Support teachers, trainers, and learning support assistants who were not benefiting from general continuing professional development (CPD) to continue improving their teaching by engaging in action research in their everyday practice.
This Outstanding Teaching, Learning, and Assessment (OTLA 3) project in 2017/18 was delivered by Bishop Auckland College, SWD Training and Bishop Auckland Community Learning. The aim was to support teachers, trainers, and learning support assistants who were not benefiting from general continuing professional development (CPD) to continue improving their teaching by engaging in action research in their everyday practice.
This college-wide approach to CPD encouraged practitioners across three sites and nine vocational and subject areas to trial improvements in their classroom and workshop practice. Led and supported by a teacher-educator, staff identified personal improvement priorities and then met in action learning sets to share their investigations into their teaching challenges and possible solutions. A key benefit of their self and peer-assessment “change activities” has been the practitioners’ roll-out of successful approaches to more challenging classes. Practitioners often designed simple activities which challenged learners to record their own judgements about their progress over a number of sessions. This led to learners and teachers changing their assessment practices and relationships.
OTLA 3