Teachers’ professional learning and its impact on students’ learning outcomes: Findings from a systematic review

In a world where teachers are required to become ‘high-level knowledge workers’, the emergence of the school as learning organisation is vital. In this context, the aim of this systematic review was to explore what comprises effective professional development for educators: i.e. what forms of teacher professional development definitively lead to positive outcomes for students? A total of 125 studies were reviewed as part of the study; however only 11 studies with experimental or quasi-experimental design examined impact on students' learning. Analysis of these studies suggest that training, ongoing coaching, collaborative Continuous Professional Development (CPD) promote student skills and learning and frequent CPD over a long duration appear to be most beneficial. None of the studies solely examined the impact of learning communities on students' learning. We argue future research focus on establishing the effectiveness of a full gamut of CPD in terms of a diverse range of student outcomes.