CPD Needs and Wants

What do Science Teachers need and want from CPD?

A survey was carried out by King’s college into the ‘professional views and needs of science teachers in secondary and primary schools in England’. (Dillon, Osborne, Fairbrother & Kurina 2000)

Main Findings

Most of the teachers in the survey were unhappy with the training that they received from school. The vast majority were not involved in any formal CPD programme and there was a general lack of understanding of the term CPD and its implications. A major criticism was that the school INSET days were commonly taken over by whole school issues such as ICT.

The teachers said that they needed a structured CPD programme, based around collaborative practices, which would support and increase their ‘professional practice’. (More detail). The INSET topics thought to be the most useful, or those which the teachers wanted included; ‘subject knowledge, pupil learning, and classroom management’. A specific need that was identified was more practical ideas of how to actually teach certain topic was required. The general consensus was that valuable INSET activities involved;

	collaborating with staff from their own and other schools as the chance to share experiences and good practice was valued,
	being able to practice the skills and try out the materials between INSET activities which can assist in the development of reflective practice,
	being tutored by instructors with appropriate classroom experience,
	being given the opportunity to actively participate in the training activities, rather than passively listening.

Some teachers said that the video tapes that contributed to the training for the primary national literacy and numeracy strategy showing good practice were very good and lamented the fact that there were no such material available for science teaching. An interesting development that may go some way towards addressing this issue is 'Teacher TV'. (More detail)

Most of the teachers commented that one of the greatest barriers to pursuing their own CPD was the lack of time available due to the demands of their job.