What has been your best CPD as a teacher?

What has been your best CPD as a teacher? What would you say has had the most impact on your professional practice?

DHSB CPD Library with thanks from @berrymanNick

For me, it was the Masters that I completed about 13 years ago. I have seen a few conversations on Twitter over the summer holidays as I dipped in and out about whether people would recommend doing a Masters or not. The comments were pretty mixed and the majority of which were negative with an emphasis on people commenting I did one but it didn’t lead to any promotions or help me with my career.

My Masters was focused on action research within my own classroom where I completed several small action research projects culminating in a final dissertation specifically reflecting on my own practice and implementing changes to improve it. Personally, it was transformational and reflecting back on it now I believe it was particularly inspiring because at that stage I was still a teacher in my early career so that commitment and focus on improving my own practice gave me a valuable insight into becoming a better teacher. So, for me would I recommend completing a Masters, then I would say if it specifically focuses on action research then it will be transformational to your professional development.

However, even if you don’t carry out action research, any significant commitment to your own professional learning can only be a positive with regards to your development. After waiting for several years for the timing to be ‘right’ in the last 18 months I have been completing a doctorate part time. It is a professional doctorate and what I love about it is that I have found I am drawing on and contributes to my knowledge and practice in my role as a Headteacher. In the last 18 months I have found it extremely challenging but I have loved every minute of it, you begin to critically look at everything you do and what has been particularly beneficial is drawing on important research in our profession.

Today #ResearchEd has been trending on Twitter and it is brilliant to see so many of the profession engaging with this, I look forward to getting there next year!

Are you completing your doctorate? How are you finding it? Are you considering doing one? It would be great to hear from you.

What are your CPD priorities for this academic year?