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

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.

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