Research School Network: Creating the Conditions for Effective Remote CPD Mark Miller, Head of Bradford Research School, explores the recommendations from the EEF rapid evidence review.

The EEF’s rapid evidence review into Remote Professional Development, has 5​‘key findings and implications’. Number 5 is as follows:

Remote professional development requires supportive school conditions (support from leaders, protected time, tech-specific training, platform ease of access)

How do school leaders make sure that they have the conditions conducive to effective remote professional development? 

Message more than medium

The good news for school leaders is that remote CPD has been found to be effective in a couple of elements in particular: developing practitioner knowledge and skills; improving pupil outcomes. The evidence is mixed on whether remote CPD is as effective as face-to-face CPD, but it may offer some benefits such as saving travel time and other costs. Just because CPD can’t take place as we would have intended, there is nothing to say it should not continue.

And if it continues, what we do is more important than the medium we use. According to the guidance, ​“Other design principles are likely to be more important to PD outcomes than whether delivery is face-to-face or remote.” In other words, the key ingredients that that make CPD effective apply for remote CPD too. A good reference point for effective Professional Development are the DfE Standard for Teachers’ Professional Development. Their recommendations are as follows:

1. Professional development should have a focus on improving and evaluating pupil outcomes.
2. Professional development should be underpinned by robust evidence and expertise.
3. Professional development should include collaboration and expert challenge.
4. Professional development programmes should be sustained over time.
And all this is underpinned by, and requires that:
5. Professional development must be prioritised by school leadership

It’s harder to say whether synchronous or asynchronous CPD is more effective. Synchronous CPD is live (online discussion, coaching phonecall, live lecture etc), whereas asynchronous CPD is accessed in the participant’s own time. School leaders should consider which works best for their purposes – it is again a content rather than format question.

Power in People

One key finding from the review is the role of coaching and collaboration to remote CPD. On coaching and mentoring, they state the following:

And:

And on opportunities for collaboration:

So leaders should find opportunities for collaboration. This could be through online breakout groups, through coaching or through asynchronous discussion e.g. through a chat function.

Technology

Remote CPD can take a number of different forms, from watching pre-recorded videos to interactive coaching sessions by videocall. But the infrastructure necessary for the technology to be available, accessible and reliable cannot be taken for granted, particularly when the pace of the current situation doesn’t allow for longer term implementation planning.

Making technology available is easier for some schools than others. We work with schools where every teacher teaches from a laptop and so can use that for CPD, but others where teachers use desktops, so retooling things for remote CPD suddenly becomes an issue. In these schools, leaders need to facilitate availability.

And technology is not always accessible. In this sense, I mean ​‘user-friendly’. If colleagues are expected to use Zoom, or Teams effectively, they must be trained. Without training, it us unlikely that sessions will work as intended. This includes the ability to use the platform, but also includes norms and protocols: cameras on or off; chat throughout or at intervals?

Reliability can be a problem too, with the phrase ​“you’re breaking up” second only to ​“you’re on mute” in 2020’s most used phrases. Effective CPD leads will prepare for the inevitable and ensure there is a backup plan.

Increasingly, schools are sharing their approaches to online CPD. The best tools, the best approaches.