Part 2 of 4

In the last newsletter I shared an introduction to the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) Effective Professional Development guidance report. In this edition, I’ll focus on their first recommendation.

Recommendation 1 is: When designing and selecting professional development, focus on the mechanism.

The EEF state that professional development may be thought of in three ways: forms, programmes, and mechanisms.

Forms (such as instructional coaching, lesson study and teacher learning communities) is a type or category of professional development. These forms all feature in the Early Career Teacher programme and National Professional Qualifications delivered by Bradford Teaching School Hub.

Programmes are specific sets of activities and materials which are associated with specific people or organisations.

Mechanisms are the building blocks of a professional development programme (such as goal setting, feedback, and action planning). They are observable, replicable, and could not be removed without making professional development less effective. “Crucially, mechanisms are supported by evidence from research on human behaviour -…they change practice” (EEF, p. 11). There are direct links to the content of the Early Career Teachers programme for Mentors, for example, here.

The guidance report found that, through a review of the research underpinning the report, that the more mechanisms a professional development programme has, the greater the impact on pupil attainment. 

You can download the guidance report and the supporting documentation here.

In the coming weeks, we’ll use our newsletter to share the report’s other recommendations with you. 

Bradford Teaching School Hub is working with Bradford Research School to provide teachers and leaders with a full briefing on the guidance report via an event in December 2021. We will share more information with you in due course.

Best wishes

Paul

Paul Butler

Director: Bradford Teaching School Hub, Exceed Academies Trust