Focusing the lens on Professional Development in the lifelong learning sector

Lucy leads the EEF’s Evidence Partner work for Middlesbrough College. She has a strong interest in evidence-informed practice, curriculum sequencing and effective professional development in the further education sector. Middlesbrough College is a large further education provider, offering a broad range of courses, including A Levels, vocational courses, T Levels and apprenticeships. As the largest provider in Teesside, the college serves over 12,000 learners from across the Tees Valley region.

PD at Middlesbrough College isn’t about 'fixing teaching’. It’s about strengthening professional identity, confidence, and collective efficiency. When teachers feel supported to grow, outcomes for learners naturally follow. The research tells us this is one of the most cost-effective improvement strategies available (Coe et al., 2020; Moore et al., 2024).

A turning point for us was recognising that teachers already bring extensive knowledge and skill. Our role as leaders is not to impose a script, but to enhance the craft of teaching and learning; to unite practitioner expertise with research informed approaches and create space for reflective, thoughtful experimentation.

Using the EEF implementation behaviours of Engage, Unite, and Reflect, PD leads are able to maintain a clear direction of travel while still leaving room for staff autonomy and professional judgement.

The biggest shift came when PD stopped being an isolated calendar entry and became woven into the weekly rhythm of life. When PD sits inside department meetings, coaching conversations, learning walks, and planning sessions, it stops being ‘something extra’ and starts shaping classroom decisions in real time.

One example of this cultural shift is the new ‘Tuck in and Teach’ series led by the Initial Teacher Education team. Covering key teaching challenges such as behaviour, exit routines, modelling and questioning, these sessions offer staff the chance to unite with colleagues from other faculties, reflect, share practice, and build a shared understanding of what highly effective teaching looks like. (Yes, the free food helps, but it’s the professional dialogue that sustains the culture.)

Our PD sessions follow the KEEP framework, (Knowledge, Engagement, Execution, Practice) which is a planning structure to support lasting behaviour change. With teacher time more precious than ever, PD must deliver real value efficiently and KEEP enables exactly that.

Curriculum reform continues to reshape the sector; our PD needs to evolve with it. Having adopted T-shaped Learning and Delivery one of our biggest lessons was: when PD tries to cover everything, it changes nothing.

So instead, we’ve focussed on identifying a smaller number of high impact teaching ‘moves’ and building a shared language around them. This has been especially important in T Level areas where the curriculum was new and staff confidence varied.

To bring consistency and clarity, we introduced the Ingredients of a Lesson, part of the Taking Teaching Higher strategy grounded in cognitive science. It supports new and experienced teachers alike by providing a predictable and consistent foundation for the effective delivery of teaching by outlining a comprehensive and holistic structure to lessons:

• Entry Routine
• The Big Picture
• Introducing Learning in Small Steps
• Checking for Understanding
• Guided and Independent Practice
• Transition and Exit Routine

By giving staff a clear, shared understanding of “what good looks like” (not a long checklist but a focussed, evidence informed framework), we reduced cognitive load and improved consistency of learner experience across T Level pathways.

We also mirror this structure in how we deliver PD itself. The guidance is clear: poorly delivered PD risks overload, but well-structured PD supports genuine behaviour change.

If we want PD that genuinely leads to change, we need to stop asking:

“Did they attend PD?”

And start asking:

“What changed in the classroom because of it?”

At Middlesbrough College, the shift towards embedded, evidence informed, collaborative PD is helping to ensure the answer to that question becomes clearer, and more powerful, every term.