Making change happen in teacher professional development

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Funding partners

Wellcome

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Making change happen in teacher professional development

Understanding the mechanisms for change in school and policy environments which lead to embedded teacher professional development

Group of people meeting around large table

Why has there been only limited sustained change towards the goal of all teachers being able to participate in high quality professional development throughout their careers?

Greater understanding is needed of how to make sustained change happen in teacher professional development through: the implementation of innovations and programmes in relation to policy and teacher entitlements; and the mechanisms and processes within the school environment which underpin change.

This study aims to:

  • identify ‘mechanisms for change’ at policy levels and in school environments that influence implementation of professional development innovations;
  • develop implementation guidance, informed by the identified mechanisms, to support change for sustained, embedded improvement in teachers’ professional development in England.

Our approach combines three strands of research, with a fourth strand of stakeholder engagement and dissemination:

Strand 1: Systematic Evidence Review of the national and international literature to identify what is known about school environment mechanisms that have led to sustained change in CPD. 

Strand 2: STEM CPD Policy analysis of professional development for teachers of STEM subjects to identify policy and entitlement mechanisms.

Strand 3: Embedding change in professional development, focusing on current practice in England, through mixed methods of survey and case studies, we will test, refine and illustrate the model of school environment and policy mechanisms.

Strand 4: Stakeholder engagement and dissemination to ensure impact, accessibility and usefulness of our findings at school and policy level.

 graphic showing 4 strands

Further information and project updates can be found at the project website


Funding partners

The Wellcome Trust

The Wellcome Trust

The Wellcome Trust

About this project

Explore the people, research centres and partner organisations behind this project.

Funding partners

Wellcome

Get in touch

Contact us to discuss facilities, partnerships, doctoral research and more

Email us

Research team

Emily Perry 206737

Professor Emily Perry

Emily Perry
Mark Boylan 123368

Professor Mark Boylan

Mark Boylan
Mike Coldwell 29093

Professor Mike Coldwell

Mike Coldwell
Bronwen Maxwell 121106

Professor Bronwen Maxwell

Joelle Halliday

Joelle Halliday

Joelle Halliday
Stuart Bevins 120368

Dr Stuart Bevins

Stuart Bevins
Karen Daniels

Dr Karen Daniels

Karen Daniels
Bernadette Stiell 123995

Bernadette Stiell

Sarah Boodt 224633

Sarah Boodt

Sarah Boodt
Louise Glossop

Louise Glossop

Judith Higginson

Judith Higginson

Silhouette of a person

Dr Josephine Booth

Josephine Booth
Dee Rutger

Dee Rutgers

Dee Rutgers