You will need to create a login for our website to access these professional learning activities (PLAs).

Before accessing the PLAs, you may wish to check out our guide to creating an account on our website.

Collaborative professionalism and practitioner enquiry

Enquiring through collaborative professionalism is a powerful force in developing your agency and engaging learners, families and communities in the education process.

In addition to participating in project-based departmental or setting-wide enquiries, engaging in collaborative enquiry as part of taking an enquiring stance can involve:

•    asking questions about your own and others’ practice regularly, with a view to acting on the answers

•    taking responsibility for the learners of others in your setting, just as you do for your own

•    engaging in dialogue or respectful debate with colleagues about ideas, plans, politics and the best way to meet learners’ needs

•    being able and willing to make significant professional judgements in collaboration with others

•    collaborating with learners, as well as for them. In addition to the obvious democratic benefit, this can be highly effective, as Wall & Hall (2016) argue, in promoting and supporting learners’ metacognitive development.  

Professional Learning Activities (PLAs)

Leading a collaborative practitioner enquiry

is designed to support you to develop an understanding of the nature of collaborative practitioner enquiry, consider approaches to effectively lead a collaborative practitioner enquiry group and reflect upon the impact of collaborative practitioner enquiry on professional learning and leadership

Supporting Teacher Leadership

is designed to develop your understanding of the practice and potential of coaching, use models of professional learning to develop andragogy and lead change by supporting others in enquiry

Open Access Professional Learning

Coaching in Education

is an open access resource designed to support all educators to learn about the far-reaching benefits of coaching which can have a significant impact on how we learn and develop within Scottish education.

This resource is designed to support those working in education to:

• build an understanding of coaching in education and how it can benefit our workforce

• build skills in using a coaching approach across different contexts

• develop an understanding of how a coaching approach can be applied in education.

There are three self-directed professional learning activities (PLAs)  designed to support you to use a coaching approach and to learn and develop your coaching practice.

Introduction to Coaching in Education will introduce you to the practice of coaching in education and will support you to reflect on how coaching has the potential to impact you in your role.

Coaching Skills: Building the Coaching Relationship explores how to build effective and supportive coaching relationships through developing key coaching skills such as contracting, listening, and questioning.

Coaching Models and Tools has tools and techniques to support you to use a coaching approach in your education setting.