COGNITION, METACOGNITION and PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

INTENT

At the Rainbow Education Multi Academy Trust, we believe that teachers should be equipped to fulfil their role to a high professional standard. To do this, our curriculum and pedagogical approaches are research-based, with these focusing on strategies that fit with a cognitive model of learning. We support teachers by providing the tools, resources and professional development that will improve their practice and enhance their performance so that the pupils in our care are taught effectively.

IMPLEMENTATION

Over the past few years, professional development has focused on teachers’ understanding of a cognitive model that is based on the science of learning. From this, we have adopted general pedagogical practices that we believe will aid quality first teaching and support pupils’ retention of knowledge.

In addition, we have chosen subject-specific approaches and resources that operate within this model so that classroom practice is built on the same principles. This has helped us to develop consistency within and across our schools, and support teachers in terms of development through professional dialogue.

Principles of cognition and metacognition also underpin our marking policy, with formative assessment being a focus of classroom practice in terms of an overarching model of mastery teaching. Our aim is for pupil understanding to be built upon solid foundations, with errors and misconceptions tackled as they happen in the classroom. This also supports teachers in respect to their workload for marking.

For this academic year (2022-23), we are looking to further improve classroom practice by implementing an instructional coaching programme that will allow all teachers to develop at a level appropriate to their current skill-set. We will do this through an online platform called Powerful Action Steps – a tool that we have trialled over the past couple of years. As well as general teaching pedagogy, we will also use the tool to help embed our subject-specific approaches.