Purchase both professional learning resources titles, Activate and Catalyst in a special bundle deal for just £50!
Created by James Mannion, Louise Stoll, Karen Spence-Thomas and Greg Ross, Activate is a card-based professional learning resource that aims to improve pupils’ experiences and outcomes by promoting self-regulated learning among leaders, teachers and pupils.
It’s widely recognised that self-regulated learners are more effective learners. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) suggests that metacognition and self-regulation are among the most important practices a school can focus on, providing ‘very high impact for very low cost, based on extensive evidence’ (EEF, 2022). However, teachers and leaders are often unsure what these terms mean, or what they look like in practice.
This resource enables teachers and leaders to ‘activate’ pupils to become the drivers of their own learning. Comprising six sets of resource cards (including 83 cards in total) and a clear and detailed facilitator guide – along with an extensive bibliography and additional downloadable materials – Activate has been designed to provide time-pressed teachers and leaders with an accessible means of understanding the theory and practice of self-regulated learning. Working through the activities will enable teachers and leaders to realise the potential of these powerful ideas when working with pupils, whilst helping them to regulate their own learning.
The cards are grouped into two sets – Research cards and Professional Learning and Leadership Learning cards. The Research cards cover the key concepts and characteristics of self-regulated learning and draw on the authors’ original research, offering a range of tried and tested strategies that teachers can put into practice in their own context. The Professional Learning and Leadership Learning cards and associated Scenario cards contain stimulating activities designed to help teachers and leaders promote and model self-regulated learning.
The resource has been developed by specialists at the UCL Centre for Educational Leadership, in conjunction with colleagues from the global Cognita schools system.
Suitable for all teachers and leaders looking to create more confident, proactive, self-regulated learners.
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Co-authored by Louise Stoll, Carol Taylor, Karen Spence-Thomas and Chris Brown, Catalyst: An evidence-informed, collaborative professional learning resource for teacher leaders and other leaders working within and across schools is a collection of specially designed cards created to support and promote the professional learning and development of groups of teacher leaders.
Catalyst is a professional learning tool intended to bring to life the findings of a collaborative research and development project carried out between researchers at the UCL Institute of Education and Challenge Partners, an informal national network of schools.
The project investigated four questions:
1. What is it about effective middle leadership within and across schools that changes teachers’ practice?
2. What are the most powerful ways of sharing knowledge about excellent middle leadership practice within and across schools?
3. What are the most important factors when designing evidence-based tools to track changes in teachers’ practice as a result of middle leaders’ interventions?
4. What leadership conditions in schools help develop and embed cultures of shared outstanding practice?
The collection consists of two sets of resource cards and a clear and detailed facilitator guide – along with a bibliography and photocopiable resources for download – and has been designed for use by staff in schools in all contexts and across the entire student age range. Ultimately, the aim of the Catalyst process is to:
- help develop better understanding of and skills in teacher/middle leadership
- stimulate evidence-informed conversations about teacher/middle leadership which lead to deep and meaningful learning
- support skilled facilitation of these conversations
- encourage inquiry, improve problem-solving and enrich decision-making through collaboration
- enhance leadership within schools and across networks and school partnerships.
Suitable for school leaders and educators looking to both expand and refine their conversations around change management, professional development and school improvement.
