ABSTRACT
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report Creating Effective Teaching and Learning Environments (2009) recognizes the importance of recruiting well-qualified individuals to become teachers, of providing high-quality preservice programs and of ensuring ongoing and effective professional learning programs. These three key emphases are foundational and recurring ideas in national policies seeking to ensure that improved teaching results in improved pupil learning; see, for example, the McKinsey report (Barber & Mourshed, 2007) in the United States; the recent White Paper on Education in England (Department for education, 2010). The OECD report is to be welcomed for its focus on professional development (PD) through the Teaching and Learning International Study (TALIS). It is also valuable for its focus on high-quality Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programs with strong congruence to individual and institutional needs.
