Professional Development

Research is increasingly providing insights about how pupils learn, with implications for effective teaching. However, our understanding of how to design professional development in order to help teachers put these insights into practice remains limited. In this talk, I outline a new theory of effective professional development and test it using data from over 100 randomised controlled trials. The results provide useful guidance for school leaders and teachers looking to design or access better professional development.

Dr Sam Sims is a Lecturer in the Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities at UCL Institute of Education. He researches teachers and teaching - and has recently led an EEF-funded meta-analysis on effective teacher professional development. Sam also teaches evaluation methods at UCL and has published a series of papers on experimental methods in education research. You can find him on Twitter @DrSamSims.

Ages: Early Years, Primary, Secondary, Higher Education