Great Expectations: Teacher Learning in a National Professional Development Programme

This article was published in Teaching and Teacher Education, Vol 28 number 3,
Author(s): Kathleen M. Armour, and Kyriaki Makopoulou, " Great Expectations: Teacher Learning in a National Professional Development Programme", Pages 336–346, Copyright Elsevier (April 2012)

This article reports findings from an evaluation of a national continuing professional development (CPD) programme for teachers in England.

Data showed that the localised implementation, opportunities for interactive learning, and ‘collective participation’ were positive factors.
However, the participants reported difficulties in ‘cascading’ knowledge to colleagues and in sustaining and developing their learning.
It is argued that these limitations were rooted in an inconsistent theory of learning that underpinned the programme and a failure to conceptualise teachers as ‘lead learners’ in schools.