Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in the Sciences
Local Education Authorities & their schools
Local Education Authorities and schools are well aware that CPD needs arising from
the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence need to be identified and
addressed.
There is a need for identifying off-site CPD opportunities, for planning CPD activities
with a team of staff and for building in evaluation time. This needs to be done
realistically and would require support from school head teachers and senior
managers.
In most local authorities in Scotland there is no longer an Adviser specifically for
Science Subjects. However there may be a Quality Improvement Officer (QIO) with
responsibility for the sciences within the authority. The QIO may or may not hold a
specific teaching qualification in a science discipline and may or may not be able to
directly facilitate aspects of CPD. However, most QIOs who fulfill this role will
support networks of principal teachers / curriculum leaders in separate science
disciplines or will support principal teachers leading a science faculty. Some
authorities also sustain subject networks for all science teachers which may even
extend to the primary sector. QIOs and school senior managers may well not be able
to give everything they've been asked for, but it shouldn't be assumed that they can't
give anything.
There are also likely to be CPD opportunities within a department and school. This
will mean opportunities for working with another teacher to develop subject
knowledge, approaches to skill development, learning and teaching etc. or simply
observing lessons in one’s own subject or in another related subject. Much of the
authority, school and department CPD surrounds generic approaches to learning
and teaching approaches, formative assessment strategies, summative assessment,
understanding standards, moderation and quality assurance.
In some instances there are opportunities to explore new practical activities and
other approaches using a carousel approach with experiments or activities for both
teachers and technicians to gain confidence, understand the key ideas, design
principles of the curriculum and discuss concepts that may be difficult to teach.
t will also be possible to arrange visits to other schools where best practice in
Curriculum for Excellence has been established. This may be within or out with the
authority. Almost all schools will have a member of staff designated to co-ordinate
and facilitate CPD for the whole school. It is worthwhile approaching CPD managers
at both school and local authority level to find out what is actually available or to
suggest what might be needed. The local science centre, satrosphere or Dynamic
Earth will also offer provision which is well publicised through the education authority
distribution network to schools. In addition SSERC in Scotland offer an outstanding
range of “hands on” practical CPD in partnership with education authorities. This
may involve visits to cluster or schools to provide bespoke training or residential
courses providing practical resources and exercises to be taken back to the school,
implemented and evaluated and reported upon at a re-call event.
One of the most valuable outcomes of CPD is both formal and informal networking.
Increasingly, secondary schools and their associated primary schools work in
partnership to develop coherent approaches to transition over the P6 to S2 stage
range. This activity is now extending to create professional development cluster
forums that are turning their attention to local moderation of standards and
developing a wide range of innovative approaches to the integration of assessment
using the “say, write, make, do” model into “on-gong” approaches to learning and
teaching.
There are also a range of CPD opportunities provided by the Association for Science
Education, the Royal Society of Chemistry, The Institute of Physics, The Institute of
Physics, the Royal Society, The Royal Society of Edinburgh and the awarding bodies
e.g. the Scottish Qualifications Authority (through its “Understanding Standards”
programmes) etc. All of these are well publicised to schools via the local authority.