A recent history of professional development in language teaching

The idea that teacher learning does not stop when a newly qualified teacher completes their initial teacher education is not new. Many generations of language teachers have continued to develop their expertise both formally and informally throughout their careers, and over the years, universities, LTOs and publishers have implemented different initiatives and created resources to this end. Until relatively recently, however, there has been a dearth of evidence regarding what long-lasting and transferable CPD looks like, and what it consists of.

The term long-lasting CPD is used here to mean professional learning that has a deep and lasting effect and stays with the practitioner over time, influencing their behaviour and practices.

Transferable CPD refers to professional learning that teachers can enact in their own practice to improve their teaching and their learners’ learning.

The lack of evidence concerning impactful CPD has meant that most attempts to develop and to resource teacher learning were informed mainly by theories for which there was either no evidence or insufficient evidence of impact. Instead, it was informed by common sense and experience, and, as a result, had different degrees of success.

In many contexts throughout the second half of the 20th century, professional learning for language teachers was generally conducted to a large extent by teachers ‘learning while doing’, i.e. by reflecting on their teaching, by taking part in so-called in-service teacher training (INSETT) seminars (workshops, talks and reading clubs organised in-house, often led by the teachers’ academic managers, the teachers themselves or external experts) and, perhaps to a lesser extent, by engaging in reading methodology books or professional magazines and journals. Teachers working in institutions with a culture of peer observation also benefited from watching each other's classes and discussing their thoughts about the observed lessons.