School-Based Teacher Professional Development

The indicator assesses the number and the proportion of schools that initiated and maintain regular (at least once a month) structured teacher professional development activities. Such sessions usually take the form of Teacher Learning Circles, Teacher Professional Development sessions or experience-sharing sessions.

Determine the indicator's value by using the following methodology:

1) Collect the data by using a combination of 2 out of 3 options below:

  > interview with the school director and/or teachers (assess the standardized criteria below)

  > observation of a session (assess the standardized criteria below)

  > relevant documentation, such as Terms of Reference for the group, division of responsibilities, meeting timeframe, sessions' outcomes, etc.

2) Calculate the number and % of schools that organize teacher professional development activities in school in the given period.

1) A standardized Teacher Learning Circle / Teacher Professional Development session fulfills the following procedure:

  > It is a small gathering of teachers who come together to share their work, successes, and challenges in order to support and help one another improve their teaching practices.

  > It takes place regularly, once or twice a month.

  > All teachers in a school are actively engaged.

  > Its goal is to establish a routine learning loop of 4 phases where teachers (1) reflect upon a teaching practice, (2) learn more about the practice, (3) plan on how to use it in their classes and finally, (4) take action by practicing the technique. This cyclical learning process forms the basis of school-based and peer-driven Teacher Professional Development sessions.

2) This indicator can be further supplemented by information from participatory assessment of teacher perception of and satisfaction with Teacher Learning Circles.