A culture of improvement: How changes to teachers’ working conditions influence student outcomes

Original Research

Written by:

David Weston, Bethan Hindley and Maria Cunningham

Published on: May 9, 2022

Leadership

7 min read

David Weston, CEO, Teacher Development Trust, UK Bethan Hindley, Head of Leadership Delivery, Teacher Development Trust, UK Maria Cunningham, Regional Delivery Lead, Education Endowment Foundation, UK Multiple teams of researchers have made significant efforts to summarise the research on the process and content of teacher professional development. However, these reviews, due to their methodology, tend to put less emphasis on how teachers’ working conditions relate to their ability to raise student outcomes. To improve schools, we need to better understand how the context in which a teacher works affects their student outcomes. This article makes the claim that there is a consistent and robust association between teachers’ working conditions and student attainment, and outlines the core aspects of those working conditions that seem to be most clearly associated with improving student attainment for school leaders to consider. Learning does not only happen in formal

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A culture of improvement: How changes to teachers’ working conditions influence student outcomes

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