Research School Network: Making the most of one-off professional development sessions When professional development is one-off, what impact is realistically possible?

Professional development works best when we avoid one-off sessions.

We know that Effective Professional Development should build knowledge, motivate teachers, develop teaching techniques and embed practice. That’s a lot to achieve in a one-off.

We build some knowledge, but one-off sessions don’t build on prior learning, or signpost to future sessions.
We can motivate teachers e.g. by presenting information from a credible source, but will lack any ongoing motivation.
We may develop teaching techniques, but there is likely to be a huge knowing-doing gap, and little time to model, rehearse and provide feedback.
We are unlikely to embed practice as there is no follow on.

This is why we always prefer long-running, structured programmes of PD, or working closely with schools over long periods of time. However, as a Research School, we are often asked to deliver one-off inputs on areas where we may have particular expertise that schools value. If we acknowledge that one-off sessions exist, we need to make them work.

What can a one-off professional development session realistically do well?

Build foundational knowledge and shared understanding

One-off inputs can often be kept simple and prioritise learning. They can be a good opportunity to focus on delivering clarity. Where we have got this wrong, we’ve tried to cover too much and end up overloading participants just so schools seem to get their money’s worth! When done well, there is a shared understanding that leaders and staff in the school can then build on.

For example, we have just delivered a session to trainees in a local SCITT on metacognition. For this session, we prioritise a clear understanding of what metacognition is, and then focus on teacher modelling. We can build a foundational understanding and a shared language. While we can’t assume prior knowledge, we know what is covered in the Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework so can pitch appropriately. We can’t guarantee any follow-up as trainees return to schools, but we can create the clarity that makes this more likely.

Create intentional motivation/​build momentum

​“Once teachers have built knowledge…they still need to be motivated to act upon that knowledge.” – EEF Effective Professional Development

A one-off session can be a good opportunity to articulate why this thing matters. It can create initial buy-in or curiosity, which can then create momentum. The ​‘why’ can be any compelling reason. Often, for us, it’s how we help to close the disadvantage gap. It could be the impact on outcomes, the way it will save teachers time so they can focus on other aspects, how it will solve a problem in their setting. When planning the session, we should take into account the context we are working in. What are their priorities? Values?

It can be helpful to focus on acceptability and feasibility to motivate teachers. According to Proctor et al (2011), acceptability​‘is the perception among implementation stakeholders that a given treatment, service, practice, or innovation is agreeable, palatable, or satisfactory.’ Feasibility is the extent to which teachers can realistically and confidently carry out a practice.

Here is why it matters; here is how it works; it can work here.

Prime future action

A good session will build knowledge and motivation but we need to help participants to close the knowing-doing gap. That’s not always easy in a short space of time when we might never follow up ourselves. It’s a question to ask when planning the session: how will we ensure teachers act on this training?

If we accept there isn’t enough time for detailed action planning, we can at least action prime. To do this, we should make things specific, simple and give time. Here is an example of a simple action planning set of questions we have used around positive framing:

What is one situation where you often use negative framing in your communication?
How can you rephrase that communication to use positive framing instead? Script a response.
Set an implementation intention: When in [situation], I will [language].

Context > Cue > Action
In situation x, when y happens, I will do z.

It’s rare that these one-off sessions don’t involve a dialogue with the setting. In the next post, I’ll share some approaches that schools can take to get the best out of external providers like us.

Proctor, E., Silmere, H., Raghavan, R., Hovmand, P., Aarons, G., Bunger, A., Griffey, R., & Hensley, M. (2011). Outcomes for implementation research: conceptual distinctions, measurement challenges, and research agenda. Administration and policy in mental health, 38(2), 65 – 76.