CPD is essential for every teacher. There are always new ideas to be tried, new approaches to test, new experiments and demonstrations to learn. No one teacher can know everything (although I’ve met one or two misguided souls who seemed to think they did!).
Unfortunately CPD often costs money. Courses can be very expensive, then there is the cost of supply cover, travel and accommodation costs. There are also other hidden costs like missing a lesson with a key group and having to catch up important examination work. I work across a lot of schools and I’m seeing how hard it is for teachers to get out of school.
Internal CPD seems to be the first choice of schools – but the quality of provision varies from school to school. With in-service training days being limited to 5 per academic year, opportunities for staff to work together are few and also dependant on the school being able to source a suitable provider. Departmental meetings get filled with talk of targets and data, and the coaching strategy never really took off because of difficulties getting teachers off timetable.
So what can science teachers do to hone their skills? Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be posting a series of blog posts showing science teachers where they can get ideas, keep their science knowledge up to date, and communicate with other teachers.
Watch this space!
Update:
CPD using online communities here
CPD using science websites here
CPD using podcasts here
Fiendishlyclever 