in context
Most teachers have a love-hate relationship with continuing professional development (CPD) and it’s often because they feel unsatisfied with existing CPD methods. We all know professional development for teachers is important and when it’s well delivered and thought out it can be inspiring, energising and impactful. But we regularly hear dissatisfied teachers’ complaints that the training isn’t relevant or personalised enough, and that CPD is a time consuming box ticking exercise.
Arguably, the frustration around CPD training is caused by a lack of formal guidance on what good CPD looks like. This makes it extremely difficult for schools and teachers to identify and pick good high quality CPD that’s relevant for individual needs and career progression. The good news is that, thanks to the excellent work that David Weston and the Teachers’ Professional Development Expert Group have been doing, there is now a strong, shared definition for effective CPD. These standards focus on the quality of CPD, but by design don’t focus on linking CPD specifically to the specific needs that education professionals face at different stages of their careers, and in different roles.
With little to no formal guidance available on how teachers can, and should, use professional development, we’ve created our own draft set of teacher CPD standards within a progressive framework. We’ll be using these standards within our own course development and delivery, but our standards are designed to help any teachers and schools to identify knowledge gaps and plot relevant CPD learning to ensure individualised development and progression. These standards will dovetail with the new Department for Education (DfE) Standard for Teachers’ Professional Development, providing a training based framework for effective professional development.
You can read more about the standards here.