Get It, See It, Name It, Do It: A Model for Great PD Training

A simple, sticky model for delivering effective teaching CPD

💡 The Big Idea

Most CPD fails not because it’s poorly intentioned, but because it’s poorly implemented. The aim might be spot on to improve feedback, questioning, or behaviour management, but the method often looks like a slideshow, not a strategy.

Get It, See It, Name It, Do It is a practical model for staff training. It is one that mirrors what we know about how we learn. It gives leaders a clear structure for building shared understanding and embedding consistent, high-quality practice.

👀 A Closer Look

📦 The PD Model at a Glance

1. Get It – Start with why it matters

2. See It – Model what it looks like

3. Name It – Break it into success criteria

4. Do It – Practice and rehearse

5. Embed It – Sustain it through feedback and coaching

📚 Where This Comes From

This model is inspired by a range of evidence-informed approaches - from Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion, Bambrick-Santoyo’s coaching systems, and the EEF’s mechanisms for effective professional development. It pulls together what we know about how adults learn best and puts it into a simple, actionable framework for busy schools.

🧠 Step 1: Get It

Every good session starts with the why. Why does this strategy matter? Why will it help children learn? But most importantly, what research underpins it.

Therefore, it is important to start by making the research case. Share an idea from cognitive science or classroom-based research that connects the dots between strategy, learning science and student outcomes. This isn’t about drowning teachers in citations, but it’s about building integrity and clarity. Knowing the ‘why’ also stops any lethal mutations from taking place. It ensures the fidelity of the strategy remains because staff understand the why.

👀 Step 2: See It

Now, make it tangible. Whether it’s a video, walkthrough, model, or resource, show what success looks like. This stage helps close the gap between knowing about a strategy and recognising what it looks like in action.

Try using:

• Video clips of real classroom practice

• Modelling live or using a visualiser

• Annotated resources or walkthrough guides

Clarity drives confidence, and confidence drives change.

🏷️ Step 3: Name It

Just like children, teachers need showing what is important by directing their attention to specific aspects of strategy. Break the strategy down. What are its key ingredients?

Together with staff, co-construct a set of success criteria or “look-fors” that turn the strategy into a shared language. Naming the steps and stages reduces ambiguity and supports alignment across classrooms. The strategy may look different in each year group or subject, but the key ingredients should remain.

🔄 Step 4: Do It

Now comes the rehearsal. Not a role-play, but a practice.

Give teachers time to script, refine, and test the strategy in a low-stakes space. Maybe it’s practising a questioning technique, or rehearsing a modelled explanation. Peer coaching, scripting, and deliberate practice are powerful tools for embedding new techniques.

As the EEF reminds us: “Techniques need rehearsal to become habits.”

🌱 Step 5: Embed It

The danger still exists that, once teachers leave the session, they fall back into the same teaching habits and nothing changes. Change doesn’t happen from one-off sessions; it comes from follow-up, feedback, social motivations among colleagues, and coaching.

Build systems that bring new strategies into coaching conversations, peer learning walks, and planning discussions. Use staff meetings to revisit and refine. Initiate conversations in the corridors on how the strategy is progressing. Is it successful? Problem solve together. Create time for reflection.

Real change happens when new habits are supported over time.

🧠 The Bits That Stick

✅ It builds knowledge, motivation, and habit
✅ It blends theory with classroom practice
✅ It’s practical and designed for real schools, with real kids, and real time constraints

By using this scaffold, your professional development stops being a moment and starts becoming a movement, one session at a time.

Speak soon,
Coops 😎

🔒 Ready for More?

If you’re a WAGOLL+ member, click below to grab your downloadable PDF walkthrough for team leaders.

Not subscribed yet? Click below to join the WAGOLL+ crew and unlock a growing vault of practical CPD tools, all designed for busy primary leaders and leaders.

📝 More from WAGOLL Teaching

• The Ultimate List of Books for Research-Informed Teachers ➡️ We’ve pulled together The Ultimate List of Books for Research-Informed Teachers - a handpicked collection of must-reads to boost your practice, challenge your thinking, and keep you at the cutting edge of education.

• Exploring Success Criteria - Make Them Dynamic and Accessible ➡️ By presenting success criteria in a more dynamic and relevant medium, meaning can be made, and links can be made to prior learning. Success criteria need to be made domain, subject, and age group specific.

• Retrieval Practice: 7 Activities That Work in Primary ➡️ A handy list of retrieval activities for Primary children

📚 References & Influences

This model is drawn from a range of research-informed practices and CPD approaches. Key influences include:

• The EEF’s Effective Professional Development Guidance (2021) – emphasises the importance of building knowledge, motivation, and habits through active, sustained CPD.

• Paul Bambrick-Santoyo’s “See It, Name It, Do It” model – particularly in instructional leadership and coaching frameworks.

• Leverage Leadership by Doug Lemov – for its emphasis on modelling, deliberate practice, and feedback.

• Tom Sherrington’s CPD design blogs – especially on embedding ideas through coaching and instructional walkthroughs.

• “Practice Perfect” by Lemov, Woolway, & Yezzi – highlighting the importance of rehearsal and low-stakes practice.