Sarah Longshaw, STEM Learning’s network education lead for science, reflects on how attending a conference can enhance practice
At the end of a long term, after another challenging year in education, it was encouraging to join those taking the time to reflect and revisit their practice during STEM Learning's secondary science teaching and learning conference on 14 July.
Dylan Wiliam’s quote that "Every teacher needs to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better" has always resonated with me, and is probably one of the reasons why I am now in my current role. But what makes a great teacher?
Attending the conference at the National STEM Learning Centre in York provided an opportunity to pause and join carefully constructed keynotes and a variety of workshops. The choice of sessions is important – giving participants the opportunity to create an experience, bespoke to individual interests and areas for development.
According to Professor Rob Coe, a great teacher is "One who is willing to do what it takes to be demonstrably more effective next year than this". You might argue that without engaging in some professional development, that this is unlikely. But if, as suggested by Coe et al, 'raising the quality of teaching within existing schools is probably the single most effective thing we could do to promote both overall attainment and equity' then surely it is the responsibility of every teacher?
The Great Teaching Toolkit identifies four components, the first of which is that ‘great teachers understand the content they are teaching and how it is learnt’. But with increasing challenges around recruitment and retention, how do we support those new to the profession - and those teaching out of specialism - to develop this understanding? One of the aims of the Early Career Framework is to help new teachers improve more rapidly through a two-year structured support framework - as well as keep them in the profession.
Teaching is complex – it involves the interplay of different factors, skilfully and simultaneously, to create the environment and opportunity for learning to take place. But it also involves knowing and understanding the content being delivered, the curriculum, and this not only includes the information, but the skills and other knowledge such as science capital, careers, and attributes and behaviours (David Bailey 2023). The secondary science curriculum is full, so it goes without saying that it requires sufficient time for delivery, but it also needs to be woven so that the various components work together. That’s hard to do – particularly for novice teachers and non-specialists.
In order to learn things, we build schema, we sequence and connect information which helps us to manage increasing quantities and complexities of data. Drawing on these schemas, this interconnected knowledge, enables us to start to answer ‘big’ questions, to identify the knowledge needed and then apply it to the question or context. But what happens if there are gaps – and what can we do to support those who might not have the same depth of understanding that we do?
Providing opportunities to learn, resources to use and access to expertise will all help, as will the encouragement to take responsibility for our own learning, so that as individuals we can develop our own professional identity. Attending a conference shows a commitment, an investment in an educator and by that educator, but it is what happens next that really makes the difference. It is how the messages from the keynotes are converted into actions, how the ideas are translated to a particular setting and how that becomes embedded into practice and evident in outcomes. Adopting and refining what makes a difference for our students - that’s what matters.
STEM Learning offers a range of primary and secondary CPD to support the development of teachers at all stages of their career – including non-scientists and those teaching out of specialism. STEM Community provides a forum to interact and network, whatever your career stage or specialism. The Best Evidence Science Teaching (7-11) and (11-16) materials provide guidance on the sequencing and assessment of key concepts in secondary science. The Stimulating Physics Network (SPN) and Subject Knowledge for Physics Teaching (SKPT) programmes provide support for teaching physics, including out of specialism.
Did you enjoy this blog? If so, scroll to the top and hit the 'Like' button!