Teachers Matter

Teachers’ make a difference to students’ learning. The most important influence on students’ learning, within school, is attributable to what teachers know and do. How teachers teach makes a major difference in enhancing students learning.

Professional development has the capacity to improve teacher performance, leading to improved learning outcomes for students. However, work overload, perceptions of irrelevance, poor timing, situational factors, and the like present serious challenges to effective implementation. Care is required to create contexts in which motivation for engagement exists. This is most likely to occur when teachers experience a need to know, informed by data and when they are involved in the design of their own learning.

 Effective professional development involves more than a quick fix. It is predicated upon recognition that teachers bring theories with them, and that they need a good reason to do things differently. Professional development that creates sustainable, better practice requires teachers to develop their pedagogical content knowledge in combination with evidenced based skills of inquiry, in a supportive environment. Models of professional learning which engage teachers collaboratively, reflectively and are informed by data are most likely to contribute to improved learning.