Cluster based CPD – what works

I was at a conference this week for schools from the East Midlands and we had a table discussion about cluster-based CPD. I was commenting that there is lots of evidence about the principles of good collaborative CPD that could form a foundation for structuring cluster-based CPD and there was lots of interest in this. In a nutshell key factors in successful collaborative CPD are:
  •  
    • the use of external expertise linked to school-based activity
    • observation
    • reflection and experimentation
    • an emphasis on peer support
    • scope for teacher participants to identify their own CPD focus
    • processes to encourage, extend and structure professional dialogue
    • processes for sustaining the CPD over time to enable teachers to embed the practices in their own classroom settings
    • recognition of individual teachers’ starting points.

Some on the table wanted to see the full report which comes from CUREE’s involvement in The Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre). Through this work we have been at the forefront of bringing together CPD research evidence which might be numerous or hard to locate and interpreting and synthesising the results. EPPI reviews make reliable research findings accessible to the people who need them and here is a link to one of these reviews on collaborative CPD.

The impact of collaborative continuing professional development (CPD) on classroom teaching and learning: How do collaborative and sustained CPD and sustained but not collaborative CPD affect teaching and learning? (2005)
‹ Teachers TV Hello and welcome ›