Effective Professional Development with Dr Sam Sims

Naylor's Natter Podcast 'Just talking to Teachers'

About Dr Sam Sims

I’m a quantitative education researcher, interested in teachers and education policy.

I work at UCL Institute of Education, where I lecture on policy analysis and evaluation. I’m also a researcher at Education Datalab.

This site contains links to my research and teaching material, as well as links to resources that I think people will find useful.

I regularly give talks to schools and at conferences, on topics including effective professional development, teacher motivation and retention.

You can find me on Twitter @DrSamSims, read a short Q&A with me here or listen to me giving an overview of some of my research on this podcast here

About the EEF guidance report:

Supporting high quality teaching is pivotal in improving children’s outcomes. Indeed, research tells us that high quality teaching can narrow the disadvantage gap. It is therefore hugely encouraging to see a host of new initiatives and reforms that recognise the importance of teacher quality such as the Early Career Framework and the new National Professional Qualifications. These exemplify a growing consensus that promoting effective professional development (PD) plays a crucial role in improving classroom practice and pupil outcomes, and this guidance further reflects this, offering recommendations on how to improve professional development and design and select more impactful PD.

PD has great potential; but it also comes with costs. We know that teachers engage in professional development activities whilst balancing multiple and, at times, competing commitments and time pressures. The need is clear, therefore, for PD to be well‑designed, selected, and implemented so that the investment is justified.

This guidance will support schools in selecting external PD and designing and delivering their own PD. It will also support external providers in designing, delivering, and explaining their offering to schools.

To develop the report’s three recommendations, we reviewed the best available international research as well as current practice, and consulted with school leaders and academics. As with all EEF guidance reports, its publication is just the start of how we aim to support schools in implementing these recommendations. We will be working with the sector, including through our colleagues in the Research Schools Network, to build on them with further training, resources and tools.

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