Taken as a whole, research evidence supports the view that high-quality professional development for teachers gives a substantial boost to student attainment - so much so that it compares well with other interventions that leaders might choose. Crucially, this boost is not a one-off impact that then 'washes out' when the intervention ends; skills, knowledge and habits acquired through professional development keep giving benefits for every student that teacher subsequently teaches. And there is some evidence that PD can have wider benefits, including on teachers’ job satisfaction and retention (Fletcher-Wood & Zuccollo, 2020; Sims et al., 2022). It follows, then, that for leaders of policy and practice who care about student outcomes and are interested in evidence, investing in the professional development of those who teach should be a top priority. But what knowledge, skills and behaviours should professional development focus on? And how can professional learning be scaled to whole systems and jurisdictions in ways that respect individual differences and needs, while also building coherence and commonality? In this talk Stuart will answer these questions, with reference to the Great Teaching Toolkit project that he and his team have been developing and deploying at different scales in the UK, the UAE, and elsewhere.

Fletcher-Wood, H., & Zuccollo, J. (2020). The effects of high-quality professional development on teachers and students: A rapid review and meta-analysis. Education Policy Institute.

Sims, S., Fletcher-Wood, H., O’Mara-Eves, A., Cottingham, S., Stansfield, C., Goodrich, J., Herwegen, J. Van, & Anders, J. (2022). Effective teacher professional development: New theory and a meta-analytic test (507; 22). https://doi.org/10.26300/rzet-bf74