Characteristics of effective teacher training and professional development programmes

Abstract

Despite the amount of studies on teacher professional development, the majority of these studies do not measure the impact of different approaches and programs on student learning outcomes. This has resulted in ambiguity in relation to the importance of specific characteristics of such programs, towards improving the teaching skills and the pedagogical content knowledge of the participating teachers. This chapter synthesizes the results from various reviews on teacher training and professional development to provide a description of the main factors influencing the effectiveness of such programs. Research findings reveal that professional development is more effective when the content of the programme has a clear focus, linked to teaching, when the content of the training programme is differentiated so as to meet the participants’ priorities for improvement and to address contextual issues, when the programme provides opportunities for active participation and engagement of the teachers and provision of feedback for each teacher, when the programme provides opportunities for collaboration and networking, when the programme last for a sufficient period of time and finally when the programme impact on teaching skills and student achievement is evaluated. The implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for further research are also provided. © 2016 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.