This document summarizes research on effective professional development for teachers. It finds that the most impactful professional development is collaborative, sustained over time, grounded in proven teaching practices, and focused on improving student outcomes. Two high-impact methods discussed are lesson study, where teachers collaboratively plan, observe, and reflect on lessons, and instructional coaching, where teachers receive support in implementing new strategies. The document advocates for moving away from one-off workshops and toward job-embedded professional learning done in collaboration with colleagues.
2. Some aspects of professional learning
Awareness of
effective ideas,
techniques and
approaches
Ability to recognise/
diagnose suitability of
approaches, and
when they are not
working
Fluency -
instinctive recall
and use of
appropriate
techniques
Systematic and
sustained use of
approaches
Understanding
of underlying
theory - solid
conceptual
understanding
Ability to adapt,
vary, combine
and refine
approaches
Ability to reflect
on (and assess)
own learning
progress
Recognition of
student behaviours
and patterns of likely
future behaviour
Increasing
emotional self-
regulation
3. Source: Robinson (2009)
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
Establishing goals and expectations
Resourcing strategically
Ensuring quality teaching
Leading teacher learning and
development
Ensuring an orderly and safe environment
Effect Size
Unleashing talent: the key to
school success
4. Four types of PD
No pre-existing
skill/knowledge, no
preconceptions
Pre-existing skill,
knowledge, attitudes.
Possible misconceptions.
Surface-level
learning,
change in
awareness
Informing: e.g.
seminars, courses,
printed material,
social media.
Influencing: e.g.
discussion/debate,
‘emotional’ seminars,
inspirational talks
Deep learning,
change in
practice &
attitudes
Embedding: e.g.
modelling, spaced
learning, role-play,
repeated practice
Transforming: e.g.
coaching, micro-enquiry,
research, Lesson Study
5. Transformative PD is
• Aspirational, focused on valued learning outcomes
• Collaborative
• Grounded in proven principles of great pedagogy
• Relevant, differentiated, just-in-time, practical
• Sustained for 30-50 hours at least, over two terms
• Underpinned by theoretical understanding
• Evaluated: summatively and formatively
• Challenging as well as informative
• Lead by leaders who model great learning and
demonstrate trust and distributed leadership
6. PD in exceptional schools
• Extensive formal coaching and mentoring
• Clearer, consistent, evidence-based & cross-
curricular pedagogical strategies
• Collaborative professional learning
• Higher buy-in, higher financial investment
• More use of internal expertise and ASTs
• Subject knowledge a higher priority
• Two pronged: whole-school sustained foci &
personal student-focused.
• Clearly evaluated
Source CUREE (2013)
8. Sections
• Leadership and Culture
• Focus on Learning and Pedagogy
• Evaluation of Impact
• Support and Challenge
• Processes, Systems and Resourcing
• Research, Innovation and Evidence
10. Issues around PD leadership
Identified from some NTEN audits
• Focused on chasing accountability, not pupil outcomes
• Too may foci, not systematic
• Lack of buy-in/consultation, too centrally led
• Lack of resource, poorly distributed opportunities
• Undermined by observation gradings & trust issues
• Forgetting support staff
• Not evaluating impact on learners
• Not differentiated for different staff members
• Wrong balance of internal v external (too much or too
little of either)
Find out more: http://TDTrust.org/NTEN
11. 1. Plan
• Plan a lesson together.
• Address each activity to your
Learning Goal and predict
how pupils will react and how
you will assess this.
• Pick 3 case pupils.
3. Reflect & Plan
• As soon after the lesson as
possible, reflect how each
activity elicited the sought-after
change. Were your
predictions correct? Why?
2. Observe
• Teach the lesson with your
colleagues observing.
• Pay particular attention to the
case pupils
• Conduct any assessments
and/or interviews during &
after.
Implementation: Lesson Study
12. Why does Lesson Study work?
• Makes tacit/implicit/habitual knowledge
explicit
• Powerful interplay between
theory/expectation and reality
• Repeated practice, social learning
13. Lesson Study…
• “… is empowering staff, building confidence
and improving the quality of learning and
teaching.”
• “The pedagogical discussions we’re having
around the staffroom simply wouldn’t have
happened before”
NTENNational Teacher Enquiry Network
14. Lesson Study…
• “My colleagues understand this is nothing to
do with observation grades. It's taken the
pressure off everyone planning by themselves.
It's a really supportive way to work together
and develop our practice”
• “A girl who’d almost never existed for me in my
PE lesson is now loving her lessons – she’s even
started coming to athletics club after school”
NTENNational Teacher Enquiry Network
15. Lesson Observation – TALIS 2013
• Teachers in England – most performance
managed and observed in the world
• Lots of poor feedback
• Huge problem with job satisfaction and
‘managerialism’
• Biggest improvements in job satisfaction: trust
and collaborative professional development
16. Lesson observation for quality
assurance?
Strong et al. (2011) [identified] ‘effective’ and
‘ineffective’ teachers, showed videos of them
teaching to observers and asked them to say
which teachers were in which group. In both the
experiments where the observers were not
trained in observation, the proportion correctly
identified by experienced teachers and head
teachers was below the 50% that would be
expected by pure chance.
17. Lesson observation for quality
assurance?
At this level of accuracy, fewer than 1% of those
judged to be ‘Inadequate’ are genuinely
inadequate; of those rated ‘Outstanding’, only
4% actually produce outstanding learning gains;
overall, 63% of judgements will be wrong.
18. Lesson observation – what to do?
• Pre-agree focus, use as a coaching opportunity
(not ‘judgementoring’)
• Focus on student learning not teacher
‘performance’, where possible
• Be very wary of how you judge progress –
learning doesn’t happen in one lesson
• Build capacity of teachers to improve
themselves.
• Build trust, build coherent models of pedagogy
19. NTEN and IRIS
“There is much less pressure on the teacher
whose students are being observed and it’s all
about the learning. They have welcomed the
chance to talk about challenges in teaching and
learning, alongside looking at recent research
and development,”
Blatchington Mill School
20. NTEN and IRIS
“While some staff were initially nervous about
using IRIS, the fact that it is completely voluntary
has reassured them that it can be used in a
developmental way, again underpinning our
completely non-judgmental and bespoke
approach to an individual’s own CPD.”
Blatchington Mill School
21.
22. NTENNational Teacher Enquiry Network
http://TDTrust.org/NTEN
CPD Quality Peer Audit
A peer-audit against our CPD Quality
Framework with Bronze, Silver and
Gold awards for excellent practice &
policies.
Peer-to-peer support
Connect with like-minded schools to
observe and develop outstanding
practice.
Rigorous evaluation & research
Engage in both small and large-scale
research, access evidence, implement
quality evaluations and interventions.
NTEN Lesson Study
Comprehensive tools and support to
implement a world-leading system of
Joint Practice Development.
Research access
Gain full text access to over 1800
educational research journals to ensure
you stay at the cutting edge.
A powerful voice
Have your views around staff
development represented at the highest
levels.
23. Teacher Development Trust
The national charity for effective professional
development in schools and colleges
Powerful professional development helps
children succeed and teachers thrive
There are a number of things we need to consider about effective professional learning. There is huge complexity in our professional work and yet the dominant mode of improving this is still one-off courses – how can this be?
Vivane Robinson’s research shows school leaders what it is that they can do to most effectively raise attainment in their school. By far and away the most effective action they can take is to empower teachers to become learners, actively improving their own teaching rather than simply complying with rules about how to teach.
Bear in mind that even the inexperienced teacher has some pre-existing ideas about classrooms, pedagogy, student learning, so we should almost never focus only on the left-hand column and certainly not just the top-left box. The bottom-right box is deeply neglected.
This comes from, e.g., EPPI studies in to collaborative professional learning, Timperley et. al in the NZ Best Evidence Synthesis, etc.
CUREE conducted research for Teach First that compared Exceptional schools versus Strong schools – i.e. all good schools but the former had consistently higher results. All these schools were in areas of high social and economic deprivation. They noted certain key differences in the leadership and practice of professional learning and development in the exceptional schools.
We have been auditing a number of schools’ approach to CPD and are beginning to spot common issues. These schools are all members of our National Teacher Enquiry Network (NTEN).
We look at six different areas of practice and leadership in order to determine what is happening.
The audit includes a self-audit by senior leaders, an anonymous survey of all teaching and non-teaching staff and then a visit by another NTEN member.
These are some of the common issues that are beginning to emerge which are holding back high-impact professional development.
In NTEN we use Lesson Study to help them refine and explore the ideas. This is an excellent approach which pays back the intensive resources required with improved learning and teacher motivation.
Quotes from NTEN schools engaging in Lesson Study – would you find these sorts of statements from someone attending CPD one-offs or INSET-day lectures?
Quotes from NTEN schools engaging in Lesson Study – would you find these sorts of statements from someone attending CPD one-offs or INSET-day lectures?
The Teacher Development Trust runs a completely free database of professional development opportunities – GoodCPDGuide.com. It is our ‘TripAdvisor for CPD’. This is linked to (and from) the Sutton Trust-EEF Toolkit and priorities those providers who explain the evidence behind their approaches, as well as giving the opportunity for teachers to share their reviews of services.
We know how difficult it is for schools to overcome the many barriers to create really effective and engaging professional development so we’ve created a network of schools to support this process. It is an annual membership offer with audit, support for effective approaches to CPD such as Lesson Study, peer-to-peer support from other schools, access to research and tools to help evaluate. Find out more at http://TDTrust.org/NTEN
As a teacher I founded the charity, the Teacher Development Trust, to try and help drive improvement through every school so that everyone can experience the types of powerful professional development that help children succeed and teachers thrive.