Teachers’ professional learning has the power to transform an education system. Done well – as it is for some, but not all – it unlocks great teaching, enhancing excellence and equity for all learners. It promotes inclusion and teacher retention. Critically, it builds teacher expertise, without which there is no authentic and sustainable change in pupil outcomes. Yet, for far too many teachers, professional learning is confined to the margins of their work, separated into one-off events filled with generic input, disconnected from the reality of their classroom practice. If evaluation of it does occur, it likely focuses on “happy sheets”, records of tasks completed or session attendance, rather than credible evidence that anyone has learnt anything, changed their practice, or become more effective as a result. A picture of dissatisfaction Various surveys paint a picture of dissatisfaction and low expectations with teachers’ current experience of CPD. For example, Allen et al. (2024) report that “fewer than two thirds of teachers said that INSET days at the start of the school year involved professional development in any form”. “Six in ten classroom teachers did not find the last INSET day they attended particularly useful”, and “only one in five [teachers] believed a lack of access to training would have a significantly negative impact on them”, while “only just over one in ten teachers ‘strongly’ agreed that they had taken part in professional development activities that had helped them become better teachers over the last twelve months”. Only 4 per cent believed that training on behaviour “would result in significant improvements to their expertise in the area”. How can the deep thought and careful design that teachers put into guiding their pupils’ learning be so often absent from the experience of their own professional learning? Have we lost sight of the importance of expertise in teaching and the need to build it systematically? Do we believe that expertise comes automatically with time and experience, or that expertise can be bypassed with compliance and consistency? There is a wide gap between the current reality for many teachers and how good it could be if we took a different approach. Close the gap We have to close that gap, but small tweaks will not do it. It is time for a radical shift in how we think about teacher expertise and the professional learning that builds it. We need a revolution in professional learning. We need a fresh start for a new normal. Even where professional learning is already good, it can be better. This embodies an improvement mindset that says we are “always proud, never satisfied”. Improvement is for everyone. Why this matters Great teaching changes lives for the better. And, of all the things those working in schools and colleges can influence day to day, teacher expertise is the single most important determinant of pupil outcomes. Great teaching is also inclusive teaching. Those who find it hardest to learn are most sensitive to the quality of teaching. Great teaching is the difference between a few succeeding and everyone excelling. Some other interventions and top-down initiatives can have positive effects, but they are always hard to implement faithfully. They can be subject to lethal mutations, typically have small and short-lived effects, are expensive to maintain and mostly depend on expertise to get right anyway. On the other hand, the impact of teacher expertise isn’t limited to the duration of an intervention. It pays back for every child a teacher teaches for the rest of their career. It compounds – the more expert a teacher becomes, the easier it is to build more expertise. To help every teacher become even more expert than they already are, we need a revolution in professional learning. To make this a reality, here are four commitments that schools could make: 1. Strategic commitment We will make building expertise our central long-term strategy for improving outcomes and promoting equity (something echoed in the current Ofsted schools’ inspection toolkit). School improvement becomes real when classroom interactions improve. If a strategy does not build expertise in the areas that matter most to learners, it probably is not school improvement. 2. Time commitment We will protect regular time for professional learning. Time is never neutral. What we protect reveals what we value. Important things that are not urgent are easily displaced, so we will stop, strip away and make room for what matters most. 3. Design commitment We will design professional learning around how teachers learn and develop expertise. Attendance is not learning. Activity is not expertise. Inspiration is not sustained improvement. We will build understanding and practical skill by having clear goals, strong models, deliberate practice, feedback and refinement, all connected to teachers’ subjects, pupils and local context. 4. Evaluation commitment We will evaluate whether professional learning is changing expertise and practice. We will move beyond attendance, completion and satisfaction as evidence of success. We will ask whether teachers are learning, whether practice is changing and whether young people are benefiting. Evaluation is not judgment. It is how professional learning learns. It is time for a radical shift in how we think about teacher expertise and the professional learning that builds it. You can find out more here.