Internal Support and Challenge

Collaborative learning for teaching and support staff is crucial to building schools where teams continually improve their knowledge and practice. In schools who perform particularly well in this area, there is a culture of constructive challenge based on evidence, where staff are confident in deeply reflecting on their own practice and constructively critiquing that of their colleagues. 

In addition to developing classroom practice, it’s important to support career development within schools. Any career processes should be transparent, evidence-informed, and completed within a supportive culture. Teachers should also be involved in a regular performance appraisal process, giving them a voice to ensure that the process is fair and meaningful.

What does the research say?

Kraft and Blazar’s 2017 research showed teacher coaching to have promising results on the quality of teaching. The EEF’s guidance for effective professional development adds to this, highlighting further areas of social support, monitoring, and feedback as key ingredients to ensuring professional development is effective.

The impact of teacher appraisal on internal support and challenge can also impact staff performance as evident in the  CIPD review (2016). This suggested that work appraisals have positive effects on staff performance, but only when perceived as fair and when the reviewee was encouraged to feed back thoughtfully. The Teacher Development Trust is due to release a new report on effective teacher appraisal in the coming months.

Learn how to Build a Supportive Coaching Culture

Our interactive e-learning module will support you to:

  • Recognise the coaching models and conditions to prioritise in your setting for a supportive coaching culture.
  • Determine how to plan for, implement, and sustain a strong coaching culture
  • Identify actionable next steps for continuing your learning

 
Learn through videos and case studies from real school leaders, reflect on your practice, and read breakdowns of the research behind how staff coaching works in different schools.