Professor Rachel Lofthouse

Exclusive: Headteacher vacancies nearly a fifth higher than pre-Covid TES 6 April 2022 Headlines like this are all too frequent. Reasons given vary from a lack of funding, lack of professional recognition and trust, unsustainable workload and high-status inspection, all of which are leading to worrying mental health and well-being concerns for headteachers. This research presents an alternative picture. It demonstrates that headship can look different from the single-head model traditionally found in many of our schools. The biggest clue is in the title, co-headship, but one in which both members are full-time. What does this model provide that other models do not? The answer is ‘space’, space that provides a structure that affects what happens in and beyond a school. Space that means that a full-time co-headship is not lonely, allows trust to exist, develop and overflow into school, is shaped by the personalities of the personnel concerned, operates within physical and technological boundaries, is not hierarchical, allows for unconditional dialogue, because the space is safe, and makes use of expert friends. All of this makes headship sustainable. The research was carried out in one primary school in the United Kingdom by one of the co headteachers who holds the unique position of being both a practitioner as part of the community being investigated, and a researcher looking in on that same community from the outside. The research focuses on data collected from an online questionnaire and recorded discussions and conversations between colleagues and governors. The data provides much evidence of a trusted and trusting co-headship, whose working relationship is sustainable over time. The research also provides a picture of the relationships that exist within a school that is led by full-time co-headteachers, some of whom exhibit traits that mirror the relationship between these co-heads.

Purpose Teacher education in many countries is under reform with growing differences in its form and function. This is indicative of ongoing negotiations around the place of theory, research and practice in teachers’ professional learning. However, the demand for mentoring of trainee teachers during often-extended and multiple school-based placements is a relative constant. Indeed, with the trend towards greater school-based professional experience, mentoring practices become ever more critical. This is the focus of this paper. Design / Methodology / Approach This is a conceptual paper written from the perspective of an experienced teacher educator in England, drawing on both practical experience and a body of associated research. It can be conceptualised as related to cases of practice, linked to episodes of practitioner research grounded in the ethics of the improvability of practice, the desire to meet the needs of the professional communities and a deep understanding of the demands and cultures of their workplaces. Findings Mentoring can be re-imagined as a dynamic hub within a practice development-led model for individual professional learning and institutional growth. Acting on this conceptualisation would allow mentors, trainees and other supporting teacher educators to contribute to the transformation of professional learning practices and educational contexts. Originality / Value This paper goes beyond offering helpful guidance to participants and stakeholders in mentoring, or stipulating standards to be achieved, to considering what might be described as a hopeful or transformational stance in relation to mentoring. Teacher educators can continue to bring value to the transformation of teacher education through a focus on mentoring as an educative process. Key words: mentoring, teacher education, model

Over the last two decades research into coaching has suggested that it is a successful form of professional development for impact on student outcomes (Joyce and Showers, 1988) and offers good opportunities for professional development (Veenman and Denessen, 2001). However, Lofthouse and Leat (2013) found that its potential was often undermined in schools. This new research is based on the question: What opportunities do coaching approaches create for professional development in education, and how can we understand the scope and impact of these opportunities? Data in relation to this question will be collected through analysing six conversations between coaches who work in different education contexts. The aims of their coaching include to develop teaching quality, to enable inter-professional learning, to support leadership development, and to facilitate positive and productive relationships through cultural change in educational communities. These conversations are being held in public as part of a networking event, and will be followed by open discussion with an audience. Each conversation will be audio-recorded and transcribed for analysis, and the main themes emerging from the open discussion will be noted. A thematic analysis will be used to reveal the working practices of the coaches, and what evidence of change they recognise in the contexts in which they work. The theoretical model used will be The Theory of Practice Architectures (Kemmis et al. 2012) which focuses attention on the ‘sayings’, ‘doings’ and ‘relatings’ as indicative of the socio-cultural semantic, physical and social spaces that are employed and altered through coaching. The emerging conclusions will be shared with the participating coaches providing an opportunity for clarification and validation. This research is undertaken in England where provision of professional development and teacher education has undergone a significant evolution over the last decade. The traditional roles of both local education authorities, government-led national strategies and universities have diminished in favour of a ‘school-led self-improving system’, the creation of Teaching Schools, Multi-Academy Trusts and The Chartered College of Teaching and a rapid growth of private companies, charities and consultants working in the field. Coaching is part of this trend; but it takes many forms and there is insufficient research relating to its efficacy. There are no nationally approved qualifications or standards for coaches working in educational contexts. This research will help to establish some of the current trends, challenges and emerging opportunities of coaching to support or even transform teacher education and professional development.

Purpose The research examines how contextual coaching (Gorrell and Hoover, 2009; Valentine, 2019) can act as a lever to build collaborative professionalism (Hargreaves and O’Connor, 2018) and lead to school improvement. Design/methodology/approach The multicase study (Stake, 2013) draws on two bespoke examples of contextual coaching in education and uses the 10 tenets of collaborative professionalism as a conceptual framework for its abductive analysis. Data from both cases were collected through interviews, focus groups and documentation. Findings The findings demonstrate that effective contextual coaching leads to conditions underpinning school improvement. Specifically, there are patterns of alignment with the 10 tenets of collaborative professionalism. Contextual coaching is founded on mutual dialogue, joint work, collective responsibility and collaborative inquiry. In more mature coaching programmes, collective autonomy, initiative and efficacy emerge. There is also evidence that opportunities exist for contextual coaching to be further aligned with the remaining tenets. The study offers insight into how school improvement can be realized by the development of staff capacity for teacher leadership through contextual coaching. Research limitations/implications The impact of coaching in education is enhanced by recognizing the importance of context and the value of iterative design and co-construction. Practical implications The principles of contextual coaching are generalizable, but models must be developed to be bespoke and to align with each setting. Collaborative professionalism offers a useful framework to better design and implement contextual coaching programmes. Originality/value The research introduces contextual coaching in education and how coaching can enhance collaborative professionalism in schools.

Mentoring is about more than meeting standards, and can be form the basis of healthy and happy professional engagement and career support, for both the mentor and their mentee. This keynote will consider how we can make this ambition come to life.

This review is based on evidence from four primary and first schools in north-east England, each of which has used the opportunities offered by Creative Partnerships to develop learning experiences in their school grounds. The motivations for initiating the work; the nature of learning; the use of the school environment and the relationships have been unique to each school, as have the physical, cognitive and affective outcomes. This publication explores the themes that have emerged across the case studies and illustrates them with evidence from each school. The review was conducted between March and July 2011, during the final Creative Partnerships funding period. The following schools participated in the project and we would like to thank them for their time and the openness with which they engaged with the review. Farne Primary School, Newcastle St Teresa’s Catholic Primary School, Newcastle Stobhillgate First School, Northumberland Tweedmouth West First School, Northumberland The key criteria for inclusion of the four schools in this review was that they had each prioritised the development of learning in the school grounds through the Creative Partnership project. The schools were self-selected through positive responses to introductory requests for engagement. In each school the focus of the review was to understand how and why they had developed their work, what the learning experiences were for pupils and teachers, and what the valued outcomes were. We were interested in how the work related to the wider curriculum and how the key participants had been engaged. We also explored the issues that emerged as the work progressed.

David Leat, Rachel Lofthouse and Ulrike Thomas argue for a more creative perspective on achievement, based on enquiry-based approaches to children's learning. They explore the concept of 'dominant discourse' in education and the need for this to shift from traditional teaching to an emphasis on student questioning and curiosity which lead to "stunning". rather than pre-specified, learning outcomes.

Practitioner enquiry is variously associated with school improvement, teachers’ professional development and educational innovation. It can encourage teachers to reflect on their classroom practice, to gather evidence of students’ learning and engagement and to design pedagogical experiments and test their efficacy. For some teachers it is very much a practical approach to practice review or development; in simple terms, it builds on the ‘plan, do, review’ cycle. For others it becomes more of a conceptual stance; becoming more critically reflective and developing a sense of theorised practice. At one extreme it can ensure that CPD is a bespoke offer which puts teachers in the driving seat, encouraging them to engage intelligently with evidence from multiple sources and enabling creative responses to recognised needs. At another extreme it can become part of a managed system of data driven school improvement, or a response to meeting new and emerging agendas of schools as self-improving systems. At its heart, practitioner enquiry rests on the proposition that those in practice are able to take informed intentional actions, explore their effects and form judgements of their value. This paper will outline principles of practitioner enquiry and consider how it can support the development of teaching and relate to constructs of professionalism and professional learning, alongside evidence of its challenge to school systems which are often perceived to demand convergence of practice and narrowly constructed conceptions of school improvement.

We believe that coaching that is most productive of professional learning entails an interpersonal communication process that involves externalisation and internalisation processes. Externalisation allows practitioners to articulate their thoughts and principles for examination and elaboration, and requires trust and a personal relationship which transcends any organisational role. Such a relationship permits dialogue which, as Sidorkin (1999) argues passionately, is the site for our humanity. Internalisation allows a dialogic process, a pattern of voices, to become a self-regulative, metacognitive process, that we might term ‘inner voice’. Coaching does not require friendship but it needs to pay attention to the close intertwining of our cognitive and emotional systems, and indeed how action is linked to both, in the pursuit of experimentation. However, there is a diversity of understandings and models of coaching. In this chapter, we will draw upon our teaching experience and two research projects. The first project was unfunded and involved interviews with coaching pairs to explore the experiential benefits of coaching and difficulties encountered, which are summarised in the next section. The second, the ‘Improving Coaching’ project was funded and involved 15 interviews with teachers, coaching coordinators and senior leaders in schools, as well as notes from field meetings, an online survey and analysis of 29 coaching transcripts (Lofthouse, Leat and Towler, 2010). The coaches were all serving teachers, coaching in their own schools and had received training from a variety of sources, some commercial and some from their local authority, usually only comprising one or two days. Their roles in their schools were also quite varied, from classroom teacher to subject leader, senior leader and specialist coach. In nearly all cases the coaches had been coached themselves either as part of their training or before being trained (which in many cases provided motivation to be trained). The 14 schools in this project were drawn from four contrasting localities in England. A core aim of this second project was working in partnership with teachers and schools to develop approaches for improving coaching. It is these co-developed approaches which are the focus of the chapter.

Lesson Study is a form of teacher inquiry which relies on collaboration and focuses teachers’ attention to specific pupils that they are currently teaching. It uses a cumulative and cyclical plan, do, review structure and draws teachers into conversations through which they consider plans for teaching, develop hypotheses about pupil learning and engagement, participate in inquiry-based lesson observations and experience meaningful reflection and evaluation. In this chapter the characteristic features and qualities of Lesson Study are outlined. Two case studies are shared, one from a primary school and one a secondary school. Evidence from the Lesson Study groups illustrates the significance of the focus on case pupils, and reinforces how engagement in Lesson Study can actively change professional learning cultures. We hope to demonstrate that it is a means through which individual professional learning and whole school development might come together by paying close attention to the mechanisms through which teaching practices and teacher leaning can realistically be developed. We conclude with a consideration of the advantages of Lesson Study in supporting teacher inquiry, but also caveats about its possible limitations.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of mentoring as a workplace process. The mentees are post-graduate student teachers hosted in placement schools. The research aims to explore the experiences of key participants in a policy context where the role and scale of school-based teacher training is expanding rapidly. Design/methodology/approach – This is an interpretative case study of mentoring practices assigned to a secondary level initial teacher training partnership, with the mentors being subject teachers working in school departments which host post-graduate student teachers. The case study was investigated over two years and included focus groups, interviews, questionnaires and content analysis. Participants were student teachers, their mentors and both school-based and university-based tutors. Findings – Positive experiences of mentoring are not universal. Mentoring interacts with the required processes of monitoring and reporting and in some cases the power structures associated with these processes conflict with the less performative aspects. However, when mentors are offered evidence of student teachers’ perceptions and theoretical constructs of mentoring as practice they can start to recognise that it can be enhanced. Practical implications- The quality of mentoring in initial teacher education will take on even greater significance in jurisdictions, such as England, where the role of workplace learning is strengthened as a result of changes of government policy. Originality/value – The outcomes of this study will be relevant to policy makers, school-based mentors and system leaders for teacher education – whether school or university based.

This paper demonstrates how teachers who were working in a range of developmental relationships with researchers used Coaching Dimensions to understand, describe, analyse and improve the quality of their coaching and mentoring conversations. The findings are based on analysis of transcriptions of case studies of one-to-one professional dialogue practice. The dimensions of coaching provide a language and mechanism through which teachers can analyse and reflect on their ‘coaching’ practice. They can act as a metacognitive tool for teachers, providing them with the opportunity to engage with the complexity of their practice. Such self-knowledge enables productive practice development, and an ability to talk with peers about how their practice is developing. This can help teachers to plan for, and be more responsive within, coaching or mentoring meetings. Use of the dimensions allows the relationships between the nature and the intent of practice to be explored and may help to clarify the roles of different types of professional dialogue, securing them within continuing professional development structures in schools. As relationships and trust within coaching and mentoring partnerships can be vulnerable, gaining greater awareness of the significance of the semantics of the dialogue can support the participants to match intent with outcome.

This paper presents a methodology developed by members of the Research Centre for Learning and Teaching (RCfLAT) to collaborate with university teaching colleagues to produce theoretically- and pedagogically-based case studies of innovations in teaching and learning. The Equal Acclaim for Teaching Excellence (EquATE) project investigates whether case studies of teaching innovation, facilitated by a research team and made public through a community of inquiry, can take educational research beyond simple descriptions, foster criticality, and facilitate participants’ engagement with theory. The project supports participants as they plan and conduct their case studies and provides a community of inquiry in which findings are shared and discussed in relation to micro (classroom and discipline) contexts and macro (university-wide and higher education) agendas. This enables the project team to make comparisons across the case studies and to explore participants’ epistemic beliefs and views of learning. The project team collected data from the case studies, project tasks, and discussion groups that were thematically analyzed using inductive and deductive lenses. The data suggests that participation in the project can promote greater reflectivity, defamiliarize habitual practices, and promote openness to new theoretical and pedagogical perspectives.

Purpose – Coaching in educational settings is an alluring concept, as it carries associations with life coaching and well being, sports coaching and achievement and improving educational attainment. Although there are examples of successful deployment in schools, there is also evidence that coaching often struggles to meet expectations. This article aims to use socio-cultural theory to explore why coaching does NOT transplant readily to schools, particularly in England, where the object of coaching activity may be in contradiction to the object of dominant activity in schools – meeting examination targets. Design/methodology/approach – The article is a conceptual exploration of peer coaching through the lens of cultural historical activity theory, using an empirical base for exemplification. Findings – It is argued that the results agenda, or performativityculture, in manyschools is so strong that coaching is either introduced as part of the dominant discourse which meets resistance from staff, or where it develops in a more organic, “bottom up” approach, it may well clash with managerial cultures which demand accountability and surveillance, which does not sit well with trust-based coaching partnerships. Research limitations/implications – The contradictions described in the article suggest that more research is needed to explore how skilled coaches manage some mediation between the meta-discourse of managerialism and the meso- and micro-discourses underpinning meaningful professional learning. Practical implications – The article provides encouragement for peer coaches who manage the boundary between trust-based coaching and performativity agendas. Originality/value – The application of cultural historical activity theory offers a powerful analytical tool for understanding the interaction of peer coaching with organisational cultures, particularly through their emphasis on different motives or objects for professional learning.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test and develop a new tool for lesson observation and feedback within the context of initial teacher education. The tool was designed to align with the practitioner enquiry model of teacher learning underpinning the course, and as such it drew mentors into the mode of responding to their students’ questions. Design/methodology/approach – The research was undertaken as a Design Study. The design of the tool led to an iterative, collaborative, process-focused approach to the development of the observation tool. Students and their mentors were encouraged to experiment with and report on their observation experience. Findings – The observation tool altered the qualityof the mentoring relationship through focusing on enquiry as its foundation. Feedback from student teachers and their mentors helped us to define the role of observation in the process of professional learning and to review the nature of the mentoring relationship which emerged. Practical implications – Significant professional development and learning can be triggered by crossing both real and metaphorical boundaries and as such it is essential that the tools offered to students and their mentors are supportive of divergent learning outcomes, through which each student teacher has the opportunity to transform teaching practices, not simply replicate existing ones. Originality/value – Observation and feedback in the classroom can be viewed as a “boundary” practice. This new tool can be regarded as a “boundaryobject” which promotes the use of questions to support the “framing and reframing” necessary for the professional learning and development of the beginning teachers.

Focus: This roundtable will provide initial insights from a study visit to the Western Quebec School Board. The WQSB is comprised of urban and rural schools and has a unique composition of student population in terms of language and culture. There has been a problem with teacher attrition, which is being addressed by the implementation of WQSB’s Teacher Induction Program (TIP). Research approach: TIP aims to retain effective teachers new to the district; to provide leadership and professional growth opportunities for veteran staff; and to improve teaching and learning. During the study visit the aims of TIP will be explored through engagement with participants and providers, during which narratives will be collected. Significance: TIP has three pillars: Professional Learning; the Mentoring and Coaching Fellowship and Evaluation. Our discussion will relate initial findings from Western Quebec with approaches to universal challenges of teacher retention and quality in the UK and beyond. Hobson, A & Maxwell, B (2017) Supporting and inhibiting the well‐being of early career secondary school teachers: Extending self‐determination theory, BERJ, Vol 43, No. 1, p168-191 Kennedy, A. (2014), “Understanding continuing professional development: the need for theory to impact on policy and practice”, Professional Development in Education, Vol. 40 No. 5, pp. 688-697 Korthagen, F. (2017), “Inconvenient truths about teacher learning: towards professional development 3.0”, Teachers and Teaching, Vol, 23 No. 4, pp.387-405

Sometimes it feels like we approach professional practice in education with a deficit model. What else should we be doing? What could be improved through marginal gains? What stretching targets can we agree? Who needs to be held to account? What works, and by implication, what doesn’t work? Mentoring in Initial Teacher Education is a professional practice that is often framed as something to be improved. My research has contributed to this, and my recently published conceptual paper in the International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education (Lofthouse, 2018) does indicate some of the aspects of mentoring that are problematic and have the potential to be developed. This working paper is deliberately not taking a deficit approach. It has two distinct parts: firstly, it is a reflection on a small scale survey of student teachers’ positive experiences of being mentored, and secondly it introduces a conceptualisation of how the potential of mentoring might be maximised

Coaching has been evolving as a form of professional development for teachers and school leaders for several decades, and now exists in many forms. This study focused on the work of six coaches in England, using an adapted focus group approach to discover how they explained and conceptualised the value of their practices. As the coaches’ conversations with each other emerged details of the nature of their work, and their reflections on it, were elicited which were analysed thematically while also paying due attention to individual narratives. Although coaching is not easily defined this study demonstrates the significance of relationships and dialogue in coaching and the structures and protocols that support that. It suggests that coaching is suited to helping individuals dealing with authentic challenges, professional interests and dilemmas experienced in complex educational settings, while also acting as a counterweight to some of the consequences of performativity. The study also suggests that coaching may be a valuable means to deploy the expertise of experienced professionals to support an education system exposed to problems of retention of both teachers and school leaders.

Teachers’ knowledge for effective pedagogies can be enhanced by drawing on a range of specific expertise held by those working in other disciplines or professions. In this article, we explore this potential through a focus on enhancing research-informed communication rich pedagogies in primary and early years’ settings. The specific example is that of speech and language therapists using video-based coaching with teachers. Our research provides case study evidence and demonstrates that this professional development approach brings speech and language therapy research and expertise into the practice domain of teachers. This is a dynamic, reciprocal and co-constructive relationship between the participants. The focus on this paper is on how it can enable teachers to extend their understanding and develop a more nuanced understanding of specialist evidence of speech, language and communication for, and in, practice.

In this paper, we explore what is known about teachers’ engagement in and with educational research with a special emphasis on teachers’ voice evoking their experience of participating in research. This will draw upon international contexts in order to suggest ways of utilising the benefits of research in practice. Our review is framed around five key themes between which there are interesting links. The first theme is purpose and consequence, which highlights the dimensions of teachers’ control and autonomy. This is related to the second theme—teachers’ learning and affective response. The third theme, agency, addresses the contextual factors influencing teachers’ experience of research, which opens up the fourth theme concerning the degree of trust and collaboration that is experienced by teacher researchers. The final theme is contradiction. This phenomenon is understood in the context of socio-cultural theory in that the teacher researcher is evolving practice and questioning the focus on aggregate examination results/targets and its associated technology. While the available evidence of teachers’ experience of research is overwhelmingly positive, providing an acceleration of professional understanding and new perspectives, which re-invigorates those teachers who do engage, it is not always experienced as such. Overall, we underline the importance of dialogic approaches and ecological agency, which relate to teachers’ multi-dimensional perceptions of and participation in research.

The development of pedagogies to meet the needs of diverse communities can be supported through inter-professional practice development. This article explores one such experience, that of speech and language therapists developing a new video-based coaching approach for teachers and teaching assistants in multi-cultural settings with high numbers of children learning English as an additional language. To support them in developing and trialling the coaching approach, the expertise of a teacher-educator and educational researcher was provided through a university business voucher. It is this working relationship that the article has as its practical focus, as it transformed to one of collaborative action research. The action research is described, providing the context for a discussion of the characteristics of collaborative action research and the proposal of a new model. This model offers a way of conceptualising collaborative action research through time, and of recognising the importance of the partners’ zones of proximal, contributory and collaborative activities in sustaining change and knowledge-creation.

This paper draws on my work with Jo Flanagan and Bibiana Wigley. They are speech and language therapists working in primary and nursery schools in Derby, with whom I have worked over a number of years to develop a video-based coaching approach to support teachers in creating more communication-rich pedagogies. It is a case study which will illustrate the themes of inter-professional learning in complex landscapes of educational practice. This case study featured in a keynote that I gave at the 2017 IPDA conference which was themed ‘The Complexity of Professional and InterProfessional Learning’.

We examine how beginning teachers in the UK conceptualise their own learning to teach, using the 'Conceptual Change' approach (Vosniadou, 2013). Our sample of 37 from three university centres includes primary and secondary beginning teachers on undergraduate and postgraduate routes, and a new school-based route into teaching ('School Direct'). We conducted interviews in the middle and at the end of their teacher education programmes. We identified six dimensions within beginning teachers conceptions of learning to teach. Our analysis indicates that a high degree of self-determination was associated with reflection on ‘being a teacher’ and a view of knowledge for teaching as uncertain. Many student teachers did not appear to change their conception at all and others regressed from a more complex conception of learning to teach to being recipients of 'good ideas'. Those who experienced co-construction seemed to be more open to conceptualizing learning to teach as complex. This matters for teacher educators who, we believe, should pay careful attention to what they are encouraging student teachers to focus on in their reflection and should aim to create conditions for learning in which student teachers experience co-construction.

Teachers are responsible for learning; they inspire, teach, support and assess their students on a daily basis while also being subject to numerous expectations from parents, society, employers, government and their students. To engage with these challenges, teachers need to be enabled and motivated to continue to learn while operating within busy workplaces and a culture of performativity, and in the context of politicised and volatile teacher ‘training’ spaces. In this lecture, I will draw on my research in the contexts of both initial and continuing teacher professional learning and practice development, exploring potential lessons for school leaders, training providers, policymakers and teachers themselves. The research that informs my lecture represents a variety of lived experiences of educational practice – either my own or teachers’. My research does not neatly fit into one paradigm or another; sometimes I adopt an interpretive paradigm and at other times an action research paradigm. I will reflect on research-based evidence of teacher learning, both to illustrate and to analyse professional practices from which knowledge can be gained. My research reveals the tensions for teacher educators, mentors, coaches, school leaders and teachers at all stages of their careers. Their professional and personal need for learning and development coincides with a time when schools are dealing with ever-increasing demands to ‘perform’ in relation to pupil attainment, and a growing sense that they are covering cracks in a period of austerity. This backdrop creates new dependencies; for example, raising the demands on those within and joining the teaching profession to create a ‘self-improving school-led system’. It opens up opportunities for professional learning but also creates contradictions as activity systems collide. I can’t do all of these themes full justice in the time that I have but I do hope to help you to engage with them.

‘Metacognition and self-regulation’ and ‘collaborative learning’ remain high in the EEF Teachers’ Toolkit of effective teaching approaches, and with good reasons. These reasons can be framed through the following hypotheses. Firstly; that to become metacognitive and self-regulating learners need to experience learning situations, activities and content that can best be resolved, understood and applied through opportunities to engage in dialogue with others. Secondly; that through engaging with collaborative learning learners become more adept at grappling with the complexities and challenges that they encounter through the curriculum and in life. And finally; that to teach for metacognition and self-regulation teachers need to experience both for themselves in their own learning to teach. These three hypotheses form the basis of this case study, focusing on a PGCE module through which student teachers use an adapted lesson study approach to develop a repertoire for teaching thinking skills.

Living in social disadvantage significantly increases a child’s risk of speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) occurring, and it is recognised that most children with SLCN have some difficulty learning to read and write. In this roundtable discussion, practice and research evidence of a professional development approach of speech and language therapists using video-based coaching with teachers to enhance research-informed communication rich pedagogies in primary and early years’ settings will be shared. Evidence comes from four primary schools in a socio-economically deprived area of a multi-cultural city in England. Research methods included a Theory of Change Methodology as an evaluative tool, analysis of coaching conversations and focus group discussions. The research indicates that inter-professional video-based coaching brings speech and language therapy research and expertise into the practice domain of teachers, through which both parties extend their understanding and develop a more nuanced understanding of evidence for, and in, practice. It is clear that school leaders and policy-makers have to consider the efficacy of all professional development approaches. Tensions emerge in a performative culture with narrowly determined testing regime. Coaching allows a bespoke reflection on and development of personal practice which does overcome some, but not all, of these tensions.

Purpose The research demonstrates the role of activity systems based in cultural historical activity theory as a means of analysing characteristics and efficacy of specific provisions of coaching in education. Design/methodology/approach Three examples of coaching in education were selected, involving 51 schools in England. The three examples were reanalysed using activity systems. This drew on existing evaluation evidence gathered through interviews, questionnaires, focus groups and recordings of coaching. Findings In each example, the object of the coaching was to address a specific challenge to secure the desired quality of education. Using activity systems, it is possible to demonstrate that coaching has a range of functions (both intended and consequential). The individual examples illustrate the potential of coaching to support change in complex and diverse education settings. Research limitations The use of existing data from evaluations means that direct comparisons between examples are not made. While data was collected throughout the duration of each coaching programme, no follow-up data was available. Practical implications The analysis of the examples of coaching using activity systems provides evidence of the efficacy of specific coaching provision in achieving individually defined objectives related to sustaining and improving specific educational practices. Originality/value The research offers insights into how coaching in education might be better tuned to the specific needs of contexts and the challenges experienced by the individuals working in them. In addition, it demonstrates the value of activity systems as an analytical tool to make sense of coaching efficacy.

Our focus in this chapter is how we can adopt an attuned teaching approach and why this would be supportive of all children and young people. We explore its significance for children who may have experienced trauma through loss of, or separation from, birth family or other significant life experience causing vulnerability. We have chosen to write as if we are in a shared space with you, perhaps you can imagine a conversation in the staffroom. We are hoping our experiences and knowledge help you to reflect and provide you with ideas of how to develop your professional practice and to gain confidence.

A report based on the evaluation of the 2018-19 headteacher coaching programme provided by Integrity Coaching and funded by the National Education Union.

This research is the first thematic review of narratives of collaborative practice as given in ‘practice insight’ working papers published by CollectivED. It reveals the diversity of practices and how the dimensions of these practices stimulate, frame and limit collaboration and in what ways the practitioner authors create discourses of collaboration. Through this analysis the following research question will be addressed: What can we learn from practitioners’ narratives of collaborative professional development, and are key lessons to be found amongst its complexities?

Thinking is the basis for learning, and learning allows for better thinking. This reciprocal relationships is lived out in how we teacher, and how learners engage and sustain progress. This keynote will draw on evidence that extends our understanding of the current EEF research and guidance, drawing a short history of teaching thinking skills, and celebrating how teachers have worked collaboratively to develop effective practices. To bring this short history up to date evidence from the Swaledale Alliance Metacognition SSIF project will be shared, allowing a discussion of contemporary challenges and opportunities for change.

Coaching and mentoring have a mixed presence in schools, existing on a spectrum of intent, quality and availability. Despite having the potential to be inherently rich educative practices coaching and mentoring of teachers sometimes falls short. This will be an exploratory session through which we will consider the lessons we might learn about the role of coaching and mentoring in supporting teachers to work confidently at all career stages. Evidence from a UCET sponsored study visit to Western Quebec, where their Teacher Induction Programme is the centre-piece of CPD, will be considered. This will be reflected on in relation to practices and policy in England. The premise is that if we can get coaching and mentoring right they might help turn the tide on teacher retention and self-efficacy and contribute to creating a more sustainable teaching profession. We will consider how this premise can be translated into real promise.

This is a chapter in three sections, each told through my own perspective as teacher educator with twenty-three years of experience of working in the university sector in England. As such is it largely autobiographical. The chapter opens with my reflective account of changes to the teacher education terrain as it has been re-landscaped through policy enactment. I reflect on the journeys that I and others have taken in this terrain and outline some of the features of the landscape, its new territories and the navigations that lie ahead. My own path led me to parts of the sector populated by mentors and coaches working to support teacher learning and development. The features of the mentoring landscape, like others, have evolved over the last twenty years. The second section of the chapter offers a hypothesis of a colonization of the mentoring and coaching space. The teacher education terrain in England at all career stages, from initial to executive leadership, is now littered by training frameworks designed using questionable templates and produced by policymakers and agencies who have corralled the terrain into DfE-accredited teacher training territories. I will draw the chapter to a close by considering how these frameworks and the infrastructure that they create have changed the landscapes and which parts of the terrain these changes have obscured.

Conventionally, school-based mentors have supported student teachers through the processes of training, observing, feedback and discussion. Quality assurance evidence demonstrates that despite good documentation and university-based guidance there remains inconsistency in the calibre and outcomes of these collaborative relationships and their ability to promote reflection. The transition of the initial teacher education PGCE to a Masters level course provided an opportunity to use new tools to develop the working relationships between student teachers and their mentors. One such change was the development of a portfolio assignment which involved student teachers in videoing their own lessons. This paper outlines the findings of the first year of research relating to the video intervention. Its focus is the student teachers’ responses to both recording lessons and using footage to support the processes of analysis, mentoring and reflective writing. In addition, the views of mentors and PGCE tutors are considered. The results of questionnaires show that the outcomes of the video intervention are seen as positive and substantial by the majority of participants.

Have you become used to, even immune to, the language of teacher training and of trainees? Perhaps you work for, or are in partnership with, an Initial Teacher Training provider. Maybe you facilitate in-service teacher training, or perhaps undertake a quality assurance role. It’s possible your research focuses on the impact of teacher training. Being part of the machinery of teacher training, and adopting the associated language, allows us to articulate to others in each education sector what we do. We become recognisable in Higher and Further Education and schools and in policy-making; and accountable to our target audience and consumers. So, perhaps we all too quietly put away our claim to be educating teachers. The question of teacher training versus teacher education is often characterised as a semantic squabble and a mythologising of the past. In this keynote I will plead guilty to yearning for a future of teacher education characterised by a renewed and energetic scholarship and an engagement in social activism by those new to, immersed in, and educating the teaching profession. I will invite you to engage in collective imagination, and to share how it is possible to let go of the constraints and think differently.

The current Key Stage 3 National Curriculum for England orders that our education foster determination, adaptability, confidence, risk-taking, enterprise, creativity and enjoyment in a cross-curricular context in pupils. To appreciate these dimensions student teachers need to have multiple opportunities to experience such a curriculum for themselves. However, initial teacher education is an intense and demanding experience; student teachers veer between phases of basic survival and personal innovation as they develop their individual pedagogy and personal philosophy. For new secondary teachers their own subject specialism forms a core feature of their emerging professional identity and can act as a barrier to collaborative practice beyond that specialism. This paper discusses one example of a cross-curricular approach in which Art and Geography PGCE students reflect on their experiences of a collaborative event designed to break down subject barriers while exploiting the potential of subject specialism. Data collected from semi-structured interviews conducted with a sample of students during the two-day event is discussed. Data revealed that critical outcomes of the event included the practice and development of genuine collaboration, negotiation, teamwork, and leadership.

Mentoring is about more than meeting standards, and can be form the basis of healthy and happy professional engagement and career support, for both the mentor and their mentee. This keynote will consider how we can make this ambition come to life.

In this workshop we will reflect on evidence from research to identify how our work as mentors can be orientated towards authentic, productive and relational practices for mutual professional learning

We present an analysis of pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) conceptions of their own learning, focusing on relationships between where PSTs learn and conceptions of their own learning. Our data come from in-depth interviews carried out over a six-month period with PSTs on different routes into teaching. We identify four components of learning to teach: beliefs about knowledge for teaching and the focus, timing and self-determination of reflection. We found weak relationships between PSTs’ conceptions and their route into teaching (led by a school or university) and stronger relationships between conceptions of their own learning and their experience of mentoring in school.

Teachers are often encouraged to work in partnerships to support their professional development. In this article we focus on three forms of working partnerships based in English secondary schools. Each has an intended function of developing teaching practices. The cases of mentoring, coaching and an adapted lesson study come from both initial teacher education and continuing professional development, but have common practices of one-to-one meetings, planned activity and shared reflection. The participants’ perspectives on these practices were investigated through a multiple case study using semi-structured interviews. We established the degree to which their experiences could be considered to be collaborative, basing our analysis on the extent to which there was evidence of working ‘together’, not just working ‘with’; and working towards a common goal, pooling knowledge and problem-solving. We conclude that collaboration for the development of their own teaching practices allows teachers to engage in more informed decision-making and to construct a shared understanding of the nature of the desired learning outcomes and how they might be achieved in their own contexts. The teachers indicate that this experience often runs counter to their experience of the school cultures driven by performativity.

Current debates around the concept of boundary crossing stress the importance of boundary objects in bringing people together to share understandings. We argue that the boundary object is of secondary importance, and that what is important for the transformational potential of interdisciplinary understanding is opportunities for ‘boundary experiences’. We present three examples of interdisciplinary boundary experiences: the first describes a collaboration between an education academic and speech and language therapists; the second presents a research opportunity experienced by a group of education, architecture, and sociology academics, alongside practising architects and educators; and the third reflects on the process of co-production involving academics from education, medical education, cultural and heritage studies, sociology, music, and social computing. We argue that engaging in shared landscapes of practice, when accompanied by opportunities for dialogue and for developing relationships, creates meaningful moments of service, and thus has transformational potential. However, we believe that this necessitates a new way of thinking about research methodology. We advocate a co-production approach that is grounded in developing and maintaining relationships, and routinely provides opportunities for boundary experiences. This requires a more open and flexible approach to research design than is currently usually promoted within academic research infrastructures.

Oral language skills underpin children’s educational success and enhance positive cognitive, social, emotional and life outcomes. However, significant numbers of children struggle to develop competence in speaking and listening, especially children from areas of high economic deprivation (Dobinson and Dockrell, 2021). This is highlighted by the Oracy All-Party Parliamentary Policy Group (APPG), whose reports are advocating a renewed focus on oracy (2020). This case study shares the emerging findings from year one of a two-year project, funded by the Paul Hamlyn Teacher Development Fund. We are utilising drama pedagogy to bring the curriculum to life through storytelling, with an explicit focus on children’s oracy. The project is co-led by research and practice experts in drama pedagogy (Stephenson, 2022) from the Story Makers Company, Leeds Beckett University and school leaders from Bowling Park Primary. The eight partner schools are in the Bradford BD5 school’s network, and share an ambition to embed an integrated story approach to curriculum. Our focus is on embedding drama pedagogy within the humanities subjects, creating an imaginative story curriculum experience in Years 3 and 4 across the schools. As part of this knowledge exchange, teachers are paired with one of five artist educators (specialists in drama pedagogy) and given time and space to co-plan, co-deliver and co-reflect for 15 sessions across each year. Central to this process of professional development and learning (CPDL) is a coaching approach (Lofthouse, 2019), blended with expert pedagogical modelling and learning exchange. This article explores the ways in which our co-inquiry approach to CPDL was integral to supporting more sustainable pedagogical changes in the localised contexts of the schools involved.

Recent international and national legislation demonstrates a trend towards inclusive education which aspires to ensure the participation of all young people in educational provision. However, research indicates that implementation of these visionary and aspirational policies into the different national, historical and cultural contexts across Europe remains challenging with teachers articulating that they do not feel prepared or supported to work with the diversity of students in classrooms. This paper describes the PROMISE project which sought to examine the nature of the professional challenges being experienced by teachers. The paper concludes with project findings indicating the key elements necessary for teachers’ professional development to be effective.

Despite policy calling for enhanced inclusive practice within all schools and colleges, educators across Europe are facing increasing challenges when providing effective inclusive education for all students as a result of increased diversity within European society. This paper focuses on the development of our understanding of how to support educators’ professional learning around issues of diversity and inclusion. Specifically, it aims to explore what diversity looks like across countries, sectors, and roles, what challenges and dilemmas are posed for educators, and how new approaches to professional learning can support the educators across all sectors. The exploratory study described in the paper emerged from work undertaken as part of an Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership project called PROMISE (Promoting Inclusion in Society through Inclusion: Professional Dilemmas in Practice). Traditional approaches to professional learning to support teachers’ inclusive practice have tended to focus on discrete courses which address specific learning needs such as autism, literacy difficulties, or behavioural issues. The paper presents findings from a transnational study which indicate that the professional dilemmas facing educators are complex and unpredictable and argues, therefore, that educators require professional learning that is collaborative, interprofessional, and acknowledges that the challenges they face are multifaceted.

Coaching and mentoring puts personal support and individualised professional development at the centre of the working lives of new teachers. Coaches and mentors create structured opportunities for professional conversations and sense-making. This allows new teachers to integrate the curriculum content of the Early Career Framework, their current experiences and the promise of a sustained career in which they can thrive and contribute. In this chapter we address concerns of the Early Career Framework as a technicist policy. We draw on research evidence to explore the potential of coaching and mentoring to support Early Career Teachers.

This report presents the findings of an independent evaluation carried out for the Swaledale Teaching Alliance into their DfE Strategic School Improvement Fund (SSIF) grant to introduce metacognition into mathematics. The evaluation was conducted by CollectivED, a research and practice Centre in the Carnegie School of Education at Leeds Beckett University (LBU).

Nepparticipatie is wat vermeden moet worden: daarom zetten we ‘belonging’ in dit boek centraal. Er mogen zijn, is niet genoeg. Het gaat om erbij horen, van betekenis kunnen zijn.

Research focus Between 2016 and 2018 our post-92 University has funded 13 education research partner projects, with each partner receiving a grant of £10,000. The overall aim of the Research Partner Fund is to support the development of educational practices which are informed by relevant, rich and context-sensitive research. The funding is competitive with less than 20% of applicants in the latest round being successful. It is hoped that the projects support educational decision-making to create positive impacts for children and young people, professionals and communities, both in the partner organisation and more widely. Fund recipients include individual schools, Teaching Schools, Multi-Academy Trusts and theatre groups working with schools. Academic staff from the Carnegie School of Education are recruited to the projects to share their expertise, but just as importantly, to learn alongside the practitioner researchers who are engaged in each setting. From the perspective of our School of Education it is anticipated that these research partnerships will enable stronger links to be established and sustained between small-scale practitioner research, larger-scale academic research and local and national decision-making. They also represent a strategic alignment of the school with the university’s objective to become more research focused. Specifically, the fund supports projects to meet the following objectives; •To support the development of research cultures embedded in educational practice; •To develop the capacity of practitioners to engage in, and with, research and enquiry; •To forge purposeful and productive working relationships between the Carnegie School of Education and the wider education community; •To create new case studies of practice-based educational research and communicate these in a range of formats suitable for professionals, policy-makers, the academic community and other partners. Session outline In this session we will reflect on the real experiences and outcomes of these funded research projects, from the inside out. We will bring a number of the practice-based research partners and academics into conversation with each other and the first half of the session will allow the audience to listen in to these conversations, prior to a participating in more open discussion regarding university-school research partnerships. As suggested by the session title – Snakes and Ladders – we will explore the opportunities, constraints, pitfalls and successes experienced through the research. In doing so we will consider the efficacy of these research partnerships, what precisely the funding supported, how research projects were originally conceived compared to how they were conducted, the extent to which the research has had reach and impact both within and beyond the funded organisations and which objectives are readily achieved and which are more ambitious. Key questions will be what form of practitioner research this partnership has facilitated, how inclusive is it and what its legacy might be. The series of short conversations between partners and academics will be situated within an overview of evidence emerging from project reviews. Theoretical considerations Cordingley (2013) suggests three forms of leadership within the school-based research process; researcher-led academic studies; teacher-initiated small scale studies; and Masters-based teacher enquiry (supported by university curriculum tuition). The Carey Philpott research projects fall somewhere in between. This session will explore the varying experiences of partners’ research engagement ‘in’ or ‘with’ research (Hall, 2009), as well as the significance of environmental factors, time and the partners’ and academic colleagues’ personal capabilities within wider workload and responsibilties (Leat, Lofthouse & Reid, 2014), and the inevitable ethical tensions (Bryan and Burstow, 2018). The extent to which the partnership relationships were or were not sustained, and the role of trust and active support from the senior leadership time and HE partner will be considered (Timperley & Parr, 2007). Finally, these research projects will be conceptualised in relation to the new model of collaborative action research proposed by Lofthouse, Flanagan and Wigley (2016). References Bryan, H & Burstow, B (2018) Understanding ethics in school-based research, Professional Development in Education, 44:1, 107-119 Cordingley, P (2014) The Contribution of Research to Teachers’ Continuing Professional Learning and Development, BERA Hall, E. (2009) Engaging in and engaging with research: teacher inquiry and development. Teachers and Teaching, 15: 6, 669-681. Leat D, Reid A, & Lofthouse R. (2015) Teachers’ experiences of engagement with and in educational research: what can be learned from teachers’ views? Oxford Review of Education 41(2), pp.270-286 Lofthouse R, Flanagan J, Wigley B. (2016) A new model of collaborative action research; theorising from inter-professional practice development. Educational Action Research, 24 (4), pp.519-534. Timperley, H.S. & Parr, J.M. (2007) Closing the Achievement Gap through Evidence-based Inquiry at Multiple Levels. Journal of Advanced Academics, 19(1), 99-115.

The objective of this publication is to assist practitioners and researchers to undertake project development, implementation and evaluation using theory of change. This is applicable to a wide range of domains including education, public health, social care, community work, youth work, the arts and more. The aim of this publication is to:  Give researchers and practitioners some ideas about how a theory of change framework can be used and the opportunities and challenges it brings  Inspire and encourage both practitioners and researchers to consider different ways of using theory-based methods in their work.

Internationally, both Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and Continuing Professional Development and Learning (CPDL) are under reform, creating the opportunity to rethink roles and responsibilities of individuals and organisations. Trainee teachers are experiencing extended school placements, with school-based mentors taking on roles including supervision, tutoring, feedback and monitoring. In some jurisdictions there is provision for ongoing mentoring and / or coaching of early career teachers to help them to develop practice and to promote teacher retention. CPDL often foregrounds the role of shared enquiry into, and dialogue about, pedagogic practice. Maximising the potential of coaching, mentoring and collaboration in ITE and CPDL is critical in enabling teachers to contextualise, authenticate and reframe relevant theory, research and policy to inform and shape their practices in complex educational settings. This requires appropriate and well deployed structures, roles, processes and tools. The opportunities and tensions which emerge in developing these practices will be explored, drawing on research, practice and policy evidence from Australia, Wales, Canada, Finland, Japan and England. The discussion following the papers will encourage participants to consider the question; How can we maximise the potential of mentoring, coaching and other forms of collaborative dialogue to support professional learning throughout teachers’ career paths?

In this episode, Rachel talks about coaching and mentoring for Early Career Teachers and school leaders. We discuss why coaching is important throughout a teacher’s career and why mentoring matters (#MentorsMatter). We also touch upon the impact of coaching and mentoring including discussing one of Rachel’s brand new research papers called: ‘Understanding coaching efficacy in education through activity systems: privileging the nuances of provision.’

Instructional Coaching: Balancing Inquiry and Advocacy For this Curious Convos webinar we were delighted to bring together four global leaders in coaching in education: Dr Jim Knight, Senior Partner of the Instructional Coaching Group, Kansas, USA; Professor Christian van Nieuwerburgh, GCI Global Director; Professor Rachel Lofthouse, Director of CollectivEd The Centre for Mentoring, Coaching and Professional Learning at Leeds Beckett University, UK; and Chris Munro, GCI Executive Director. They discussed Instructional Coaching: what it is and is not; the research underpinning it; what it looks like when it’s done well; and some of the contextual considerations when implementing Instructional Coaching in schools and other education settings.

Support is needed to assist international students to assimilate into their institution of choice, and the broader community. The traditional structures and pedagogies of higher education, specifically teacher-centred approaches to classroom management, fail to maximise on the peer resources within the student group itself. This paper proposes that peer learning is an effective tool to develop communities of learners, by moving the locus of power from the teacher. By facilitating peer learning opportunities, it is possible to create more meaningful engagement and enable international students to develop agency in their learning.