We held the second Leadership Development Network (renamed Ideas Forum) yesterday afternoon.
Once again it was great to speak to teachers about their ideas and suggestions about how we can improve education in East Lothian and also help to develop careers.
So what did we discuss?
Promote teacher exchange – but rechristen it “Learning Exchange” – it’s more about what it says on the tin, i.e. it is an exchange but with a learning focus.
Sharing Practice – create a video bank of formative assessment by recording many different examples of formative assessment taken in a variety of contexts.
Learning Partners – develop the Learning Team concept and link interested people with fellow learning partners
Coaching for all – establish a coaching programme where interested people can coach and receive coaching.
Masters/Doctorates for teachers – we discussed the possible benefits of enabling every teacher to gain a Masters degree or Doctorate with a possible focus on Mind, Brain and Education.
Stephen Heppell had floated the idea of a Doctoral profession at the Scottish Learning Festival. I have to admit to really being excited by this idea and feel it would make a hge impact upon the quality of practice in our schools. The challenges are funding, time for teachers, and willingness to participate. I wonder if we could link in with this development?
The other alternative is to develop a course ourselves in conjunction with a Higher Education Institution?
Do you imagine that the Masters/Doctoral idea would be open to Instrumental Instructors? Most hold degrees, many have years (even decades)of experience, but few are GTC registered. Would that present a barrier of any sort?
Alan, the Masters/Doctoral degrees would be open to any member of support staff that already had a degree – and I have already begun the negotiations of what is available for staff that work in schools who don’t have a degree – it looks like that we could offer BA (hons) on the job training with very little financial commitment. The philosophy of the Masters/Doctoral degree that Stephen Heppell is talking about is about a team of teachers working together on a collaborative research project. At the end of the research project all of the ‘team’ would be able to claim certification.
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