Ensuring that teachers are provided with high quality professional development (PD) opportunities is crucial to improving pupil outcomes.

The EEF's latest guidance report — Effective Professional Development — reviews the best available research to offer three recommendations to help school leaders ensure that their approach to PD aligns with the evidence base.

The first of the recommendations encourages school leaders to focus on the mechanisms of effective professional development when selecting or designing new training for teaching staff, such as goal setting and providing feedback.

The report — which is free to download from the EEF's website — also advises that school leaders should implement PD programmes with care, taking into consideration the context and needs of their school.

This guidance report sits alongside the EEF's other guidance reports — focused on maths, metacognition, effective implementation and making best use of teaching assistants — providing the basis for an overall advance towards evidence-informed school improvement.