UCET Discussion paper on effective Continuing Professional Development

This report is based on the wealth of experience and scholarship shared by UCET colleagues. It reflects on key aspects of CPD-related policy, practice and research over the past 50 years and highlights the following principles:

- Education professionals require an expanding range of competences over their career; these are often context-specific, unforeseen and go beyond any single framework
- As well as being research-informed, CPD should engage educators in theory so they can adapt their learning creatively to enrich their own setting
- Reflective practitioners are best cultivated by supporting teachers’ in conducting their own research
- Effective CPD is built on trusted relationships between deliverers and learners and include a strong element of coaching and/or mentoring often by peers
- For sustained impact, CPD needs to be sustained over time (at least across two terms), making use of multiple formats
- By engaging teachers in their wider social, economic and environmental contexts, CPD will ensure responsible professionals in the fullest sense
- Developing teachers’ agency will enable them to consider their practice critically, lead their own learning and thus maximise the positive impact they have on their learners
- All CPD should be subject to robust quality assurance mechanisms.