Teachers are also not using the opportunities and
resources that exist for professional development in
the most optimal way. That has to do with control
and with a mismatch between supply and demand.
The main barriers to professional development are
a lack of control over their own time (workload)
and managers’ restrictions on teachers choosing
their own professionalisation activities. The role of
managers is crucial in several respects.
Teachers feel that coordination should take place
between a teacher and his or her supervisor and
that control should be shared. A crucial part of
this coordination is the appraisal cycle; our study
established that teachers find it important to take
advantage of the appraisal cycle to ask for
professional development activities. Because
teachers often do not consider informal learning
as a form of professional development, it would
be good to specifically ask about this activity. It is
important that managers appreciate informal learning, also as evidence in performance appraisals.
At the same time, we must ensure that teachers
continue to experience sufficient autonomy.
Attempts to enhance their professional development should not lead to external stimuli (such
as rewards) taking the place of the control and
influence of the teachers themselves.
There also needs to be more customisation of
professional development activities for teachers,
supported by the schools and the government.
Effective promotion of teacher competence
requires more diverse and flexible forms of professionalisation. This relates to forms that are more in
line with the stage of a teacher’s career, but also
more practical and less rigidly structured forms.
learn together through research. Forms in which
joint educational development and learning
together go hand in hand, as in design-oriented
action research, also appear to be very effective.
At least, this type of professional development is
characteristic of nations with high-performing
educational systems. But it is also the form of
professionalisation that teachers have little
opportunity to do. Therefore it seems important
to structurally anchor this sort of development in
the work of a team. Countries where teachers have
the time and space for joint preparation, execution,
evaluation and adjustment of education are the
leaders in student performance.
Research summary:
Teachers learning
An overview of teachers’ professional development
Our research also found that teachers appreciate
initiatives giving more control to teams, such as
described in the legislative proposal to strengthen
teachers’ positions. In short, there are still many
opportunities waiting to be exploited, particularly
in the areas of control of teams, the structural
embedding of professional development in daily
work and a team’s joint educational development.
The professionalisation of teachers is a complex and
often ambiguous matter. That is not to say that it is
all doom and gloom with the quality of teachers
and education in general, as some media would
have us believe. It is a joint responsibility of politics,
unions, management, boards and teachers
themselves to explicitly draw attention to the many
positive developments and interesting challenges
posed to the teaching profession. This profession,
which works intensively with young people,
deserves recognition for its long-term, enormous
social impact.
Isabelle Diepstraten &
Arnoud Evers (Eds.)
In our international research, we found evidence
for these flexible forms. Teachers in OECD countries
especially appreciate forms of professional
development that allow them to work together
(e.g. invite colleagues to attend the lesson) and
Wetenschappelijk Centrum Leraren Onderzoek
LOOK Scientific Centre
for Teacher
Wetenschappelijk
Centrum
Leraren Research
Onderzoek
Open Universiteit
look.ou.nl
OpenUniversiteit
Universiteit
Open
look.ou.nl
look.ou.nl
5512427
Research questions, approach and study design
The quality of education depends on the quality
of teachers, so their professional development is
crucial. But how do teachers see this development? Do they have time to develop themselves?
And what does ‘professional development’ mean
to them? The General Union of Education (De
Algemene Onderwijsbond, AOb) asked the LOOK
Scientific Centre for Teacher Research how primary,
secondary and vocational school teachers can
work to strengthen their own teaching skills. We
examined the following questions:
is part of the AOb website. Three themes were
focused on during the online discussions and in
the focus group: opportunities and resources for
professional development, having a say (that is
control) and whether the range of professional
development activities meets teachers’ demands
and needs. The questionnaire was distributed to
teachers from primary, secondary and vocational
schools and focused on control and on supply
and demand. A total of 378 primary school
teachers, 585 secondary school teachers and 185
vocational school teachers responded.
1 What opportunities and resources are available
for teachers’ professional development and how
do schools and teachers make use of them?
2 What opportunities do teachers have for having
a say and how do they perceive this?
3 Do the range of opportunities for professional
development connect with teachers’ needs?
4 What does teachers’ professional development
look like in nations with high-performing
educational systems?
5 How do similar professions develop to become
more professional, specifically police officers and
nurses?
Below we describe each question, link them to the
most important study conclusions and finish with a
final conclusion.
We have not only looked at consciously organised
learning in which teachers earn a certificate or
diploma, but we also looked at the ‘informal
learning’ that occurs during daily work, such as a
conversation with a colleague.
These questions are examined on the basis of:
− All the relevant policy documents from the
Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and
social partners since the Action Plan for the
Teaching Profession in the Netherlands
published in 2008.
− Relevant studies evaluating this policy.
− Our own additional research from a focus group,
online forum discussions and an extensive online
questionnaire. Twenty-two teachers (mostly
AOb consultants) from primary, secondary and
vocational schools participated in the focus
group. A wide range of teachers also spoke with
one another on the online discussion forum that
Opportunities and resources
Individual schemes for professional development
are clear and teachers like to use them. These
schemes are the Teacher Education Subsidy
(Tegemoetkoming Lerarenopleiding; TLO), the
Teacher Scholarship (Lerarenbeurs) and the
Doctoral Grant for Teachers (Promotiebeurs), of
which the Teacher Scholarship is the most well
known. Teachers are much less enthusiastic about
the collective schemes because they are often
vague and teachers have little control over them.
To begin with, it is unclear precisely how much
funding school boards now have for professional
development, how it is allocated to the schools and
how and whether schools actually use this money
for professional development.
It is also unclear how teachers themselves use the
possibilities created by these collective schemes.
This relates to how the right to use these schemes
is defined in the collective agreement. The number
of opportunities and resources teachers use for
professional development is often underestimated because informal learning is often not taken
into account. On the other hand, teachers do not
optimally use the available options. This has to do
with control (over one’s time and authorisation by
management) and supply (the mismatch with the
demand). Therefore this LOOK study pays extra
attention to the issues of control and supply.
Having a say
Teachers quite often feel that they have a say in
their personal development and feel competent to
do so. At the same time, we concluded that
teachers find it difficult to demand their rights
when their managers ignore these rights. It also
appears that teachers often do not know their
formal rights.
Teachers believe that coordination of personal
professional development should primarily take
place between a teacher and his or her manager,
but coordination within the teams is also important. Teachers say as well that it is crucial to ask for
professional activities in the appraisal cycle. The
appraisal cycle plays an important role in strengthening their sense of control.
Teachers will appreciate initiatives giving more
control to teams, such as described in the legislative proposal to strengthen teachers’ positions.
This proposal allows teams to develop their own
teaching practices and to find out what qualities
they need or what sort of professional development is needed in order to reach their goals.
Supply and demand
There is a qualitative mismatch between supply
and demand; especially in vocational education,
there is an unmet need for professionalisation.
There is a need for more diversity and flexibility in
the professional range. This requires professional
development activities customised for the teachers
and supported by the schools and the government.
If teachers want to provide good and up-to-date
education, it is important that they continue to
evolve. Effective promotion of teachers’ competence therefore requires different and more flexible
forms of professionalisation.
Professional development abroad
Teachers in OECD (Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development) countries greatly
appreciate opportunities to work with one another
through research and collaborative learning. Forms
in which joint educational development and
learning together go hand in hand, as in designbased action research (research aimed at approving
teachers own educational practices), also appear to
be very effective. At least, this type of professional
development is characteristic of nations with
high-performing educational systems. But it is also
the type of professionalisation that teachers have
little opportunity to do. Therefore it seems
important to structurally anchor this sort of
development in the work of a team. Countries
where teachers have the time and space for joint
preparation, execution, evaluation and adjustment
of education are the leaders in student performance.
Separate professionalisation hours, money (whether
individual budgets or not), type of suppliers: all
these things seem much less important. Professionalisation seems to be particularly effective as a
natural part of the work or, better said, of teamwork.
This also ensures control and autonomy, not in the
sense of the individual teacher as a person but as a
professional in a professional environment.
Professional development in similar occupations
An important difference from teachers is that both
police officers and nurses have a daily transfer of
tasks to colleagues. This ensures that there is
automatically time for substantive contact and
consultation with colleagues. This is not structurally
integrated into teachers’ daily work and in the
teaching profession the combination of professional activities and daily work seems to be most
problematic. Time plays less of a factor when police
officers and nurses schedule professionalisation.
We also noticed how well the nursing profession is
organised; there is an active professional association which works in conjunction with the union
Nu’91.
Final conclusions
When teachers think about opportunities and
resources for professional development, they often
think of formal courses and training. The informal
learning that teachers rely on in their everyday work
is not often recognised as a significant opportunity
for the development of their profession, though
teachers often praise that informal, everyday
learning in the workplace as the most useful.
Research questions, approach and study design
The quality of education depends on the quality
of teachers, so their professional development is
crucial. But how do teachers see this development? Do they have time to develop themselves?
And what does ‘professional development’ mean
to them? The General Union of Education (De
Algemene Onderwijsbond, AOb) asked the LOOK
Scientific Centre for Teacher Research how primary,
secondary and vocational school teachers can
work to strengthen their own teaching skills. We
examined the following questions:
is part of the AOb website. Three themes were
focused on during the online discussions and in
the focus group: opportunities and resources for
professional development, having a say (that is
control) and whether the range of professional
development activities meets teachers’ demands
and needs. The questionnaire was distributed to
teachers from primary, secondary and vocational
schools and focused on control and on supply
and demand. A total of 378 primary school
teachers, 585 secondary school teachers and 185
vocational school teachers responded.
1 What opportunities and resources are available
for teachers’ professional development and how
do schools and teachers make use of them?
2 What opportunities do teachers have for having
a say and how do they perceive this?
3 Do the range of opportunities for professional
development connect with teachers’ needs?
4 What does teachers’ professional development
look like in nations with high-performing
educational systems?
5 How do similar professions develop to become
more professional, specifically police officers and
nurses?
Below we describe each question, link them to the
most important study conclusions and finish with a
final conclusion.
We have not only looked at consciously organised
learning in which teachers earn a certificate or
diploma, but we also looked at the ‘informal
learning’ that occurs during daily work, such as a
conversation with a colleague.
These questions are examined on the basis of:
− All the relevant policy documents from the
Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and
social partners since the Action Plan for the
Teaching Profession in the Netherlands
published in 2008.
− Relevant studies evaluating this policy.
− Our own additional research from a focus group,
online forum discussions and an extensive online
questionnaire. Twenty-two teachers (mostly
AOb consultants) from primary, secondary and
vocational schools participated in the focus
group. A wide range of teachers also spoke with
one another on the online discussion forum that
Opportunities and resources
Individual schemes for professional development
are clear and teachers like to use them. These
schemes are the Teacher Education Subsidy
(Tegemoetkoming Lerarenopleiding; TLO), the
Teacher Scholarship (Lerarenbeurs) and the
Doctoral Grant for Teachers (Promotiebeurs), of
which the Teacher Scholarship is the most well
known. Teachers are much less enthusiastic about
the collective schemes because they are often
vague and teachers have little control over them.
To begin with, it is unclear precisely how much
funding school boards now have for professional
development, how it is allocated to the schools and
how and whether schools actually use this money
for professional development.
It is also unclear how teachers themselves use the
possibilities created by these collective schemes.
This relates to how the right to use these schemes
is defined in the collective agreement. The number
of opportunities and resources teachers use for
professional development is often underestimated because informal learning is often not taken
into account. On the other hand, teachers do not
optimally use the available options. This has to do
with control (over one’s time and authorisation by
management) and supply (the mismatch with the
demand). Therefore this LOOK study pays extra
attention to the issues of control and supply.
Having a say
Teachers quite often feel that they have a say in
their personal development and feel competent to
do so. At the same time, we concluded that
teachers find it difficult to demand their rights
when their managers ignore these rights. It also
appears that teachers often do not know their
formal rights.
Teachers believe that coordination of personal
professional development should primarily take
place between a teacher and his or her manager,
but coordination within the teams is also important. Teachers say as well that it is crucial to ask for
professional activities in the appraisal cycle. The
appraisal cycle plays an important role in strengthening their sense of control.
Teachers will appreciate initiatives giving more
control to teams, such as described in the legislative proposal to strengthen teachers’ positions.
This proposal allows teams to develop their own
teaching practices and to find out what qualities
they need or what sort of professional development is needed in order to reach their goals.
Supply and demand
There is a qualitative mismatch between supply
and demand; especially in vocational education,
there is an unmet need for professionalisation.
There is a need for more diversity and flexibility in
the professional range. This requires professional
development activities customised for the teachers
and supported by the schools and the government.
If teachers want to provide good and up-to-date
education, it is important that they continue to
evolve. Effective promotion of teachers’ competence therefore requires different and more flexible
forms of professionalisation.
Professional development abroad
Teachers in OECD (Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development) countries greatly
appreciate opportunities to work with one another
through research and collaborative learning. Forms
in which joint educational development and
learning together go hand in hand, as in designbased action research (research aimed at improving
teachers own educational practices), also appear to
be very effective. At least, this type of professional
development is characteristic of nations with
high-performing educational systems. But it is also
the type of professionalisation that teachers have
little opportunity to do. Therefore it seems
important to structurally anchor this sort of
development in the work of a team. Countries
where teachers have the time and space for joint
preparation, execution, evaluation and adjustment
of education are the leaders in student performance.
Separate professionalisation hours, money (whether
individual budgets or not), type of suppliers: all
these things seem much less important. Professionalisation seems to be particularly effective as a
natural part of the work or, better said, of teamwork.
This also ensures control and autonomy, not in the
sense of the individual teacher as a person but as a
professional in a professional environment.
Professional development in similar occupations
An important difference from teachers is that both
police officers and nurses have a daily transfer of
tasks to colleagues. This ensures that there is
automatically time for substantive contact and
consultation with colleagues. This is not structurally
integrated into teachers’ daily work and in the
teaching profession the combination of professional activities and daily work seems to be most
problematic. Time plays less of a factor when police
officers and nurses schedule professionalisation.
We also noticed how well the nursing profession is
organised; there is an active professional association which works in conjunction with the union
Nu’91.
Final conclusions
When teachers think about opportunities and
resources for professional development, they often
think of formal courses and training. The informal
learning that teachers rely on in their everyday work
is not often recognised as a significant opportunity
for the development of their profession, though
teachers often praise that informal, everyday
learning in the workplace as the most useful.
Teachers are also not using the opportunities and
resources that exist for professional development in
the most optimal way. That has to do with control
and with a mismatch between supply and demand.
The main barriers to professional development are
a lack of control over their own time (workload)
and managers’ restrictions on teachers choosing
their own professionalisation activities. The role of
managers is crucial in several respects.
Teachers feel that coordination should take place
between a teacher and his or her supervisor and
that control should be shared. A crucial part of
this coordination is the appraisal cycle; our study
established that teachers find it important to take
advantage of the appraisal cycle to ask for
professional development activities. Because
teachers often do not consider informal learning
as a form of professional development, it would
be good to specifically ask about this activity. It is
important that managers appreciate informal learning, also as evidence in performance appraisals.
At the same time, we must ensure that teachers
continue to experience sufficient autonomy.
Attempts to enhance their professional development should not lead to external stimuli (such
as rewards) taking the place of the control and
influence of the teachers themselves.
There also needs to be more customisation of
professional development activities for teachers,
supported by the schools and the government.
Effective promotion of teacher competence
requires more diverse and flexible forms of professionalisation. This relates to forms that are more in
line with the stage of a teacher’s career, but also
more practical and less rigidly structured forms.
learn together through research. Forms in which
joint educational development and learning
together go hand in hand, as in design-oriented
action research, also appear to be very effective.
At least, this type of professional development is
characteristic of nations with high-performing
educational systems. But it is also the form of
professionalisation that teachers have little
opportunity to do. Therefore it seems important
to structurally anchor this sort of development in
the work of a team. Countries where teachers have
the time and space for joint preparation, execution,
evaluation and adjustment of education are the
leaders in student performance.
Research summary:
Teachers learning
An overview of teachers’ professional development
Our research also found that teachers appreciate
initiatives giving more control to teams, such as
described in the legislative proposal to strengthen
teachers’ positions. In short, there are still many
opportunities waiting to be exploited, particularly
in the areas of control of teams, the structural
embedding of professional development in daily
work and a team’s joint educational development.
The professionalisation of teachers is a complex and
often ambiguous matter. That is not to say that it is
all doom and gloom with the quality of teachers
and education in general, as some media would
have us believe. It is a joint responsibility of politics,
unions, management, boards and teachers
themselves to explicitly draw attention to the many
positive developments and interesting challenges
posed to the teaching profession. This profession,
which works intensively with young people,
deserves recognition for its long-term, enormous
social impact.
Isabelle Diepstraten en
Arnoud Evers (Eds.)
In our international research, we found evidence
for these flexible forms. Teachers in OECD countries
especially appreciate forms of professional
development that allow them to work together
(e.g. invite colleagues to attend the lesson) and
Wetenschappelijk Centrum Leraren Onderzoek
LOOK Scientific Centre
for Teacher
Wetenschappelijk
Centrum
Leraren Research
Onderzoek
Open Universiteit
look.ou.nl
OpenUniversiteit
Universiteit
Open
look.ou.nl
look.ou.nl
5512427