Gaining Professional Recognition from the Teacher Learning Academy
The GA endorses the TDA definition of CPD as reflective activity designed to improve an individual's attributes, knowledge, understanding and skills. It is a process that supports the individual's needs and improves professional practice. The GA is committed to encouraging reflective and enquiry led forms of CPD. All of our work is underpinned by our manifesto, A Different View, which captures a sense of core principles about geography and education.
Engaging with the online CPD units and other resources on the GA website can help you work towards gaining professional recognition. One way to achieve national recognition for your work is to apply for accreditation through the Teacher Learning Academy (TLA).
What is the TLA?
The TLA is the first national system for teacher learning and has been set up to support, recognise and celebrate the professional achievements of teachers. It actively encourages teachers to share knowledge, ideas and best practice.
There are four stages in which you can enrol with the TLA. It is not necessary to work from Stage One through to Stage Four. However, it is strongly recommended that you first complete Stage One or Two so that you are familiar with the TLA learning process.
The Learning Journey
Participating in the TLA is described as a learning journey for which you first prepare and plan. As you undertake your journey you are asked to record your progress in a learning journal. This does not necessarily have to take the form of a written journal, as the use of a varied range of media is encouraged. The learning journey culminates in the presentation of your plan and learning journal. At Stage Two and above you will be required to submit an account of your learning breakthrough along with your learning journal. A learning breakthrough is a critical learning incident that has had a particularly strong impact on your learning.
Early on, you will need to decide on a focus for your learning journey. This could take the form of creating or revising a scheme of work, or learning about a new area of subject knowledge and exploring how you could introduce this into your teaching. This is where the GA can help you. As a Support Partner of the TLA, our online CPD and resources are TLA compatible and so can provide a basis for a TLA learning journey. Indeed, our new set of DCSF funded CPD courses have been designed specifically with TLA compatibility in mind and provide a wide range of potential foci for your learning journey.
How to enrol with the TLA
All the materials that you need to enrol with the TLA are available on the TLA website.
If you require support in identifying the best stage for you to enrol at you can email enquires@teacherlearningacademy.org.uk.
There are a number of useful documents, such as an introduction booklet to the TLA and writing frames for your presentation, on the Resources page of their website.
Engaging with the six core dimensions
There are six core dimensions at the heart of the TLA's approach to teacher learning. The table below offers suggestions on how you can engage with each of the six dimensions if you are working towards a Stage One verification.
| Core Dimensions | What this might mean | Example evidence for Stage 1 |
|---|---|---|
| Engaging with the knowledge base | Exploring an area of subject knowledge with which you are less familiar, e.g. areas on this website such as Community Cohesion, Flooding, or the KS4 ICT project area. | You demonstrate engagement with a relevant source and identify its influence on your practice and how it has changed this. |
| Coaching and mentoring | Using dialogue, e.g. With peers; With appointed coach or mentor; Observing other teachers to develop your ideas and your learning journey. | You demonstrate how your learning focus was refined and adapted through dialogue with coach or mentor. |
| Planning Your learning | Choosing ideas that you can personalise to suit your context, e.g. Using pupils' everyday experiences to develop a new unit of teaching. | You have a plan of your learning journey with success criteria, actions, resources, timescales, progress review, evaluation of timings and actions. You identify sources of support and challenge. |
| Carrying out your plan |
Carrying out your plan over a period between 2 – 6 weeks (Stage 1) |
You keep a learning journal identifying how your learning develops and changes through dialogue with others and engagement with the knowledge base. |
| Sharing your learning and influencing practice | Sharing your learning e.g. with a year group partner, by contributing to a staff training day, using a Ning, or writing an article for one of the GA's journals. | You show how planning was shared, use comments from a staff meeting or feedback from a presentation or article. |
| Evaluating your learning and its impact | Identifying specific changes that have occurred to your practice, e.g. how you have built on pupils' everyday geographies or how you have developed links with the local community. | You use pupils comments and / or feedback from colleagues |
Sharing your learning
One of the most important aspects of taking part in the TLA is the sharing of your learning and the opportunity to influence practice. This could be amongst a group of colleagues within your own school, but you may also wish to share your work with the wider education community. The TLA offers opportunities to include references to your work in local or national publicity or media coverage, as well as on their website. The General Teaching Council for England (GTC) also has a number of professional networks which you can explore on their website.
You might also share your learning with the wider geography education community through the GA's own online professional networks. Find out more on our GA Nings page.
