Quality improvement and development staff in education authorities are aiming to improve their own continuing professional development - possibly through a university route.
The people responsible for delivering a large proportion of teachers’ CPD have become aware that their own needs are not always met.
They have held talks with their bosses in the education directorates, as well as with the national CPD team. The staff have aired their concerns with Learning and Teaching Scotland, the General Teaching Council for Scotland and the Scottish Centre for Studies in School Administration. The upshot is that members of AEDIPS (the Association of Educational Development and Improvement Professionals in Scotland) will take part in a major consultation on their continuing professional development needs.
The first step will be a seminar for 40 delegates in Glasgow on March 24 involving Richard Elmore, the Harvard University professor who specialises in school leadership.
Jim Maclean, academic director of CPD at Paisley University, outlined a proposal for an online programme delivered to Masters level along similar lines to the university’s chartered teacher programme.
Funding of such a continuing professional development programme remains an issue, however. One delegate pointed out that chartered teachers received a salary enhancement at the end of their programme, although they had to pay for the modules. But development staff had no such prospect as a result of undertaking CPD.
