Core building blocks of Professional Development
Teaching has sometimes been labelled ‘the learning profession’1 and there is certainly an expectation that teachers will undertake and seek out professional development opportunities which will help to enhance their practice2. Recently, policy change from the Department for Education has focused on teacher education for Early Career Teachers, with the roll-out of the Core Content Framework for student teachers and the Early Career Framework for new practitioners. While development opportunities for novice practitioners is absolutely vital, ensuring that continuous professional development (CPD) opportunities are available for experienced teachers has also grown in significance.
High quality teaching improves pupil outcomes3, therefore it makes sense that effective professional development is a crucial tool to develop teaching quality and enhance children’s outcomes in the classroom. What teachers do really matters and this is why the Education Endowment Foundation4 conducted a meta-analysis which focused on how professional development (PD) experiences are designed.
Teaching - A Restricted Profession
The research revealed that those who design and select PD should focus on certain mechanisms; these mechanisms are the core building blocks of professional development and include: revisiting prior learning, goal setting, providing feedback, and action planning. This report was especially welcomed by school leaders, who may have lacked guidance on what effective professional development for their staff looked like and has begun to revolutionise what teacher learning looks like in schools.