Using video technology for professional development

Information about the setting

St David’s Catholic Sixth Form College was established in 1987 by the Archdiocese of Cardiff.  It provides sixth-form provision at its campus located in the Penylan area of the city.  The college employs approximately 130 staff members and caters for around 1,400 learners, nearly all of whom study full-time and are between 16 and 19 years of age.

The college offers learners a choice of 30 A level courses as well as level 3 vocational courses across eight subjects. AS and A level courses account for 64% of enrolments at the college, with level 3 vocational courses accounting for 23% of enrolments.  Level 2 courses make up 10% of enrolments, with level 1 courses accounting for 2% of enrolments.  The subject areas that have the largest proportion of provision are science and mathematics; business, administration and law; arts, media and publishing; and social sciences.

The college recruits learners from a wide range of schools, including four Catholic secondary partner schools. Learners from a diverse range of socio-economic, ethnic and religious backgrounds attend the college.  Thirty-four per cent of learners live in some of the most disadvantaged areas in Wales as defined by the first quintile of the Welsh index of multiple deprivation.  Twenty-six per cent of learners reside in the least deprived areas in Wales. Thirty-six per cent of the college population are black, Asian or have minority ethnic backgrounds.  Thirty-nine per cent of college learners are followers of the Catholic faith.

The governing body is working on a proposal to dissolve the college as a designated further education institution and re-constitute it as a voluntary aided school according to the schools’ regulations, under the control of the City of Cardiff Council.

Context and background to sector-leading practice

This case study relates to inspection area 5 of the common inspection framework and describes the college’s professional learning work to improve teaching through an emphasis on observation, deep self-reflection, coaching and collaboration.  This approach has fostered a culture whereby staff strive for excellence and positively engage in activities to improve the quality of their teaching to help learners reach their full potential.

In 2017 St David’s College introduced a four-year strategy to improve the quality of learning and teaching as part of its pursuit of excellence.  This strategy involves an enhanced approach to the evaluation of learning and teaching.  Prior to this period, the college’s lesson observation arrangements consisted of traditional lesson observations.  These were conducted by senior and middle leaders who provided feedback and guidance to teaching staff in developing personal action plans to address areas for development and share good practice.  Whilst this approach was effective in recognising the strengths and areas of development for teachers, the college identified a need for teachers to be more reflective in their practice in order to bring about sustained improvements.  This led to the use of video-technology to film lessons.  Staff members use this technology to facilitate a coaching approach to professional development.  Leaders and teachers utilise recordings to stimulate professional dialogue about learning and teaching.  As well as hosting these recordings, the college’s learning observatory digital platform provides access to relevant teaching and learning development resources.

Description of nature of strategy or activity identified as sector-leading practice

St David’s Sixth Form College’s professional learning strategy includes a comprehensive range of  measures to improve the quality of learning and teaching across its provision:

• A focus on six key principles of highly effective learning and teaching.  These six principles of challenge, explanation, modelling, practice, feedback, and questioning provide the foundations for professional development work throughout the year.  Teachers are encouraged to adopt and explore these principles within their lessons.  Staff use professional development sessions and time within learning area meetings to disseminate and share best practice. Leaders have aligned the college’s learning and teaching observation arrangements to the six principles and ensured that there is a strong focus on the progress that learners make.  Teachers can choose whether observations are traditional or filmed.
• The use of video technology to record lessons enables teachers to review and reflect on the quality of learning and teaching in their lessons.  It facilitates valuable analysis and professional dialogue between teachers and enables them to carefully analyse specific aspects of learner activity and teaching.  This enables teachers to make worthwhile adjustments to their practice, giving them confidence in their planning and delivery.  With the agreement of teachers, leaders use recordings to standardise the lesson observation process.
• Teachers can observe the lessons of their peers using a bespoke teaching observation room with a semi-transparent mirror.  With the consent of all involved, including learners, this provides teachers and leaders with a valuable opportunity to observe and discuss the learning and teaching whilst ensuring minimal disruption to lessons.  An audio communication device also enables the teacher to receive coaching in real time.  This instant feedback allows teachers to explore the effectiveness of different strategies as the lesson progresses.
• The college’s Learning Observatory provides development resources and guidance on the six principles.  This is a bespoke, purposeful online platform to support the college’s teachers. Relevant ongoing research materials and video clips are available through this platform which is quality assured by senior leaders.  Video clips of effective learning and teaching strategies,
• encompassing the six principles, are drawn from other organisations and the college itself.  The learning observatory is a collaborative tool and an effective way to share and celebrate good practice.
• An annual teaching and learning conference for students helps leaders to measure the impact of the college’s teaching and learning strategy against stated targets, as well as providing college-wide benchmark information for specific teaching and learning strategies.  The conference is led by the college’s director of teaching, learning and assessment and involves learners representing all courses across the college.  As part of the conference, learners respond to closed questions about their learning and teaching experiences.  The results are instantly collated and presented to learners.  Leaders use the valuable follow-up discussion to explore any issues that arise.  Leaders use the outcomes from the annual conference to influence the professional development priorities of the college.

What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?

The college’s innovative approach to improving learning and teaching has secured positive improvements for teachers and learners.  The strategy has successfully engaged teachers, increasing enthusiasm and deeper professional dialogue about teaching and learning within course teams and across subject disciplines.  Teachers have become more reflective and self-evaluative.

Learning and teaching observation feedback shows evidence of an improvement in the quality of learning and teaching within the college, along with an improvement in the progress that learners are making within lessons.  Learner outcomes have improved since the strategy was introduced.  In particular, learners achieve very strong grades for A level and vocational level 3 courses.

Learner satisfaction with learning and teaching has improved consistently since the introduction of the strategy.  For example, in 2018-2019, 93% of learners stated that they gained useful feedback from teachers about how to improve their work.

Spending on externally-sourced professional development related to learning and teaching has fallen.  The college’s learning observatory has facilitated a collaborative approach among teachers through which good practice can be shared.  It has provided teachers with a bespoke, highly appropriate and impactful resource for professional development.