Dear Editor

I enjoyed Stan Labovitch's letter in last week's TES ('Continuing Professional Boredom', TES, January 30) - but how things have changed! Not, sadly, in the quality of CPD but, if Stan is right, in what is now held up as 'sacred'.

When the Campaign for Learning started its National Learning to Learn (L2L) Action Research project eight years ago, we were seen as dangerous mavericks, favouring presentation over content, pupil voice over teacher authority, the how and why over the what of the curriculum. We’re convinced of the benefits of being explicit that school is about learning and that learning is learnable: our research shows L2L approaches can bring improvements in SATs scores, behaviour, attendance and motivation across all age-groups and abilities. So I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry that Stan saw L2L as the new orthodoxy.

There are several ironies in this. One is of course that what he describes is the absolute antithesis of L2L and fails to model in CPD what we propose for our students.

Another is in his final quip - "the session usually ends with the ritual chanting of the mantra: 'knowledge bad, learning-to-learn good'" - which sets the two in opposition, rather than recognising L2L as an effective approach to acquiring knowledge and skills - along with the dispositions, attitudes and aptitudes needed to make best use of both.

But perhaps the greatest irony is how little impact the time and money spent on CPD has in most classrooms. In the Campaign's latest 'State of the Nation' MORI poll, 65% of secondary pupils saw learning as their own responsibility, 79% felt their schools tried to help all students develop and 69% said they had chances to feed back to teachers on improving learning.

Yet 65% said they most often spent their time copying from the board or from a book and 63% 'listening to the teacher talking for a long time'. Copying only scored 52% last year and teacher talk a mere 33%, which suggests either a return to traditional methods (perhaps not unrelated to SATs pressures?) - or that somehow in the last year we've helped our students analyse their classroom experience very much more critically!

To experience a different type of CPD, Stan could try one of the Campaign for Learning's CPD seminars which, I assure him, are never dull.

As well as the benefits to pupils, one of the most striking findings of our eight years of Action Research has been links between L2L approaches and massive improvements in teacher morale. It would be the final irony if dull CPD sessions and a failure to put policy into practice excluded a new generation of teachers from these.

For more information on our seminars, MORI poll and Learning to Learn research, visit the Campaign's website at www.campaignforlearning.org.uk

Tricia Hartley
Chief Executive
Campaign for Learning
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