--- title: 'Carefully designed' professional development description: A round up of the recommendations from the developing great teaching review, outlining the components of carefully designed professional development --- [![IRIS-Connect-LOGO-PRIMARY-BLUE-SQUARE](https://blog.irisconnect.com/hs-fs/hubfs/IRIS-Connect-LOGO-PRIMARY-BLUE-SQUARE.png?width=170&height=127&name=IRIS-Connect-LOGO-PRIMARY-BLUE-SQUARE.png "IRIS-Connect-LOGO-PRIMARY-BLUE-SQUARE")](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/) - [Request a Demo](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/meet-with-us/) - [Login](https://app.irisconnect.com/) - Solutions - [Instructional Coaching](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/instructional-coaching/) - [Guided Reflection](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/guided-reflection/) - [Collaborative PD](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/collaborative-pd/) - [Pathways](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/pathways/) - [Video Tools](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/products-and-services/video-technology-for-teachers/) - [AI Insights](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/ai-insights/) - [Teaching Techniques](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/teaching-techniques/) - [PD Consultancy](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/pd-consultancy/) - [Pricing](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/products-and-services/pricing/) - Organisations - [Schools and Academies](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/schools-and-academies/) - [Multi-Academy Trusts](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/trusts/) - [ITT](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/supporting-itt/) - Resources - [Case Studies](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/impact/) - [Research](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/impact/research/) - [White Paper](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/whitepaper-towards-unity/) - [Webinars & Events](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/events/) - [Guides](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/resources/) - [Blog](https://blog.irisconnect.com/uk) - Company - [Our Story](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/our-story/) - [Our Team](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/staffroom/) - [International](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/international/) - [Vacancies](https://www.irisconnect.com/uk/join-us/) Menu # 'Carefully designed' professional development Posted by [Charlotte Curl](https://blog.irisconnect.com/uk/author/charlotte-curl) - Last updated on December 2, 2022 ## A round up of recommendations from the Developing Great Teaching review With the aim of capturing and distilling approaches to and characteristics of effective professional development, the Developing Great Teaching review was commissioned by the Teacher Development Trust in partnership with TES Global and conducted by a team from Durham University, CUREE and the Institute of Education, UCL. The key finding of the review was that **professional development opportunities that are carefully designed and have a strong focus on pupil outcomes have a significant impact on student achievement.** The review details the components that constitute "careful design" and provides a series of key recommendations: ## Components of "careful design": ### **Duration** The most effective professional development lasted at least 2 terms – more usually a year (or longer). School leaders must ensure that staff are given time to engage with longer term programmes and move away from a model of one-off, one day support. ### **Rhythm** The review tells us it is important that professional development programmes create a “rhythm” of follow-up, consolidation and support activities. Time here is key – school leaders must consider how staff are supported to engage in this rhythm and adapt workloads accordingly. ### **Consideration for participants' needs** Buy-in is needed; creating an overt relevance of the content to its participants – their day-to-day experiences with, and aspirations for, their pupils. We must develop the capacity for teachers to reflect on their classroom and students’ learning, and map this onto areas of need for their own practice. ### **Purpose** The review points out that achieving a shared sense of purpose during professional development is an important factor for success. Within schools, this might suggest there should be less of a focus on splitting between voluntary and conscripted activities. Rather, CPD programmes should create a coherent and shared sense of purpose across staff, and demonstrate an explicit relation to their everyday experiences and context. ### **Alignment** Effective programmes will feature a variety of activities to reinforce their messages and test ideas from different perspectives. The review indicates that no single particular type of activity was shown to be universally effective or crucial to success. ### **Effectiveness** Professional development focused purely on generic pedagogy is insufficient. Instead, we should consider the importance of focusing on generic and subject-specific pedagogy. ### **Activities** Teachers must be able to translate CPD content into the classroom, implementing what they had learned by experimenting in the classroom. ### **Providers** The review points out that external facilitation is a common factor in successful outcomes, with the most successful programmes involving coaches and/or mentors. ### **Support** The review also highlighted certain types of activities that, with specialist support, should lead to successful outcomes; using activities that are able to explicitly link professional development to improvements in student outcomes. ### **Collaboration** What makes collaboration effective is still contested. All reviews analysed in this overview found that peer support a common feature in effective professional development. There is evidence to suggest that access to some form of collegial support for problem solving is essential. However, the strongest review included in this overview found that while collaboration was necessary, it alone is not sufficient. ### **Leadership** “Effective leaders did not leave the learning to their teachers – they became involved themselves”. School leaders need to ensure teachers understand the relevance of CPD to wider priorities and promote a challenging learning culture and “evidence-informed, self-regulated learning”. Teachers should also be encouraged to lead particular aspects of pedagogy or of the curriculum. [You can download the full report here.](https://tdtrust.org/about/dgt/) Does professional development look like this in your school? 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