What makes the EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit a game-changer for post-16 education? In this blog, Tamara tells us how Middlesbrough College has used the EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit in a post-16 setting.
Context
The world of Further Education (FE) is exciting, varied, and ever-changing. We play a vital role in upskilling learners from all walks of life so that they are prepared for 21st-century life and work. We need to employ industry experts who can teach the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviours for success. However, this focus on subject specialisms has sometimes left a pedagogical practice gap. Does the need for industry specialism outweigh the need for teaching experience and knowledge?
We wanted to change the narrative: how do we uphold both crucial industry expertise alongside pedagogic practice?
Using the EEF’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit as part of our wider Teaching, Learning and Assessment (TLA) strategy – ‘Taking Teaching Higher’, we have transformed culture around teaching and learning, highlighting the importance of evidence-backed strategies and cutting out the noise around what makes good quality teaching.
Key challenges
- How could we develop dual professionals who are well-trained in subject specialisms and pedagogical practice? Not engineers who teach, but engineering teachers.
- How could we support reflective practitioners directing their own development needs with a range of self-directed continuous professional development (CPD)
Knowing that this wouldn’t happen overnight, we set about exploring our professional development and the evidence-base. The EEF’s Effective Professional Development Guidance states that a way to motivate teachers is to present information from a credible source. When looking at this we asked ourselves:
- Was CPD content relevant?
- Was content credible?
- Would it have an impact?
The Toolkit is a free, online resource that summarises thousands of studies on strategies to improve learner outcomes. It breaks down over 30 approaches – like feedback, metacognition, and small-group tuition – showing their impact, cost, and strength of evidence.
While its primarily designed for a schools audience, many of its messages have relevance to those of us working in the 16 – 19 sector. We’ve found it really useful for making informed-decisions about which strategies are most likely to be impactful for our learners, particularly those from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Engaging Teachers and Leaders
To ensure staff engagement with CPD, it was crucial that they felt it was worthwhile. From previous training, we learned the importance of sharing evidence in a way that is open, honest, and credible, without overwhelming staff. Moving away from the notion of ‘doing it our way,’ we emphasised that our recommendations were aligned with national good practice including the Toolkit, which was a significant step in gaining staff buy-in. We then enhanced our existing CPD mechanisms with on demand CPD and professional programmes such as Initial Teacher Education courses and National Professional Qualifications.
Ongoing Development
So where are we now? Reflecting on our progress, we see clear developments in terms of quantitative data — student progress, student perception, and destinations. However, we prefer to measure this by the cultural shift which can be viewed as you enter the college: conversations about pedagogy in staffrooms, teachers fresh from industry engaging in CPD, or teachers helping learners understand their learning behaviours through metacognitive practice.
But we won’t stop there. It’s important to keep up to date with changes and respond to an ever-changing student body. Our focus for this year is the development of metacognitive practices, which we are supported in by the evidence of the Toolkit. Additionally, we look forward to our continued work with the EEF, engaging in post-16 research and ensuring that the sector has an evidence base for what excellent teaching looks like.
References
Education Endowment Foundation (2024) A School’s Guide to Implementation. Available at: https://d2tic4wvo1iusb.cloudfr… (Accessed: [21/03/2025]).
Education Endowment Foundation (2021) Effective Professional Development Guidance Report. Available at: https://d2tic4wvo1iusb.cloudfr… (Accessed: [21/03/2025]).