Supporting ECT Success

Supporting ECT success by eliminating potential distractions 

Peps Mccrea shares a short blog, where he explores: 

“attention is a finite commodity. When we reduce the number of distractions our students face, we increase the attention they can spend on learning.”  

(Mccrea, 16 March ‘23)  

Whilst the article focuses the impact of eliminating potential distractions for pupils in the classroom, we can apply the same principles when coaching Early Career Teachers. This will support mentor coaches in establishing low-stakes environments, where distractions are minimised and positive change in teacher practice realised.   

Ideas to eliminate distractions for ECTs 

Social distractions Minimise interruptions during instructional coaching – an environment without other colleagues / children; work with induction co-ordinators to timetable coaching to reduce risk of rescheduling; develop strong routines in using coaching systems (in our case, Steplab) so that ECTs have one-point of feedback. 

Environmental distractions Turn email/video call notifications off; arrange seating positions to orient the teacher’s focus: avoiding having other workload, where possible, in view e.g. books for marking. 

Instructional distractions Reduce text-heavy observations notes; design short succinct models to demonstrate success criteria; practise economy of language; scaffold practice by encouraging ECT to script expositions. 

Estimated Read Time:  3-minutes 

https://snacks.pepsmccrea.com/p/eliminate-potential-distractions 

Would you like to find out more about our Appropriate Body or Early Career 

Teacher Programme? 

Talk to the Team 

ectsupport@glfschools.org 

0203 519 6453