Framework

1. Professional Identity
2. CPD Satisfaction
3. Professional Support
CPD
Success Factors
4. School Development & Participation
5. Organisation & Delivery
6. CPD Design Elements

1. Professional Identity

Professional identity refers to the extent to which CPD is meaningful and relevant for the sense of professional self. This includes views on motivation, role clarity, and how CPD supports career development, as perceived by teachers, teacher-trainers and decision makers.

This factor explores how CPD supports professional self-understanding, motivation, teacher interaction, role clarity, and career development. FOOTT PRINTTS findings show that teachers are more engaged in CPD when it resonates with their values, enhances professional autonomy, and provides room for reflective practice.

Descriptive Factors:

Professional development is effective when it provides tools, strategies, or insights that teachers can immediately apply in their classrooms. This includes solving real challenges, adapting new methods, or improving lesson quality.

CPD is valued when it deepens teachers’ understanding, introduces new perspectives, or challenges existing beliefs. Learning is considered meaningful when it builds confidence and fosters professional growth.

Sharing experiences, reflecting with peers, and discussing teaching practices strengthens teachers’ identities. Such structured dialogue promotes collaboration, critical thinking, and a sense of belonging in the profession.

Teachers are more motivated to participate in CPD when it contributes to formal recognition, qualification upgrades, or access to new roles. Visible career links enhance the long-term relevance of professional learning.

  • CPD strengthens professional identity by linking learning to everyday practice and core values.
  • Peer dialogue supports identity formation, role clarity, and shared reflection.
  • Opportunities for career progression reinforce sustained CPD participation.
  • Align CPD topics with teachers’ everyday practice and professional values.
  • Design learning content to be meaningful, conceptually rich, adaptive and reflective.
  • Facilitate structured peer dialogue and collaborative reflection.
  • Communicate how CPD contributes to formal recognition and career advancement.
  • Integrate teachers’ cultural and linguistic identities into CPD design

2. CPD Satisfaction

CPD satisfaction refers to the perceived value and effectiveness of CPD in supporting professional growth, meeting individual needs, and enhancing satisfaction with the teaching profession, as perceived by teachers, teacher-trainers and decision makers.

This factor addresses perceived quality, usefulness, and the sense of professional fulfillment resulting from CPD. FOOTT PRINTTS research confirms that satisfaction is highest when CPD is relevant, timely, and practical.

Descriptive factors:

Teachers perceive CPD as an essential part of their long-term career development. It helps them grow professionally, stay updated, and meet institutional or policy-related requirements for advancement.

Effective CPD addresses the actual challenges, interests, and teaching contexts of participants. Teachers value content that is relevant to their subject areas, student needs, or current pedagogical priorities.

Teachers are more satisfied when they experience concrete improvements in their work – such as better classroom management, new strategies and methods that were modelled and tested during CPD, working effectively with learning materials, or stronger student engagement – as a direct result of CPD.

The positive relationship between CPD satisfaction and teachers’ job satisfaction highlights the potentials of well-designed CPD activities. It reinforces motivation, reduces burnout, and supports retention in the profession.

  • Satisfaction increases when CPD responds to teachers’ immediate professional challenges.
  • CPD is valued when it leads to observable improvements in classroom practice.
  • Teachers value CPD that supports long-term professional growth and advancement.
  • Content that reflects teachers’ needs and contexts increases satisfaction.
  • Observable impact on classroom practice reinforces CPD’s perceived value.
  • Design CPD around currently stated teaching challenges and pedagogical needs.
  • Offer options that reflect career stages, experience, or teaching contexts.
  • Ensure tangible classroom applications are embedded into each session.
  • Offer CPD formats that visibly support professional growth and career progression.
  • Conduct needs assessments to tailor content to teachers’ real-world priorities.
  • Design CPD to result in practical improvements in teaching and learning.
  • Include elements that strengthen teachers’ motivation, confidence, and morale.

3. Professional Support

Professional support refers to forms of support provided through mentoring, coaching, peer collaboration, and professional networks that are perceived as beneficial to professional learning by teachers, teacher-trainers and decision makers.

This factor emphasises mentoring, coaching, collaboration, and networks. Sustainable professional development depends on ongoing peer interaction and support structures. FOOTT PRINTTS highlights the importance of professional learning communities and shared leadership.

Descriptive factors:

New or less experienced teachers benefit from guidance provided by more experienced colleagues. Mentoring builds trust, provides role models, and supports the practical integration of new knowledge into daily teaching.

Coaching involves targeted, ongoing support tailored to individual goals that improve professional and personal competences. It helps teachers reflect on their practice, receive constructive feedback, and make focused improvements over time.

Observing colleagues and receiving feedback fosters mutual learning and critical reflection. It promotes a shared professional language and deeper understanding of teaching practices.

CPD is strengthened through access to professional communities. These networks enable teachers to exchange ideas, share teaching materials, and collaborate beyond the boundaries of individual training sessions.

  • Mentoring supports early-career teachers and facilitates reflective transfer into practice.
  • Coaching enables personalised learning tailored to teachers’ goals and contexts.
  • Peer collaboration builds trust, reduces professional isolation, and improves practice and knowledge transfer.
  • Professional networks sustain motivation, innovation, and resource exchange beyond training events.
  • Introduce coaching, mentoring and long CPD formats that foster collaboration and peer-interaction.
  • Use peer-led modules or mentoring groups to guide follow-up support.
  • Embed peer observation and feedback cycles in CPD design.
  • Establish cross-school or digital networks for material and idea sharing.
  • Use school-based or inter-institutional CPD to support knowledge transfer in professional learning communities.

4. School Development & Participation

Governance and participation refer to the ability to influence CPD decisions, including the balance between top-down mandates and bottom-up participation, and the availability of material resources, as perceived by teachers, trainers and decision makers.

This factor concerns CPD governance, participation, and policy alignment. According to FOOTT PRINTTS, meaningful teacher involvement in CPD planning improves ownership and effectiveness. Governance structures must balance national mandates with institutional autonomy.

Descriptive factors:

Autonomy in selecting relevant training increases motivation and ownership. When teachers can choose CPD activities that fit their professional goals and interests, they are more likely to engage meaningfully.

Educators express a desire to influence the content and structure of CPD. Involving them in planning leads to greater relevance, acceptance, and alignment with real teaching needs.

Professional learning is more effective when connected to broader institutional priorities. Linking CPD to school improvement strategies fosters coherence and collective progress.

Ministries, principals, or employers often shape CPD through regulations, priorities, or funding and by providing a vision for the institution’s general development. While guidance is valuable, it should be balanced with teachers’ local needs and agency.

  • Understanding the wider policy landscape increases teacher engagement in CPD.
  • Participatory planning enhances ownership, relevance, and responsiveness.
  • Transparent governance structures strengthen CPD legitimacy and alignment with institutional goals.
  • Reflective and autonomous learning formats enhance teacher agency.
  • Locally contextualised CPD fosters teacher autonomy and meaningful engagement.
  • School-based CPD encourages collaboration within pedagogical teams and ensures development along school’s development goals.
  • Share learning goals at the start of CPD events to increase transparency.
  • Involve participants in co-design of CPD content or delivery modes.
  • Ensure coherence between participants, school goals and regional strategies.
  • Use pre- and post-feedback cycles to improve content dynamically.
  • Clarify governance mechanisms and funding structures.

5. Organisation & Delivery

Organisation and delivery refer to how CPD formats (e.g. in-person, online, blended) are organized and scheduled and the extend to which these align with (teachers’) work schedules and learning preferences, as perceived by teachers, trainers and decision makers.

This factor addresses logistics, format, and accessibility of CPD. The FOOTT PRINTTS research stresses the importance of timing, modality, and relevance in supporting inclusive participation—especially for rural or under-resourced schools.

Descriptive factors:

Scheduling CPD within regular working hours reduces workload pressure and demonstrates institutional support. It increases accessibility and signals that professional learning is a valued part of the job.

Holding CPD in inspiring, non-school environments fosters creativity and professional inspiration. It enables interdisciplinary learning and strengthens connections to broader educational or cultural institutions.

Offering a variety of delivery modes ensures access for different teaching contexts. Diverse formats accommodate preferences, geographical realities, and different levels of digital readiness. While online formats support CPD access, face-to-face formats support practical testing and participant interaction and reflection.

Providing short workshops, multi-day courses, or ongoing programmes enables teachers to choose what fits their needs. Flexibility supports participation and accommodates varying time resources.

  • Flexible scheduling and timing promote equity and remove access barriers.
  • A variety of delivery formats ensures relevance across diverse educational contexts.
  • CPD format reflects CPD content and subject.
    Co-located or online CPD options enhance cost-efficiency and broaden participation.
  • Provide hybrid, asynchronous, and synchronous (online or face-to-face) options that reflect CPD content.
  • Align formats with teaching schedules.
  • Design flexible pacing and allow self-directed engagement.

6. CPD Design Elements

CPD design elements refer to successful methods of delivery such as practical application, peer interaction and opportunities for active and collaborative learning, as perceived by teachers, teacher-trainers and decision makers.

This factor highlights didactic elements that make CPD practical and transferable. Effective CPD blends theory with classroom practice, fosters collaboration, and encourages experimentation. Caena (2011) and FOOTT PRINTTS literature review both emphasise the value of microteaching, peer dialogue, and iterative feedback.

Descriptive factors:

CPD is more effective when teachers can directly apply what they learn to their own classrooms. This includes hands-on activities such as lesson planning, classroom simulations, or try-outs that promote real-world transfer.

Collaborative learning formats allow teachers to co-construct knowledge, solve problems together, and reflect on diverse perspectives. Group dialogue enhances engagement and strengthens professional identity, motivation and commitment.

 

Teachers value CPD that includes space for authentic sharing. Storytelling, teaching dilemmas, and lived experiences help ground theory in everyday practice and create a safe, trusting learning atmosphere.

 

Working actively with teaching resources during CPD encourages creativity and ownership. When participants co-develop, adapt, and test materials, learning becomes more engaging and relevant.

  • Iterative and collaborative learning formats support deeper professional growth.
  • Storytelling and authentic case examples foster emotional engagement and contextual learning.
  • Practice-oriented experimentation enables transfer and ownership of new strategies.
  • Include cycles of practice-reflection-action (e.g. design-based learning).
  • Integrate microteaching, simulations, or scenario-based activities.
  • Facilitate small-group design projects and collective material development.
  • Prioritise dialogic and hands-on formats over lecture-based delivery.
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