Professional development that has impact – key ingredients
Many education reforms rely on teacher learning and, in turn, for the improved teaching that follows to improve student learning; so understanding what makes professional development programmes effective is critical. However, it is complex: exposure to and participation in professional development activities may or may not bring about change to individuals’ beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviours. These changes to individuals may or may not lead either to changes in the classroom or to school practice. And these changes may or may not lead to improvement in pupil outcomes (Bubb and Earley, 2010). Opfer and Pedder (2011) have argued that the problem stems from simplistic conceptualisations of teacher professional development and learning that fail to consider how learning is embedded in professional lives.
The key finding of the Developing Great Teaching(Teacher Development Trust, 2015) review was that professional development opportunities do have a significant impact on student achievement when they are carefully designed and have a strong focus on pupil outcomes. The review highlighted these elements as important:
- the duration and rhythm of effective support;
- the consideration of participants’ needs;
- alignment of professional development processes, content and activities;
- the content of effective professional development including both subject knowledge and subject-specific pedagogy;
- activities associated with effective professional development – in particular, explicit discussions – following the initial input, about how to translate teachers’ learning to the classroom;
- the role of external providers and specialists;
- collaboration and peer learning;
- leadership around professional development.
These findings are not at variance, but they do suggest the importance of further examining the practical detail of “what works” and refining our conceptual models accordingly. To that end, the research question that this paper addresses is:
How can a framework of professional development be used in the design and evaluation of a programme to enhance knowledge and practice?
In this article I build on my previous article in PDT:, Developing from within: Towards a new model of staff development (Bubb, 2013), using the example of a project aimed to improve the Science subject and pedagogic knowledge and skills of primary school teachers. This primary science project was based at Coloma Convent School in Croydon and funded by the London Schools Excellence Fund. It draws on the theoretical and conceptual frameworks of researchers such as Guskey (2002), Desimone (2009), Huber (2011), Evans (2011), and that of King (2014) to improve the professional development model that I developed (Bubb, 2013).