The research behind improving teachers is often focused on processes and structures: what types of courses, how they are presented, what follow-up is required and how the experts or facilitators work with participants to embed the ideas. However, as any professional will know, learning does not only happen discretely through formal training or in structured processes. Learning also arises informally and through collaboration. The amount of learning that takes place depends significantly on the teacher’s working conditions - the organisational team culture, the approach to leadership, the types of collaboration, the effectiveness of communication, the sharing (or not) of goals and values.
From our work reviewing and supporting hundreds of schools, the Teacher Development Trust team has seen that there’s a stark difference between thinking that you have a good Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme, and knowing that it is having an impact. The main challenge at play is that the ways in which teachers improve are complex and we are not always able to attribute them to specific events or activities.
Culture and communication matter. There is now a significant research base to suggest that we not only need to think about the content and process of teacher CPD, but also to put far greater effort into ensuring our schools are consistently providing supportive professional environments for all staff. In this article we refer to this emerging research, alongside our own findings from over 500 learning organisations ranging from infant schools to colleges, academy trusts, independent schools, special schools and international schools. In each one the Teacher Development Trust (TDT) carried out an in-depth diagnostic review of the processes, culture and leadership of professional development by triangulating data from whole-staff surveys, interviews and examination of paperwork.
Culture and Change
We find that the more that teachers are drawing from the world of educational research, the more they are able to strengthen their understanding of how students learn and use evidence to inform their teaching. Yet it is a school’s organisational systems and processes which will allow this approach to become truly embedded and enacted by all instead of just a proactive few. Using research to develop teaching requires a culture of support and trust.
The evidence base supports this; leaders need to deliberately focus on creating a professional environment where collaboration and openness thrives. In 2014, Kraft and Papay found that in schools where teachers kept improving, the professional environment was particularly conducive to collaboration around improving teaching practice. Teachers had plenty of opportunities to meet and discuss lesson planning, assessment and curriculum. In these schools with high quality environments, teachers also reported much higher levels of trust in their peers with a real shared sense of mission to do everything possible to help pupils learn.
Upon reviewing further available research about the impact of teacher working conditions on student attainment, we have found that the five aspects most closely associated with improved pupil outcomes were:
- Creating effective teacher collaboration to explore student data, plan and review lessons and curricula, and plan and moderate assessments,
- Involving teachers in whole school planning, decision-making and improvement,
- Creating a culture of mutual trust, respect, enthusiasm in which communication is open and honest,
- Build a sense of shared mission, with shared goals, clear priorities and high expectations of professional behaviours and of students’ learning,
- And facilitating classroom safety and behaviour, where disruption and bullying are very rare and teachers feel strongly supported by senior leaders in their efforts to maintain this classroom environment.
The idea of school culture has long been viewed as particularly tricky or complex, because it is more difficult to measure than other characteristics or features of the school environment. One of our flaws as an education system is that we tend towards the measurable and in doing so might overlook key points which are fundamental to school improvement.