The Impact of Quality of Teaching on Student Outcomes: Implications for Policy and Practice on Teacher Professional Development

INTRODUCTION One of the key findings from decades of Educational Effectiveness Research (EER) is the importance of the classroom level as a predictor of pupil outcomes. Research has consistently shown not only that the classroom level can explain more of the variance in pupil outcomes than the school level, but that a large proportion of this classroom level variance can be explained by what teachers do in the classroom (Muijs & Reynolds, 2001). As a result of these findings classroom practise has become firmly integrated into theoretical and empirical models of educational effectiveness (e.g., Creemers & Kyriakides, 2008). This paper therefore aims to summarise key findings and developments in the area of Teacher Effectiveness Research (TER) and to discuss the main methodological and conceptual limitations of TER. We also refer to recent developments in the area which reveal the importance of identifying grouping of teacher factors associated with student achievement and present results of projects conducted in different countries which reveal that teaching skills can be grouped into specific developmental stages. Finally, a dynamic approach to teacher professional development is proposed and implications for policy and practice on teacher professional development are drawn.