The four design principles behind our NPQs
I remember my early experiences of professional development vividly. I had a fresh notebook on the desk, a new pen in my hand. I was eager to learn, to get better as a teacher, to make a difference for the children I taught. I sat through countless training days, my peers perched at rows of desks beside me, learning about everything from SEND to how to recognise and cater for individual learning styes. I took careful and dutiful notes on the detailed explanations of the range of techniques we should be following and the eight-step theoretical models. I remember feeling slightly awestruck in one session on restorative approaches in the classroom as the trainer read out the impressive testimonials from teachers across the country for whom this strategy had worked wonders. At the end of this one-hour session, my colleagues and I were encouraged to go away and implement these practices, with the assurance that our relationships with all pupils would be transformed within days.
The hoped-for behavioural alchemy failed to take place.
I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising. We know that the most useful way to help teachers get better at teaching is through a series of incremental steps. This necessarily involves changes in teacher and leader behaviours. And we know that it is hard to change behaviours that are learnt and habitual. This helps to explain why one-off training sessions, often crammed with content, have historically failed to result in the hoped for change.
"We know that the most useful way to help teachers get better at teaching is through a series of incremental steps."
This situation is changing rapidly, given the increasing body of evidence in this area, including the 2021 guidance from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) on Effective Professional Development. This guidance talks about the efficacy of a balanced design, in which mechanisms are used from the four different forms of professional development: Build knowledge; Motivate staff; Develop teaching techniques, and; Embed practice. These core pillars underpin the design of our NPQ programmes and I’m going to share a little about them in turn.
- Building knowledge
Thinking back to my restorative practice CPD session, there were some useful and helpful nuggets of knowledge. But how those nuggets of knowledge were organised made it difficult to retain them and implement them.
The NPQs are different. The programmes are designed to help participants build their knowledge through structured frameworks called 'domains'. These domains vary in number, with specialist programmes like the leading literacy qualification having six, and broader leadership programmes having ten. We've carefully sequenced these programmes to build knowledge from the ground up, starting with a focus on implementation.
"It’s the difference between saying ‘do this, it works’ to saying ‘here’s what the evidence says. How can you make that happen in your school?’"
The programmes are designed to help people think about, and model, how they would put these nuggets into practice in their own specific context. As we know, everything works somewhere and nothing works everywhere. It’s the difference between saying ‘do this, it works’ to saying ‘here’s what the evidence says. How can you make that happen in your school?’.
It helps to reinforce that achieving positive change is hard and depends on behavioural and contextual factors as well as an understanding of the process of implementation itself. Imagining and modelling the barriers to implementation make them feel like less of a problem when you bump up against them in real life.
And while we want to leave you buzzing with new information and inspired to use it, we’ve also designed the materials with the principles of cognitive science in mind. We’ve minimised all the extraneous and unnecessary information, or elements that might cause distractions from the core knowledge we are trying to share. We focus on clear language, explanation and careful framing, all delivered by skilled facilitators who are serving school leaders themselves. This includes how new content or shared resources links to what they have already learnt. In the words of one of our participants: ‘no nonsense, straight to the good stuff’.
- Motivating teachers
When the EEF talks about motivation, its guidance suggests presenting information from a credible source. We try to ensure that we are building and maintaining credibility both through the examples we use as well as the use of research evidence.
And what we’ve learned is that while learning from external experts has its place, there is nothing more credible than being school-led: hearing something from another teacher, someone like you, dealing with the same challenges and problems. As our head of NPQs Jo Facer says: ““This is a good idea” is not nearly as compelling or useful as: “here is how I made this good idea work in my school”. Colleagues who are school based are the obvious individuals to navigate the knotty realities of schools, and share their experiences.”
This is important in helping people on our programmes to see how an evidence-informed approach can be applied in context. We also need to be careful in how we frame these examples, emphasising that we are sharing one possible approach and that there is often no definitive way of meeting a need or dealing with an issue.
We have sought to draw on research evidence in the design and delivery of our programmes so that it gives our participants the confidence that they are investing their time in content that draws on up-to-date, rigorous thinking. Each of the domain areas has an evidence base that we have developed, drawing together knowledge from trusted and credible sources. Recognising that knowledge is continually evolving, we have a programme of continuous improvement, updating the evidence base regularly to include the most relevant research
- Developing technique
Instruction, providing social support, modelling, practice and feedback are the key mechanisms that support developing technique. It is important to provide the caveat here, that the EEF guidance is primarily aimed at improving teaching, whilst our programmes also use these strategies to develop leadership skills. As a result, we are monitoring and evaluating the impact of these approaches carefully.
An approach based on deliberate practice is built into our live sessions. This is a specific model derived from the Deans for Impact model of Practice with Purpose and is based on the principles of:
- Pushing beyond one’s comfort zone; Working towards well-defined and specific goals;
- Focus intently on practice;
- Receive and respond to high quality feedback, and;
- Develop a mental model of expertise.
For example, on our Leading Literacy NPQ, one of the live sessions allows participants the time and space to plan and rehearse leading colleagues in teaching effective writing strategies. They are given detailed success criteria, opportunities for feedback and the chance to act on that feedback
- Embedding practice
It is of course important not to lose sight of the end goal of the NPQ programmes: to build and retain a workforce that is increasingly skilled in the job of providing children and young people with the best possible start in life. How we support our participants to embed evidence-informed approaches into their daily practice is a key consideration. Our programmes include both masterclasses and virtual school visits that are designed to support participants in developing their practice.
"How we support our participants to embed evidence-informed approaches into their daily practice is a key consideration"
All of the live sessions incorporate opportunities for reflection and discussion on how participants are embedding approaches, the barriers they face and the opportunity for them to share their wisdom and experience of overcoming these. Each self-study has regular points at which it asks people to consider how the content they are engaging with can be applied in practice, who they could work with and the steps they would need to take.
Our leadership programmes include coaching sessions, designed to be flexible and respond to the needs of participants as they look to embed their practice. Our specialist programmes feature practice clinics which create a space for participants to implement their learning. In this way, we are aiming for a supportive and personalised approach that maximises the chances of positive change.
As we continue to develop and refine our programmes, we aim to ensure that we are respecting the job that participants on our programmes do in schools: their time is valuable, their experience is invaluable. The content of the programmes is there to support them in developing their efficacy in their current position, a change in role or an ambition to progress their career in a particular direction. It needs to respect their expertise: their professional knowledge.
Find out more about our NPQs here.
References
EEF (2021). Effective Professional Development: Guidance Report. Accessible from: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/effective-professional-development
Deans for Impact (2016). Practice with Purpose: The Emerging Science of Teacher Expertise. Austin, TX: Deans for Impact. Accessible from: https://www.deansforimpact.org/files/assets/practice-with-purpose.pdf