Support

Equipping teachers with the skills they need to succeed in a classroom and continuously supporting them to improve their skills is crucial. First, few (if any) individuals are born effective teachers. Everyone needs subject content knowledge, pedagogical skills, and lots of practice to be successful in the classroom. Second, adequate training and initial experience help to anticipate and minimize mistakes on the job. Several studies have found that the first few years of experience considerably improve a teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom—regardless of whether the teacher acquires this experience through clinical practice or during a probationary period (Boyd et al. 2009; Chingos & Peterson 2010; Hanushek et al. 2005; Hanushek & Rivkin 2010; Rivkin et al. 2005). This shows that teachers can improve their practice substantially, and so support mechanisms are necessary to help teachers reach their potential and perform at their best. A 2013 survey of 34 countries found that 90% of teachers had participated in professional development within the previous year (OECD 2014). But although there were high attendance rates, these trainings tended to be brief, overly theory-focused, and of low quality. Subsequently, current research shows that teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical skills did not improve as a result of these training programs (Evans et al. 2017). Recent research has shown that to be effective, training needs to be more tailored to the needs of individual teachers, integrated with classroom practice, and reinforced with frequent follow-up visits and tailored coaching (Evans & Popova 2016; Evans et al. 2017).