Ruth Shinoda: Education Review Office Deputy CEO on professional development for teachers

There’s optimism over the future of professional development training for teachers. 

A new report from the Education Review Office has found half of teachers don't know how to use what they've learned in their classroom. 

It highlights training as one of the biggest drivers of success. 

Deputy chief executive Ruth Shinoda told Mike Hosking new development for English in primary schools this year is doing the things shown to work. 

She says three quarters of teachers are using what they learnt in that development every day. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You report out from the Education Review Office CERRO. They've
been looking into professional development for our teachers. Perhaps not surprisingly,
it's one of the biggest drivers of student success, but
half of teachers find current settings unclear and ineffective. Ruth
Denoda is the ero's deputy Chief executive and is with us.
Ruth morning, Good morning, unclear and ineffective? What does that mean?
What are they telling you?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
So what we found is there are three things that
really make professional development work, which is evidence based teaching techniques,
practical tools, building on and existing knowledge. And when that works,
it can be really effective. And we saw some really
effective stuff, but unfortunately not everything's effective. So, as you said,
half of teachers said that the most recent professional development

(00:42):
they did they weren't sure how to use it in
the classroom. And that's what we're recommending we change.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Would you yeah, well, so you agree with them? Are
they right in there or are they just misinterpreting what's
trying to be done.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Now, what we've found is that if it's the doing
the things that we know work, those really stepped out
teaching techniques, they're four times more likely to use it
and change their practice and become as a stronger teachers,
So that's really important. But at the moment there's no
quality standard out there, so you can have really high
quality development, but you can also have development that doesn't work.

(01:13):
And a third of teachers said what they did most
recently did have little impact on their practice.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Right, do they have to do this development or can
they opt in.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Or ountd All teachers do development like any other profession,
and teachers invest a lot of time in this and
schools invest a lot of money. So the most important
thing is to make sure it's delivering for them, and
this report shows what really does work, So we just
need to do more of that.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Stanford's a Minister of action? Is she on top of this?
Do you expect movement out of this?

Speaker 2 (01:41):
So one of the encouraging things is that recent English
and development that's been going out this year in primary
schools is doing the things the evidence shows work and
it's having a great impact. So three quarters of teachers
say for that English development that they're using what they
learn every day in their classrooms. It's really encouraging.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Good stuff. Nice to talk to your Ruth. Ruth Shinoda,
Deputy Chief Executive of the ER.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
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Speaker 1 (02:03):
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