[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”no” hundred_percent_height=”no” hundred_percent_height_scroll=”no” hundred_percent_height_center_content=”yes” equal_height_columns=”no” menu_anchor=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” enable_mobile=”no” parallax_speed=”0.3″ video_mp4=”” video_webm=”” video_ogv=”” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” video_preview_image=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=””][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”2_3″ spacing=”” center_content=”no” link=”” target=”_self” min_height=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”left top” background_repeat=”no-repeat” hover_type=”none” border_size=”0″ border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” dimension_margin=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” last=”no”][fusion_text]
This article will explore the fundamental perspective of continual professional development in relation to Ofsted’s overall viewpoint and interpretation. To understand this complex issue, we will evaluate what Ofsted defines as continual professional development, how leaders can utilise technology and the role of leadership in creating the right culture within early-years environments.
Ofsted places leadership at the centre of its regulatory framework for continual professional development. The regulator believes that a commitment by leadership in nurturing, developing and curating a culture of professional development can help to create the right environment for personal development to occur.
In terms of definition, Ofsted states that teachers professional development is defined as, “the effective means of improving staff skills. The developmental journey that leads to improved teacher outcomes in based on strategic, cultural and long-term antecedents that collaboratively lead towards positive personal development.
The Significance of Leadership
Ofsted believes that senior leadership can help create the right environment within the school ecosystem to help develop a continual professional development mindset. This can be accomplished by developing polices, enacting practice and workshop events and focusing on key reporting and benchmarks to help understand success. Evaluation and feedback along access to professional materials can help progress individual teacher standards in relation to this issue.
Creating Efficient Development Plans
The regulator, Ofsted, believes that development plans can help curate the experience individuals face when undertaking continual professional development. By allowing individuals bespoke access to individual content, development can be adjusted to meet personal needs whilst understanding areas of key strengths and weaknesses. This is crucial in creating long-term benchmarks that monitor outcomes based on development plan needs.
Using technology to improve professional development
Ofsted, working with a range of stakeholders, have evaluated the role of technology in the training outcomes of teachers by evaluating people on how they engaged with technological e-learning. What Ofsted found was that e-learning had a correlative link with confidence, especially subject confidence. By using accessible e-learning formats, teachers at diverse junctures of their professional lives could experience diverse professional development based on individual need.
Early Years – Understanding Professional Development
The Early Years environment provides a unique landscape in relation to teacher/support staff developing as practitioners in relation to continual professional development. In relation to Ofsted, we have discovered key areas of professional development guidance. As the subject improves, as more scholarly research opens more doors, there is a changing world that practitioners are required to both understand and comprehend. The use of structural planning within the early years setting can help nurture individuals upon their own bespoke training pathway. This requires strong and effective leadership to understand the basic minutiae of the organisation and the individual and how they co-exist.
Technology can play a central part, one approved by Ofsted, by developing the right polices, having the right leaders and supporting individual development, organisations need the right educational infrastructure to help achieve key objectives. E-learning is a crucial dynamic within this experience and one that Ofsted believes improves outcomes and nurtures individual development.
[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]