Your search

This paper reports on the development and outcomes of the second phase of OER4Schools, a school-based professional development programme supporting interactive forms of subject teaching in conjunction with Open Educational Resources (OER) and technology in Zambian primary schools. We worked with partners to identify the needs of school-based continuing professional development adapted to the local context; the programme was based on participatory, collaborative and inquiry-based pedagogies...

Developing sustainable and scalable educational initiatives is a key challenge in low-income countries where donor-funded short-term projects are limited by both contextual factors and programme design. In this concept paper we examine some of the issues related to in-service teacher development in the context of sub-Saharan Africa, grounded predominantly in our experiences of over 5 years of iteratively developing, refining and evaluating an intensive school-based professional learning...

This paper presents the results of a two-year research project aimed at developing a teacher professional development (TPD) model in Indonesia. New government policies in this nation, its archipelagic nature, vast numbers of teachers and scarcity of support resources present a unique challenge to TPD. A needs assessment was conducted to identify teachers’ professional needs. Based on the results of this assessment, a dual-mode TPD that combines face-to-face sessions and online sessions was...

This case study examines the attitudes of the secondary and middle school teachers at one school in Lebanon regarding the effect of the school’s professional development (PD) programs on the quality of their teaching practices and motivation. It also examines teachers’ attitudes regarding PD as well as their recommendations to improve the quality of the PD program provided by their school. Questionnaires, focus group interviews and observations were conducted to collect and triangulate data...

This paper explores the English in Action (EIA) intervention in Bangladesh and explores how the school-based support systems impact on classroom practice in Underprivileged Children’s Educational Programs (UCEP) Schools. It presents evidence to demonstrate how in-school training helps teachers’ professional development (TDP). This paper explores TPD by analysing interviews with UCEP school administrators and teachers who are participating in the pre-pilot EIA intervention. It draws...

To promote significant pedagogical change, the most successful teacher education programmes for the global south happen in the school context. This paper is based on a pre-pilot intervention study of an international education development programme in Bangladesh. Technology-enhanced learning, in this case the use of the Apple® iPod® (iPod touch®), was used to support teachers’ teaching and learning in their school contexts. This paper presents evidence to demonstrate how such school-based...

This study intends to present a bespoke teacher professional development MOOC designed by Teacher Education for Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) team that allows MOOCs to become a viable means offering cost-effective, quality professional teacher development. TESSA is a network of teachers and teacher educators, working to improve classroom teaching in Africa. TESSA MOOC is an innovative approach to capacity building for teacher educators and teachers across Africa. The study presents outputs of...

To promote significant pedagogical change, the most successful teacher education programmes for the global south happen in the school context. This paper is based on a pre-pilot intervention study of an international education development programme in Bangladesh. Technology-enhanced learning, in this case the use of the Apple® iPod® (iPod touch®), was used to support teachers' teaching and learning in their school contexts. This paper presents evidence to demonstrate how such school-based...

Examples of mobile phones being used with teachers to provide continuing professional development (CPD) in emerging economies at scale are largely absent from the research literature. We outline English in Action’s (EIA) model for providing 80,000 teachers with CPD to improve their communicative language teaching in Bangladesh over nine years. EIA’s CPD program is delivered face to face and supported through open distance learning (ODL). This innovative model of teacher CPD is supported...

This chapter is about teacher professional development in Tanzania. The authors have examined the current status of teacher professional development in Tanzania, focusing on predominant perspectives on the concept and provision modalities. In addition, the authors have identified challenges facing teacher professional development in Tanzania, most of which seem to be systemic. The challenges include lack of explicit policy and guidelines for teacher professional development, limited...

This paper is part of a larger study that was carried out to investigate the use of information communication technology (ICT) in the self-directed professional development (SDPD) of mathematics and science teachers in Zimbabwe. The educational context provides an example of how teachers compensated for lack of structured government initiatives to support teachers' professional development. This paper focuses on the ways in which these teachers were using ICT resources to further their...

Supporting and upskilling teachers are essential to enhancing the quality of learning in developing contexts – the focus of Education For All – yet little evidence exists concerning what kinds of teacher education are actually most effective and what changes in ‘quality’ are desired and feasible. This paper illustrates how a concrete, research-informed school-based, model of professional development in sub-Saharan Africa can address the quality agenda. It reports on a trial of a pioneering,...

Teacher Professional Development (TPD) has become a major policy priority within education systems worldwide. But keeping teachers professionally up-to-date and providing them professional development opportunities on continuing basis is a big challenge. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can be a cost and resource effective means to complement the traditional methods of professional development of teachers. This optimism is based on the assumption that use of MOOCs will facilitate mass...

This systematic review explores the impact of teacher professional development (PD) on student reading achievement. The first part of the literature evaluates all available existing systematic reviews and meta-analyses of PD intervention studies. No quality reviews of PD and reading specifically (distinct from ‘attainment’) were found. There was a little overlap of studies in existing reviews. The second part of the systematic review focuses on the most recent intervention studies exploring...

In order to fully realise the potential of online and blended learning (OBL), teacher professional development (TPD) strategies on how to teach in an online or blended learning environment are needed. While many studies examine the effects of TPD strategies, fewer studies target the specific important components of these strategies. This study addresses that gap by conducting a systematic review of qualitative data consisting of 15 articles on TPD that targets OBL. Using a meta-aggregative...

This paper reports on the findings of a pilot school-based professional development programme for Tanzanian primary school teachers launched in February 2011 and evaluated in December 2012 by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training with the support of UNICEF. The study set out to investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of the pilot programme in changing pedagogical practices before it was scaled up nationally. It was found that teachers who had participated in the school-based...

The prevalence and adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in education has often been guided by utopian perspectives without proper research to understand the schooling context and teachers’ ICT development needs. This paper reports on the findings from a study of in-service teachers who are members of a teachers’ union in South Africa. These teachers were surveyed using a questionnaire based on Second Information Technology in Education Study (SITES), which is an...

The prevalence and adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in education has often been guided by utopian perspectives without proper research to understand the schooling context and teachers’ ICT development needs. This paper reports on the findings from a study of in-service teachers who are members of a teachers’ union in South Africa. These teachers were surveyed using a questionnaire based on Second Information Technology in Education Study (SITES), which is an...

There is growing consensus in international and local literature that, to be effective, professional development activities (PDAs) should focus on ways of teaching that improve learners' learning, but there is no clear consensus on the teaching focus and the form in which teacher learning is organised. Drawing from literature on teacher knowledge, in particular Shulman's distinction between subject matter and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), this article critically reviews the PDAs...