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I was fortunate enough to be asked to present the final session in the main auditorium at FOBISIA, on “The future of CPD”. The Federation of British International Schools in Asia has 96 member schools spread across 19 countries in Asia.
The conference was hosted by the British International School of Phuket, and thanks should go to their team for the excellence of the organisation and the way in which all felt welcomed. Likewise, the quality of both speakers and presentations was very high, and the overwhelming feeling was one of great optimism and confidence that the professional development of hundreds of teachers and the education of thousands of young people across the region are in great hands.
The theme of my presentation was to tie together some of the ideas coming from both this conference and other cutting-edge thinking in the sector. It also gave a good opportunity to explain a little about what The Bridge will do, in conjunction with the Festivals of Education, and how these will be exceptionally useful resources for FOBISIA member schools.
Some of the challenges currently faced in our profession include:
• Recruitment and Retention
• Current state of CPD with its dominance by compliance and statutory
• QA and judgement
• Tyranny of metrics
• Instrumental accountability
• Confirmation bias in quoting research and the deep perils of the meta-study
• Institutional isomorphism and the prioritisation of routine or uniformity over adaptive professionalism
• Transactional not transformative
• Territorial and adversarial stances
• Need to meet teachers where they are
• Lethal mutations – eg “do nows”
I highlighted some key areas that teachers need or are asking for (see the Teacher Tapp Report for some of the evidence for this)
• Individualised, asynchronous
• Online and self-paced
• Classroom practice and subject knowledge
• Agency
• Coaching and Instructional Coaching
• Leadership
• The potential of AI and some of the directions in which it has already made progress
• Recent developments and products
• The power of connecting at in-person events; networks, partnerships and sharing best practice
• Work with the ones we have
• Humanity: as much as education is changing, it elevates the essential importance of elevating humanity, of relationships and of connection. This is the piece that can never be replaced by any machine, and the piece that teachers and school leaders should ensure that they prepare for.
