Jan Dubiel on why high-quality CPD is an important part of elevating the profile of the Early Years profession

It is well established that continuous professional development is a key component in developing and improving professional practice. But what makes CPD effective? And why is it important in Early Years?

“In a recent role I had, I held responsibility for commissioning the Early Years content for an online professional development learning platform. Through this process I identified three key principles that were required to define high quality and relevant CPD:

1. Impact

That the CPD needs to demonstrate how it would have a quantifiable impact on outcomes for children. What ever these were, and however circuitous the route might be, the primary purpose of all CPD needs to ensure that it improves and develops practice and provision, and increases the progress that children achieve.

2. Enhancement of skills and knowledge

That the knowledge gained from the CPD should be transferable, enabling effective practice to support children’s development regardless of cultural, social or environmental contexts in which the Curriculum is being used.

3. Builds confidence

That the CPD enables and empowers the ECE educators to articulate their craft and be transformative in enabling them to be confident in describing how and why they did what they did.

The importance of the third principle, whilst appearing by many to be a by-product of CPD, should not be underestimated. Whilst many aspects of Early Years practice might often be ‘counterintuitive’ to other educators, it is vital that when supporting young children’s development, it is understood how learning develops and how it can be enhanced. Critical to this is the ability and deep ‘subject’ knowledge of the educator in order to fully contextualise and explain this to the uninitiated. It is important to recognise that the specialism of ECE is a ‘subject knowledge’ in its own right, and a highly complex and sophisticated specialism. While there is a clear ‘destination’ to outcomes for children and how this surfaces academically as they get older – the necessity to explain and demonstrate how this begins to evolve in ECE is vital.

The continuum that starts with a child’s carefully honed experiences in an EYFS setting, and culminates (at least partially), in quantified academic success, needs to be fully acknowledged by everyone.  In achieving this, policy, practice and support for the sometimes ‘unique’ appearance of ECE pedagogy will be fully embedded in the broader acknowledgement of the educational and developmental journey.

Articulating children’s learning and development journey is key

Being able to articulate the process of how a child is learning and developing and the techniques, strategies and approaches used to support that development is a component part of how EYFS educators raise the profile of the profession. The importance of the quality of interaction and the understanding of a child’s interests and fascinations can be a compelling vehicle to extending knowledge. These are vital ways in which the responsive nature of ECE pedagogy needs to be valued. This fusion of carefully taken decisions based on the knowledge of the child, with the educators deep understanding of how subject knowledge is embedded, drive the quality – an impact – of practice. It is precisely the professional judgement to know how and when to do this and the confidence to justify it that determines the effectiveness of teaching in ECE.

By developing those techniques, strategies and approaches through high quality CPD, and building on deep subject knowledge, EYFS educators can demonstrate the undeniable impact that good quality provision has on long term outcomes and success. Being able to plot the trajectory and development of how knowledge accumulates and is effectively contextualised – and ‘owned’ – by the child is a careful, and ultimately professional decision that educators need to take. Attending high-quality CPD builds professional competency and provides practitioners with confidence in their own decisions about a child’s learning and development. Having the confidence to follow this as a result of that CPD, and knowing that it will be understood and valued, goes a long way to ensuring its effectiveness.

Deepening subject knowledge not only equips practitioners with the skills and tools to deal with the very unique scenarios of the profession, but it can also help to build confidence and increase motivation to continue working in the sector. The sense of achievement, impact and trusted autonomy incentivises both the purpose and empowerment that educators thrive on. Being able to share and reflect on how they applied their deep subject knowledge with other educators in a community of practice can increase professional confidence further, as individuals realise the value of their lived experience in helping others.

Putting theory into practice

Some of the feedback gathered from a recent internal evaluation of the EDT delivered Early Years Professional Development Programme (a DfE funded CPD programme for early years practitioners in England), highlighted how developing subject knowledge helped to increase practitioner confidence across all three areas of programme content, particularly Mathematics.

Deepening practitioner’s subject knowledge through expertly written CPD helped to develop and embed their existing knowledge, as well as enabling them to describe how each interaction, activity, observation and response was drawn from this. In many cases, practitioners were also more equipped at explaining how they had carefully refined and targeted the progression of individual children, based on their amplified knowledge and understanding of the subject.

In a period of time where the Early Years Profession is starting to find its voice, realise its importance, act boldly in the interests of children and draw from our expertise, it is even more vital that any CPD enables us to describe our highly specialist craft and its impact in this way.

Whilst it is still too soon to gauge the long-term impact of this particular programme on children’s development, the short-term results indicate that learning has been enhanced as a result of the CPD. In addition, ECE educators can better explain, using appropriate language and terminology, as well as with more confidence, the role they have played in supporting that change to happen.

In sharing this vital information with parents, carers, colleagues and external agencies, ECE educators are not only enhancing the opportunity for further learning and development of that child, they are also highlighting the importance of the role they have played in this, and as such raising the profile of the profession. This can be seen through the feedback below: