Realising Our Potential: Understanding and Developing Capacity for Lasting Improvement

In an increasingly complex world, continuous and broad-based learning is essential to keep up with the rapid pace of change. Drawing on research and development work in school effectiveness and school improvement, it is argued in this article that internal capacity is vital in developing and sustaining the teacher and organisational learning necessary to promote and enhance student learning. Influences on internal capacity at the individual teacher, school context and external context levels are discussed, and principles offered for building capacity from within and outside schools. Differences between schools in their internal capacity are highlighted and questions posed for further research and development work to understand better how the influences interact in different types of schools.