Explore / Counterposition
“Professional development changes practice”
Training changes practice when it continues into the classroom.
Published September 2026
The strongest formulation
Teachers cannot use what they have never been shown. Structured professional learning is the main route by which new practice reaches classrooms at scale.
Why it is attractive
It is schedulable, countable and fundable. Attendance and satisfaction are easy to report, and a training day feels like action.
Where it holds
It holds when professional learning is sustained, tied to the teacher’s own subject and learners, and followed by practice, feedback and coaching in the classroom.
Where it breaks
It breaks when it is a one-off session measured by attendance. Knowing about a practice and doing it in a busy room are different, and the second is where most programmes stop.
What evidence matters
Timperley et al. (2007) on teacher professional learning, and Kennedy (2016) on which programme features change teaching. Kraft, Blazar and Hogan (2018) find coaching effective and harder to sustain at scale, and Guskey (2002) argues beliefs tend to change after teachers see practice work, not before. What matters is observed change in practice and in learning, not attendance.
More precisely
A more precise version
Professional learning changes practice when it is sustained, specific to the teacher’s context and continued through practice, feedback and coaching.
Where next
Follow this idea
Operationalise it
Professional learning that changes practice (opens in a new tab)Guide
Related argument
Design for translationNote
Challenge it
WP-07: The most durable output of an innovation may be the capability the organisation develops while implementing it.Working proposition