Holding up the

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Holding up the mirror Dear Cleo developing
expertise through analysis of and reflection on
critical learning episodes Graham Carter
Carolyn Nye City of Bristol College
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What should CPD be about?
CPD has tended to be - prescriptive of practice
Dear Cleo is intended to be - descriptive of
practice
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Derek Betts co-founder of and consultant to the
Institute for Learning (IfL)

• 3 principles for CPD
• It is outcomes focussed - it is more concerned
  with impact than input
• It is focussed on the individual, developing
  capacity person by person, but drawing on the
  collaborative, the community as much as possible
• It is about keeping the teacher in control

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DEAR CLEO aims and objectives

• encourage experienced teachers to engage
  critically with their own practice from a
  position of expertise
• provide professional development which is
  genuinely continuing
• connect teaching practice to concepts in the
  research literature
• provide teaching staff with research methods
  training, particularly data analysis
• establish a framework in which professional
  expertise is shared among staff and new contacts
  are made

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What is a CLE?

• a segment of interaction in the classroom in
  which the following three characteristics can be
  identified 
• boundaries
• centre of gravity
• significance

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• Its worth seeing
• Teacher is eliciting from students the types of
  film they like seeing as
• introduction to work on writing film reviews.
  Several students have offered
• their views and St 1 is talking about how she
  decides which film to see.
• 1 S I ask a friend if its worth to see
• 2 T - worth seeing
• 3 S - if its worth seeing
• 4 T yes
• 5 S slight hesitation Not worth to see?
• T No shaking head
• S I ask a friend if its worth seeing
• T OK nodding head now, how about you Maria?
  
• S writes correct structure in notebook

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Structure Initial meeting Participating
teachers and project staff to discuss timetable,
concepts and aims Session 1 Key concepts
outlined, research frameworks and tools
presented In between Participating teachers are
observed filmed by one of the project leads
for 1 hour during a normal teaching session. One
(or more) CLE is identified by the observers
an email exchange is then initiated in order to
develop analysis of the episode jointly
constructed by the observer and teacher
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Session 2 Analysis discussion of CLEs are
presented to the groups by the observers and
participants in between participants identify
CLEs during their own practice and enter into
email exchanges with a buddy for analysis
Session 3 participants present discuss their
analyses in between participants evaluate the
project in term of it fulfilling its aims
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Session 4 Input session re the Craft of teaching,
followed by group discussion of experiences and
an evaluation of the project. What
next? After participants write a 500-700 word
essay on the Nature of my Expertise
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Stumbling Blocks

• Personal
• Lack of readiness to engage in reflective
  practice insight into own practice
• Risk of lack of depth of analysis during
  sessions too polite?
• Lack of engagement with theoretical frameworks
  in analysis of episodes
• Interference of previous CPD expectations
• Maintaining commitment to project between
  sessions and fulfilling obligations blog, the
  buddy system and email discussion
• Indefinite outcomes wheres the product?
  Whats in it for me?
• How will I profit?

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• Administrative
• The CLE lack of clear definition and inability
  to recognise one
• Group need to see leaders as experts rather than
  facilitators
• Pressure of time due to work commitments and
  demands of private life
• Non-attendance at sessions
• Balance between making the project worth
  committing to
• and being too onerous for participants to
  complete
• Participation of non-ESOL teachers

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quotations from participants (from Reflections on
the Nature of my Expertise) This research
project has reassured me that there is some value
in our hard won craft. Episode analysis has
raised my awareness of the notion of teaching as
craft and, thus, a sense of the value of my own
expertise. I believe the really useful part of
this project came from the recognition that
teaching is not just about lesson plans and
schemes of work, but is more about the way
students and teachers interact and the skills
teachers develop to make this relationship work.
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.. the analysis of even the smallest episodes,
with my partners help, has had a powerful ripple
effect and has challenged some of my very basic,
almost unconscious assumptions. Having the
freedom to follow where questions lead, rather
than any prescribed syllabus, is a rare and
positive event I like the idea that one can
notice many things from a specific episode and
read typical patterns of behaviour into a few
moments
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final thoughts It is clear that this
project has opened up far more questions than it
has answered. What should you do to encourage
efficient learning? Well, it all depends