Pedagogy and Personalisation
Senior leaders, subject leaders and teachers
Status: Recommended Date of issue: 06-2007 Ref: 00126-2007DOM-EN
This booklet is for leaders and teachers and other practitioners in schools and settings who wish to develop further the knowledge, skills and expertise of those who support children’s and young people’s learning.
How to make best use of this booklet
In recent years, many have commented that the profession of teaching has lacked a consistent and shared view of what constitutes pedagogical knowledge and expertise. This booklet, based on the wide-ranging work of the National Strategies over recent years in the field of teaching and learning, is intended to make a contribution to a more developed view of pedagogy and thus an increased sense of informed professionalism. It provides a theoretical yet practical view of the pedagogical principles embedded in the National Strategies. The time to address these fundamental issues of teaching and learning is right. Those who work in schools and settings are faced with increased accountability, which has brought about an increased openness in terms of what goes on in learning environments. The new teaching standards make specific reference to the need to develop pedagogical knowledge and skill as part of developing a career as a teacher. The most effective continuing professional development (CPD) often involves a specialist input along with an element of sharing practice, for instance through co-coaching, with opportunities to reflect on and learn from the practice of others. Achieving this means having a shared language and understanding in order to describe and evaluate the act of teaching. Achieving this means increasing the range and quality of dialogue within and across schools and settings about what is effective, to reduce the variation in the quality of teaching and learning that still exists in many situations and to enable transfer