Over recent decades there has been pressure on schools and teachers, in England, to transform teachers' working practice by advocating an improved role for teaching assistants. In reforming the workforce, the government also intended to support schools in building the momentum for change, whilst raising standards of pupil achievement and enhancing…

Communities (including online communities) appear to provide powerful contexts for the professional development of teachers. Yet, despite the apparent educational potency of groups, professional development research has almost exclusively focused on describing and explaining the learning of individuals. In a world where technology supports…

A dialectical, or mutually informing and influencing, relationship exists between research, programmes for development and improved teaching and learning. Among a raft of other attributes, current perceptions of effective professional development (summarised in the paper) point to deep, collaborative, active and ongoing features as important. Such…