ABSTRACT
This article reports the results of research, commissioned by the Teacher Training Agency in the United Kingdom, into the characteristics of teachers who could be shown to be effective in teaching literacy to primary school pupils. The findings are based on a close study of a sample of teachers whose pupils made effective learning gains in literacy and of a sample of teachers who were less effective in literacy teaching. The aims of this research were to:
• identify the key factors in what effective teachers knew, understood and did which enabled them to teach literacy effectively;
• identify strategies which would enable those factors to be more widely applied;
• specify aspects of continuing professional development which appeared to contribute to the development of effective teachers of literacy.
