ABSTRACT
In recent decades, the concepts enquiry and research have increasingly become embedded within discourse concerning teacher professional development, particularly in relation to performance management, raising educational standards and school improvement planning. Teachers who ask searching questions about educational practice, which arise from their own professional concerns and situational contexts, demonstrate a commitment to continuous learning by seeking new ideas, evaluating and reflecting on their impact, and trying out new practices and ways of working to improve their own effectiveness in the teaching environment. This approach to professional development exemplifies and underpins the concepts of the teacher as a reflective practitioner, as an extended professional and as a researcher. These concepts are closely related, with Stenhouse (1975) arguing that the outstanding feature of extended professionals is their capacity and commitment to engage in autonomous self-development through reflection, systematic self-study and research.
