Research School Network: Making evaluation part of implementation planning; not an afterthought (part2) Evaluating CPD through implementation behaviours


Making evaluation part of implementation planning; not an afterthought (part2)

Evaluating CPD through implementation behaviours

Alan Eathorne

Alan Eathorne

Executive Headteacher and Research Lead at Learn Academies Trust

Alan is an Executive Headteacher of 4 small primary schools in the Learn Academies Trust. His expertise is in evidence based leadership, professional development and how to evaluate impact.

Read more aboutAlan Eathorne

In my last blog I shared my overview thoughts regarding the lack of planning that tends to go into the evaluation of CPD. Often the evaluation is based on a change in outcomes of the children, which is usually judged by statutory assessment and internal data collection. These can be useful data to collect and evaluate but it is going to be hard to know whether a piece or series of CPD has led to this change. In this blog I am going to use Guskey’s (2000) work and explore one of his 5 suggested levels of evaluating CPD: participant reaction.

For as long as I can remember, at the end of a training session an evaluation form is completed. Often these questions focus solely on the participants’ reaction to the training; was the session useful? How suitable was the venue? How was the lunch? Guskey (2016) himself suggests these sorts of data may seem silly and inconsequential’ but that they are important and help to ensure basic human needs and their impact on subsequent learning. These data are therefore useful for internal and external CPD activities. Whether there is time to collect and analyse this information for every staff meeting, for example, may be debatable. If, as a school or group of schools, you are focussing on a couple of areas for a period then it would certainly be worth collating and reflecting on this feedback to improve CPD activities.

I tend to think of this data collection as an ongoing process throughout the implementation process rather than simply collecting it at the end’. I think taking a baseline and then subsequent snapshots helps leaders to understand the starting point and helps to then see the impact that the activities have had.

In the recent update to the EEF’s A School’s Guide to Implementation guidance report (2024), three behaviours were shared as drivers of effective implementation. These are engage, unite and reflect (figure 1). These behaviours may provide us with three themes to evaluate throughout the process of implementation, with CPD activities at the heart of this.

Engage

Whilst in the exploring and planning phase it would make sense to me to capture colleagues’ level of engagement on those focus areas. For example, if the school is focussing on phonics next year then it would be valuable to understand how colleagues feel phonics is currently working and are there any areas they can see that need exploring and improving. This would help colleagues to get the heads up’ on what the focus area may be next year. Throughout the implementation process it would be sensible to share how these reflections have impacted on the implementation plan; showing that leaders are listening to the levels of engagement.

Unite


During the exploring and planning phase I would be inclined to capture colleagues’ perspective on the focus area and why it matters. A baseline survey will help leaders to gauge the understanding of why this focus area is so important. For example, if we were looking at reading fluency, we ask might teachers’ how often they teach close reading, whether they ever use readers theatre or for their understanding of prosody. We might ask compliance questions such as how often do you…? Sharing the implementation plan and process with colleagues and getting feedback on this will also help everyone to be clear on the plan including details mentioned earlier regarding venues, formats etc.

During the sustain phase it would be wise to see how perceptions have changed since the start of this work. I will talk more about this in my next blog.

Reflect


For me the reflect behaviour is covered in what I have shared above. It is important for colleagues to feel part of this process and by spending time to formally reflect on the focus area, how it currently looks, how it is working, what could be improved, how can the implementation plan be adapted, helps to create a culture of learning. I also feel that working in this way presents colleagues with a genuine inquiry approach to school improvement. We have noticed something needs to improve and together we will work to do this.

In many ways this level of evaluation of CPD is obvious but often left until the end’, and then usually forgotten about. I feel that taking time to reflect and record a baseline can help leaders to show the impact they are having on staff wellbeing, workload and retainment over time. In the next blog I will focus on level 2 – participant knowledge.

References:


Guskey (2016) Gauge Impact with 5 Levels of Data, www.learnigforward.org

Guskey, T. R. (2000). Evaluating professional development. Thousand Oaks, Ca

EEF (2024) A School’s Guide to Implementation guidance report

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