: Making the payback more than the payout Creating Agents of Change through professional development

As a trust lead for mathematics, I was always keen to make sure that when members of our department went out on external training that they brought back new ideas and shared them with the team.

I’m now keenly aware of this as lead for Origin Maths Hub. I know it’s not easy for schools to facilitate teaching assistants, teachers and leaders taking time out of the classroom to participate in professional development. So, when they do, we really need to make it count for schools: we need the ​‘payback’ to be more than the ​‘payout’, and for this to result in sustainable actions that have positive impact on pupils.

For that to happen the participant needs to be developed as an agent of change.

The EEF’s A School’s Guide to Implementation guidance report refers to agents of change as ​‘people who enable change’ and are able to ​‘support, lead and (positively) influence implementation’.

How do we develop participants as agents of change? This is something we’ve been considering since 2020 when Origin Maths Hub launched. We now design all our professional development with creating agents of change at the heart of our intentions. Hopefully I can share some of our learnings with you here.

Often, we have a bias to think of teachers. So firstly, it’s important to recognise that agents of change can be anyone working within a school – from teaching assistants to senior leaders. At Origin Maths Hub we ensure we have strong professional/​school development programmes that involve participants working in a range of different roles.

So, where do we start? We have found that a particularly powerful tool is uniting around shared values. We support participants to see how fidelity to teaching for mastery strengthens equity and supports all children to be aspirational, thrive, enjoy and achieve in maths (no matter their background, circumstances, prior attainment or educational needs). Having this knowledge can help to empower staff at all levels to advocate for positive change and navigate ​“bumps in the road” as they implement strategies.

Secondly, we explicitly undertake work on developing an understanding of implementation. This is not optional, but an essential element of all our professional development.

The EEF’s implementation guidance reminds us that:

We build the implementation planning cycle into the requirements of participating in the professional development programme. We support participants to plan, take action, and reflect. This is something we always follow up on in subsequent sessions. Participants come to understand the benefit of taking responsibility for action planning, self-monitoring and practicing in the classroom. As agents of change they take these behaviours back to their own settings and model them to their team.

Finally, we work on developing participants’ leadership skills and evaluative skills so that they can confidently lead impactful professional development in their own setting.

The EEF’s Effective Professional Development Guidance Report identifies several ​“mechanisms” — the core building blocks of good PD. Our approach focuses heavily on mechanisms for embedding practice, such as:

• Rehearsal
• Action planning
• Self-monitoring

A key strategy we use here is collaborative lesson observation. This is a really powerful activity in the professional development of our participants. It supports them, amongst other things, to make analytical and non-judgemental observations, deepen pedagogical knowledge and build confidence. More importantly, this provides them with an opportunity for rehearsal before they replicate the process in their own setting. We know this often makes a real impact in improving the culture and collaborative working and professional development models taking place within their school.

Our aim, as a community of teachers, schools and other education professionals/​organisations, is to work collaboratively to make sustainable and lasting changes that improve all children’s life chances by enhancing their experiences, attitudes and outcomes in learning mathematics.

Taking time on these wider elements, does not distract from the ​‘main topic’ of the professional development, but instead ensures that something happens as a result!

Just as we are ambitious about the outcomes for all students, we must be ambitious and optimistic about the potential outcomes for schools in engaging with professional development. Creating agents of change is crucial for this, and with intentional design and implementation, we maximise our chances of success.

1. Uniting around shared values empowers participants to confidently advocate for positive change and to navigate bumps in the road.
2. Developing an understanding of implementation and building that cycle in the fabric of the PD increases the chance of participants modelling this in their own setting.
3. Rehearsing powerful professional development activities increases the chance of meaningful change to practices in the participants’ own settings.

Education Endowment Foundation. (2021). Effective Professional Development: Guidance Report. Available from: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/guidance-for-teachers/effective-professional-development

Education Endowment Foundation. (2019). A School’s Guide to Implementation: Guidance Report. Available from: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/guidance-for-teachers/implementation