This report was originally published 20 July 2016.

Summary

How can evidence-based research answer the following question:

Are there forms of professional development or learning processes which, when applied to school teaching and learning contexts, make significant contributions to demonstrably improved student learning outcomes?

This paper by Dr Paul Brock, looks at research into the elements of teacher professional development that lead to improved student outcomes, including:

• basic principles that should underpin all quality policy development in education
• reflections on research
• teacher ‘professional development’ or teacher ‘professional learning’?
• false and misleading dichotomies
• teacher professional learning / development – a personal view
• teacher professional development / learning – analogies with student learning
• two perspectives from just over a decade ago on the issue of evidence-based research for identifying features of high quality professional learning
• more recent perspectives.