Innovating Professional Development in Compulsory Education - Examples and cases of emerging practices for teacher professional development

Meeting the professional development needs of tomorrow's teachers is a challenge that education authorities face in Europe and elsewhere. This report focuses on innovative and emergent practices of teacher professional development and professional learning among teaching professionals who work in compulsory education. We set to look out for ways that have emerged to overcome the known barriers and limitations that teachers say hinder them today from participating in professional development activities. Our study gathers 30 examples that well illustrate new emergent features at a general level. The study is descriptive and it is based on desk research and a number of interviews. This report forms the first part of the study called Innovating Professional Development in Compulsory Education. It comprises the main data and documentation gathered for the study. The main results and analysis are reported elsewhere in a JRC Science for Policy report called "Innovating Professional Development in Compulsory Education - An analysis of practices aimed at improving teacher professional development" (Vuorikari, 2019). After the Executive Summary, this report starts with an introduction (Section 2). Following that, a methodological note describes the steps taken for the whole study (Section 3). The main part, Section 4, describes the examples and groups them according to their focus of innovation. For that purpose, seven labels were created which are not categorical: School as a learning organisation; Empowering learners through competence-oriented approach; Innovating online delivery; Re-inventing blended learning; Engaging in first-hand experiences; Innovating degree programmes; and Innovating partnerships and new actors. A short concluding note is given in Section 5. Finally, the report also includes a number of in-depth case studies (Annex 2).