Thursday 27th Jan 2022 - 12:30-13:30 - Zoom

What are the Characteristics of Effective Teacher Professional Development? A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis - with Sam Sims

Join UK-IS and Sam Sims as he discusses his recent work around effective teacher professional development.

Abstract:

Multiple meta-analyses have now documented small positive effects of teacher professional development (PD) on pupil test scores. However, the field lacks any validated explanatory account of what differentiates more from less effective in-service training. As a result, researchers have little in the way of advice for those tasked with designing or commissioning better PD.

We set out to remedy this by developing a new theory of effective PD based on combinations of causally active components targeted at developing teachers’ insights, goals, techniques, and practice.

This talk will discuss a recent EEF-funded systematic review and meta-analysis in which we developed and tested this theory. This research will be of interest to those interested in education policy, behaviour change and evidence-based policy/practice more broadly.

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Attendance is FREE for UK-IS members, with a small charge for non-members of £10.

Sam Sims is a Lecturer in the Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities (CEPEO) at UCL Institute of Education, where he researches teachers and teaching. Sam also teaches evaluation methods at UCL and has published a series of papers on experimental methods in education research. He is co-author of the book The Teacher Gap. You can find him on Twitter @DrSamSims.