A report from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) in the U.K. reviews the evidence on the impact of professional development (PD) for teachers, and finds that high-quality PD can play a role in improving teaching quality.
Commissioned by Wellcome, the rapid review and meta-analysis examined 52 randomized controlled trials evaluating PD programs for teachers in order to establish their impact on student and teacher outcomes. These were trials of interventions that went beyond current practice in school, and might include training courses, mentoring, seminars, and peer review. The findings of the report suggest that
- High-quality PD has a positive effect on students’ learning outcomes (ES = +0.09).
- The review also suggests that the availability of high-quality PD may have a positive impact on teacher retention, particularly for early-career teachers.