Twitter for teachers: hopefully not the best CPD you've ever had

Twitter in itself isn’t going to have significant impact on your classroom practice. Controversial? Let me explain…

A Guardian article started by stating that “with funding for traditional continued professional development events in short supply, social media is being used more and more to support informal, peer to peer learning among teachers”.

Twitter has had a remarkable impact on connecting professionals to one another and new ideas, but is it enough? The energy and involvement of those using twitter to share their ideas and learn from others shows a genuine dynamism and thirst to develop the profession, but is it a substitute for embedded career-long professional learning?

I would argue that Twitter is a fantastic start of the journey for developing a sense of efficacy in the profession but not an end in itself. To truly ‘professionalise the profession’, we need to dig deeper into understanding what actions and interactions are required for really effective adult learning.

What impact does twitter have on classroom practice?

Twitter is brilliant for discovering and sharing ideas. I use it daily for exactly that purpose. That said, accessing new ideas is only a tiny component of what makes up effective professional learning.

For many things, idea and information transfer is all you need. BUT, the things that evidence points to as having the highest impact on student outcomes (feedback, metacognition, peer tutoring etc.) are complex skills, for which you need a full range of learning experiences to adopt successfully.  

Research from Joyce and Showers shows that only 5% of people are able to transfer what they learn at a traditional CPD course (workshops, seminars etc.) into classroom practice. If this is the case, what is likelihood of being able to transfer complex ideas from Twitter into meaningful change in your classroom?

To truly embed change you need:

• To understand the theory (Twitter can help with this)
• To see models of effective strategies in action (maybe Twitter can connect you with someone who can share these examples)
• The opportunity to try things out, reflect and practice
• The chance to gain feedback and coaching

Unless you follow up with contextual feedback and coaching, the research suggests you’re going to see limited impact.

Beyond follower count

If you’re using Twitter for professional learning, it might be worth asking yourself: what does success look like for you? What measures can you find beyond follower count and retweets to understand the impact on teaching and learning?

Some could argue that getting caught up in the former can act as a distraction from meaningful professional learning activities or planning the great lessons you want to teach, a frustration aired by one of the Guardian’s Secret Teachers.

Don’t misunderstand me… I’m not having a go at people using Twitter as part of their professional learning - it’s a really worthy thing to do if you recognise it for what it is. But, when I hear people say that Twitter is the best continuous professional development they’ve ever had, it makes wonder...what other opportunities are available to them?

When we know that teacher quality is the most important factor affecting student outcomes, it’s pretty important to make sure that schools are investing in their teachers. Even in times of budgetary constraint. As David Weston said at the #ShapingCPD conference:

“we must prioritise professional learning even though it may never be the most urgent thing on the list”.