Talk for Teaching: Rethinking Professional Development in Schools

Paul Garvey uses his experience as a teacher, inspector and a National Strategies consultant to advise educators and schools on how his Talk For Teaching method can help them take control of their Professional Development – without it increasing costs or taking up valuable lesson time. Educators learn how ‘Talk for Teaching’ can be applied, by utilising experiences from all members of your teaching staff from TAs to heads. All play a vital role in the improvement of the teaching quality throughout the school, whilst improving morale as well. Full of experiences from teachers, headteachers and inspectors, as well as Garvey’s own personal experiences, this is not a book to be missed for anyone looking to journey towards teaching excellence. Talk for Teaching clearly works. This is what Ofsted said about the result of putting Talk for Teaching at the heart of a school’s programme for improving the quality of teaching. The quote is taken from Barnsole Primary’s Ofsted report in April 2016: “Together with the deputy headteacher, the headteacher has led the ‘Talk for Teaching’ programme that has been an instrumental part of transforming the quality of teaching over time. The high-quality teaching in this school now leads to outstanding outcomes for pupils. The school has used this professional development programme to involve leaders, teachers, teaching assistants, governors and other members of the school staff in observing teaching together. They have detailed conversations about the effectiveness of what is seen and how it can be improved. Staff discuss the quality of teaching regularly and freely share ideas about what works well with colleagues.”