Workshops, twilight sessions, conferences, online training and network meetings all have an important role to play in a Music Hub CPD programme. But there is a question worth asking: if a teacher attends your CPD on Tuesday afternoon, what will they actually do differently on Wednesday morning?
Attendance isn’t impact
It’s relatively easy to measure CPD activity. You can count how many sessions you’ve delivered, how many teachers attended and whether participants said they enjoyed the session. All of that information is useful, but none of it tells you whether anything actually changed as a result. A teacher can attend an excellent workshop, leave feeling inspired, complete a positive evaluation form… and then return to school and carry on doing exactly what they were doing before.
That’s not necessarily a failure of the CPD. Teachers are busy, schools have competing priorities and putting new ideas into practice isn’t always straightforward. But it does mean that attendance is an output, not an outcome.
Choosing your CPD topics
Effective professional development starts with a genuine need. Rather than asking “What CPD should we offer this term?”, it may be more useful to ask: “What are teachers currently struggling with, and what would actually help them?”
Perhaps non-specialists lack confidence teaching singing. Maybe secondary teachers want support with assessment. Perhaps schools are struggling to develop meaningful progression or teachers want practical approaches to inclusive music teaching. You won’t know until you ask.
Having said that, it is generally true that people don’t know what they don’t know. So there is definitely room for you as a hub to make suggestions for feedback from teachers, rather than always doing it the other way around. Alongside asking ‘what CPD would you like this year’ you could also ask ‘Would it be helpful if we provided X, Y or Z?’ That way teachers can tell you what they think they need, and also express an interest in something that they hadn’t realised was something they should know about!
Making CPD effective
Once you understand the problem, you can design professional development around it. Good CPD should give teachers more than another collection of resources to download. It should develop their knowledge, understanding and confidence, while giving them ideas they can actually apply in their own context. The aim shouldn’t simply be for teachers to reproduce what happened in the CPD session. They should be able to take the underlying principles and apply them elsewhere.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with a one-off twilight session. But a single session is unlikely to transform practice on its own. The most important thing to consider is what happens afterwards? Do teachers have an opportunity to try out what they’ve learned? Can they ask questions when they encounter difficulties? Is there a follow-up session? Are there resources or examples they can return to? Can they share their experiences with colleagues?
Professional development is more likely to influence practice when there is some opportunity to apply, reflect and revisit the learning. Fortunately, that doesn’t mean every CPD session needs to become a six-month programme. A follow-up email, short video, online discussion or bit of retrieval practice at the start of the next meeting can all provide useful opportunities to keep the learning alive.
What should you measure?
There’s nothing wrong with asking teachers whether they enjoyed a session. But enjoyment isn’t the same as impact. Alongside attendance and satisfaction, consider asking:
- What did teachers learn?
- What did they intend to change?
- Did they subsequently change anything?
- What helped or prevented them from doing so?
- What further support did they need?
- What evidence do you have that practice changed?
You won’t always be able to demonstrate immediate impact, and that’s fine. Some professional learning takes time to influence classroom practice. But asking these questions encourages a shift away from measuring how much CPD was delivered towards considering what the CPD achieved.
So, is your CPD changing practice?
The most successful CPD programme isn’t necessarily the one with the fullest diary. It’s the one that helps teachers become more knowledgeable, confident and effective in their classrooms. So the next time you’re planning your CPD programme, don’t just ask: “How many sessions can we offer?” but “What do we want teachers to be doing differently as a result?”
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