Four stage model
When faced with a new or different challenge in professional learning, it is sometimes difficult for educators to know where to begin. The four-stage model is intended to offer a progressive structure that begins with what the educator already knows and encourages the building of knowledge and skills.
It can be applied to any piece of learning, major or minor, and can also be used to help plan school or authority-wide development.
How the stages work
The stages are not discrete and there will be overlap, but taken together they describe a model of CPD which requires:
- increasing levels of educator ownership
- decreasing levels of centrally organised courses
- a movement from solitary learning towards significant collaborative activity.
Colleagues will, of course, be in different phases of CPD for various aspects of their professional development at the same time, but practitioners who are innovating and creating in any one area are well placed to understand relationships and connections across and between curricular areas and initiatives.
Our experience in the CPD team would suggest that educators who have undertaken four-stage CPD are confident in moving quickly through the stages when faced with new initiatives or projects.
The model is offered as a way of prompting change and growth regardless of starting point. It can also be useful to school leaders who are conducting professional review and development (PRD) interviews.
The four stages (very briefly) are:
Stage 1: Beginning
What do I need to know? What is expected of me in this area?
Stage 2: Applying
Where can I find out more? Who can help me?
Stage 3: Integrating into practice
How can I use this new skill or knowledge to improve my
practice? What can I do?
Stage 4: Innovating and creating
What else can I do? How can I share my learning with others?
The CPD Team has produced a postcard which illustrates the four-stage model in relation to Curriculum for Excellence. These have proved popular as a prompt for reflection and can be ordered by contacting cpdanswers@LTScotland.org.uk
Want more?
- You can read a much fuller description of the four-stage model, including examples of CPD activities to support each stage, in the Teachers for Excellence thought piece.
- Download the postcard and use it to prompt reflection.