Is personalised teacher development really possible? (IATEFL 2018 LAMSIG and TDSIG PCE)

Here’s a quick summary from the IATEFL Brighton 2018 pre-conference event I attended today, co-organised by the Teacher Development and Leadership and Management Special Interest Groups. Please note: it’s my interpretation of the ideas and themes from the day, so I’m happy for anybody who would like to add to or edit my impressions of it.

Who’s responsible for CPD? We all are: teachers, managers, trainers. We’re all learners, and we need to model the fact that we’re learning to create that culture and demonstrate it to others. We’re all in the same boat.

Culture is key: if you create enough of a learning culture, those who weren’t motivated before may get interested and come along with the rest of you. And if not, is it worth wasting energy on them? Though we should try to find out more about what’s stopping them. We should also try to recruit for the culture we want to create or maintain, asking ourselves where we want to be, and what changes we need to make to get there if necessary.

CPD needs to be organised, though it doesn’t have to be top-down. We need to create a space for teachers to be able to develop and co-build it with them. Teachers can create those spaces themselves, and sometimes managers just need to get out of the way.

A key thing is really listening to people and working on cooperative development. We can also think about changing some of the language we use: puzzles, not problems; labs, not workshops. This is particularly important if language or intercultural hurdles are present: naming can both help and hinder.

My favourite idea from the day: a closed Google space set up by teachers where anybody within the organisation can post a 2-minute video about something that makes their job easier, better or faster. Something that builds up into an organisational archive, starts online conversations, and offline ones too.

Thank you to both SIGs for organising an interesting and thought-provoking day.

And thanks for the ice cream too 🙂