‘Inspirational’
The word inspirational was the most common feedback from teachers to describe the Dylan Wiliam events in March. I asked several teachers why they described the day and Dylan this way. The answers were all similar. Dylan is no nonsense, straight to the point with clarity on where there is and isn’t an evidence base to improve learner achievement.
Three key takeaways:
1. Teacher quality is the most important factor to address in raising learner achievement.
Raising individuals learner achievement improves lifetime wages, health, life satisfaction and life span. This benefits society by reducing criminal justice and healthcare costs with increase tolerance of diversity and UK GDP. Higher levels of educational achievement are needed but, we also need our learners to leave education with a desire to carry on learning and participate effectively in society.
2. It’s time to stop getting distracted by the next ‘new’ thing and focus on what is proven to make a difference – formative assessment.
Dylan identified two ‘best bets’. The first is curriculum development, the difficulty here is that we don’t yet know what makes a good curriculum. The second is the five key strategies of formative assessment which evidence base is extensive.
3. Improving teacher quality isn’t a knowledge problem, it is a habit change problem.
Research has currently had limited impact on teaching as it is not about ‘what works’ but ‘under what conditions’ does this work? Teaching is a matter of phronesis not episteme. This is why we need a model for teacher learning that focuses on choice, flexibility, small steps, accountability and support.
Dylan modelled and shared a variety of teaching techniques that achieve the principles of the five strategies of formative assessment. He also outlined the history, development and evidence base of the Embedding Formative Assessment programme.
There were many opportunities for discussion throughout the days. A common question from teachers was about how we fit a programme of Teacher Learning Communities into a busy professional development calendar. Dylan’s response was simple, “are the other things you are doing going to have the impact on learner achievement?”
We want to thank everyone who attended the events, we enjoyed every session as much as you did, and hopefully, we can run more sessions in the future. Are you interested in finding out more about EFA? Do you have questions? You can find out more here.
Join Professor Dylan Wiliam’s next EFA event on Thursday 29 June in London:
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