Quality Assurance

This detailed document aims to address legitimate questions regarding the evidence and credibility that underpin Edusense's personalised professional
learning approaches, including online coaching tools and reflective tools.

  1. The Resilient Leaders Development Programme (RLDP)
  2. Temple Index Functional Fluency (TIFF)
  3. Edusense Reflective Tools (ERT) 

    We utilise two primary tools for coaching.

    Firstly, the RLDP has been employed by multiple organisations across various sectors, including educational establishments.

    Between 2014 and 2023, we have conducted over 15,000
    assessments (RLA and Feedback) to support the development of resilient
    leadership capability. As part of our ongoing research, we consistently analyse
    the assessment results to establish and maintain:

    • Validity - ensuring that the statements accurately reflect
    the requirements of being a Resilient Leader

    • Integrity - correlating facets and statements only where
    expected, with each statement sufficiently differentiated from others

    • Sensitivity - ensuring well-distributed responses to the
    frequency scale for each statement."

    As educators, we can have added confidence in the breadth and depth of this
    programme. It aligns with the requirements of all 14 mechanisms identified by
    Sims et al. (2021) as integral to effective Professional Development (PD).

    Data analysis reveals, on average, a 20% growth in leadership capacity. The transformational impact on leaders' elements is encapsulated here.

    Our 1-1 CPD session, 'Diagnosing Obstacles To Creating & Maintaining Momentum,' is rooted in power statements derived from the RLDP.

    • 3-Month coaching packages present participants with evidence of impact.

    • Dr. Warren has been actively engaged with the programme since its inception in the early 2000s.

      Secondly, the award-winning TIFF is a well-established and validated tool, originating from the research of Dr Susannah Temple. Its application, documented in published journals, has evolved into an international network.

      TIFF is more than a psychometric tool; it's a unique snapshot based on your patterns of behavior, leading to pragmatic steps. Hence, its unique methodology has been coined 'actometric'. Data analysis focuses on balances of energy and ratios of effectiveness.

      In broad terms, its outcomes might be categorized as the capacity to respond more and react less. This shift can be validated via re-assessment.

      Dr. Warren incorporated the tool into his doctorate and has been a TIFF Provider since 2011.  You can book your TIFF here.

        The Edusense Reflective Tools' (ERT) FITS suite is founded on the extensive experience and research of its creator, Dr Sean Warren. These tools are designed to empower participants to:

        • A: Build Knowledge
        • B: Motivate Teachers
        • C: Develop Teaching Techniques
        • D: Embed Practice.

        Evidence-Informed CPD: Mechanisms & Standards

        • (Above)

        • (Below)

        Overview:

        Furthermore, FITS tools consistently adhere to the published CPD Standards (2016). A summary of key conclusions is presented below, followed by detailed requirements and illustrations.

        DURATION: Where working to transform general practice, external facilitators and CPD providers should move away from a model of one-off, one-day support – and consider how to embed sessions within a longer programme of support and engagement (p.12)

        RHYTHM: Providers must carefully design programmes to allow for frequent, meaningful engagement from participants.

        Programmes must be underpinned by strong evidence and a clear rationale; time must be taken to surface participants’ own theories and align these with those of the programme.

        Providers should consider how they develop participants’ skills to critically engage with this knowledge base, and balance this with opportunities to implement and apply to practice (p.13)

        DESIGNING FOR PARTICIPANTS' NEEDS: … We must develop the capacity for teachers to reflect on their classroom and students’ learning, and map this onto areas of need for their own practice. This can be supported by providers – who should take time to identify and understand the particular needs of participants and their students. They must create opportunities for participants to share these and understand the content in overt relation to these (p.15)

        CREATING A SHARED SENSE OF PURPOSE: Providers should focus on providing course content that builds a sense of purpose. This can be done in a number of ways; examples found during the review included peer support, the use of evidence from experimenting with new approaches, and working on why things work, as well as what does and does not.

        ALIGNMENT: … What matters is a logical thread between the various components of the programme and creating opportunities for teacher learning that are consistent with the principles of the student learning being promoted (p.16)

        For the providers of CPD, this will require important consideration around how best to reflect and model the approaches they share with teachers in the delivery models used (p.17)

        Details: Alignment with CPD Standards

        1: Professional development is most effective when activities have a clear purpose and link to pupil outcomes.

        Edusense frames its purpose as: Returning to the classroom more alert and more aware so that you can adapt in real time and be responsive to emergent needs in the moment.

        … Provide tools that help participants change their own practice and evaluate its impact.

        Edusense range of FITS tools does this by broadening, even changing perspectives, leading to a shift in habits. We provide a complimentary tool to enable participants to register short/medium and long term impact of a specific tool they have been using. This will be available to users early 2024.

        In particular, effective professional development:

        • has explicit relevance to participants. The tools are grounded in teachers’ daily work and specifically on a recently taught lesson they have selected.
        • This means the activities are designed around: individual teachers’ existing experience, knowledge and needs; 
        • the context and day-to-day experiences of teachers and their schools; and the desired outcomes for pupils. Edusense draws on O'Brien & Guiney's (2021) research into Teacher Wellbeing, which concludes '...the closer teachers get in their daily work to the meaning and purpose behind why they became a teacher, their wellbeing becomes more positive and their job satisfaction increases... keeping balance & agency under constant scrutiny';
        • ensures individual activities link logically to the intended pupil outcomes;
        • and involves ongoing evaluation of how changes in practice are having an impact on pupil outcomes.

        2: Professional development is most effective when informed by robust evidence, which can be from a range of sources.

        In particular, effective professional development:

        • develops practice and theory together; ERT does not confine this to propositional knowledge or external models. We champion practitioners’ capacity to generate their own educational theories to explain the educational influence of their decisions and actions on their own learning; on the learning of others; and the learning of the social institution or culture.
        • pedagogical knowledge with subject/specialist knowledge; ERT’s generic cues enable individuals to refer to their subject/specialist knowledge.
        • draws on the evidence base, including high-quality academic research, and robustly evaluated approaches and teaching resources; ERT draws on a variety of research to provide a series of unique reflective lens. This includes Dr Warren’s own research; Professor Lofthouse’s mentoring model and Education Endowment Foundation Reports (EEF) Feedback, and Meta cognition.
        • is supported by those with expertise and knowledge to help participants improve their understanding of evidence; and, draws out and challenges teachers’ beliefs and expectations about teaching and how children learn.

        Key Definitions:

        We are mindful that evidence is a contested term and the relationship between research and practice is complex.

         Evidence can be used in many different ways, from direct implementation to less directed 'research-inspired' behaviours (Coldwell et al. 2017:20). 

        “…criterion for validating a measure of teaching effectiveness is not ‘Does it produce a complete, unbiased and accurate measure of a teacher’s impact on student learning?’, but ‘Can using it as part of a system of self-evaluation, feedback, dialogue and re-assessment lead to improvements in student learning?’
        (Coe et al 2014:11).

        “Because teachers work in such varied contexts, there can be no guarantee that any specific approach to teaching will have the desired outcomes for students” (ib. id:39).

        “There is not necessarily any
        assumption that such outcomes should be limited to academic attainment:         whatever is valued in education should count” (ib. id:11).

        3: Professional development that aims to change teachers’ practice is most effective when it includes collaborative activities with a focus on the intended pupil outcomes.

        In particular, effective professional development:

        • builds-in peer support for problem solving; 
        • includes focussed discussion about practice and supporting groups of pupils with similar needs; 
        • challenges existing practice, by raising expectations and bringing in new perspectives; and, 
        • includes support from someone in a coaching and/or mentoring role to provide modelling and challenge.

        ERT data belongs to the individual. However, there is provision and opportunity to share selective data with designated colleagues to stimulate professional conversations.

        4: Professional development is most effective when activities form part of a sustained programme, typically for more than two terms.

        In particular, effective professional development: 

        • is iterative, with activities creating a rhythm of ongoing support and follow-up activities;
        • may include complementary one-off activities as part of a wider coherent package; and, includes opportunities for experimentation, reflection, feedback and evaluation.

        Our Mini-Bundles contain 6 reflections. These can be used each half term to give provision for the entire school year. In addition, extensive support can be given by using a Mini-Bundle for each week of a half-term.

        5: Professional development is most effective when it is led well as part of a wider culture of evidence-informed reflection and discussion of teaching practice.

        In particular, effective leadership of professional development:

        • is clear about how it improves pupil outcomes;

        • complements a clear, ambitious curriculum and vision for pupil success;

        • involves leaders modelling & championing effective professional development as an expectation for all; ERT can also be used by more experienced colleagues to deconstruct and articulate the rationale for decisions and actions which were observed when less experienced teachers visited or reviewed via video.

        • ensures that sufficient time and resource is available; ERT is available on all digital devices to help facilitate this essential requirement. Each tool contains a pause and resume functionality.

        • balances school, subject and individual teachers’ priorities; and, ERT enquires of the expected benefits for a variety of stakeholders within its tools.

        • develops genuine professional trust. ERT are designed to be developmental and steer away from external judgements.

          ERT: SUMMARY

          What:

          Reflect on the difference you make in your daily work.

           

          How:

          Through reviewing a recently taught lesson, our tools enable you to be more attentive, to take intentional steps to discover what matters and what makes a difference in your unique context.

           

          Why:

          To return to the classroom more alert and more aware so that you can adapt in real time and be responsive to emergent needs in the moment.