Teachers and leaders need to increase their capacity, skills and motivation to provide all learners with equitable opportunities for academic and wider success. Effective professional development must include activities connected to classroom practice and school improvement priorities. Working with other teachers and professionals within and beyond school can extend knowledge and skills and equip teachers to develop their practice to meet the diverse needs of all learners.
High-quality professional development should support research and innovation, rather than expert inputs or single, short courses. It should move from seeing teachers as users of research produced by others, to seeing teachers as collaborative problem-solvers who share potential solutions and actively consider the relevance of various approaches for different learners and different situations (adapted from European Agency, 2017 and European Agency, 2018b).
(See also ‘Teacher professional learning’)