Framework

Click on the factors to explore!
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.

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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 teachers’ everyday practice and the professional values of teaching (e.g. commitment to student learning, inclusion, and collaboration)
  • 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 CPD with clear objectives, conceptually rich content, and reflective tasks that connect new knowledge to classroom practice.
  • Facilitate structured peer dialogue and collaborative reflection.
  • Embed CPD in recognised qualification frameworks and provide certification linked to career progression

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.

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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. Teachers view CPD as an essential component of sustained career development. It enables them to build and update their expertise, remain informed about new pedagogical and subject-related developments, and fulfil institutional or policy-related requirements for progression within the profession.

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. Well-designed CPD contributes positively to teachers’ professional wellbeing. It enhances motivation and confidence, reduces the risk of burnout, and supports long-term job satisfaction. By reinforcing commitment and professional identity, CPD also strengthens teacher retention within the profession.

  • Satisfaction increases when CPD responds to teachers’ professional needs and immediate classroom challenges.
  • CPD is valued when it leads to observable improvements in teaching practice and student learning.
  • Teachers appreciate CPD that supports long-term professional growth and career advancement.
  • High-quality CPD contributes to job satisfaction, motivation, and professional confidence.
  • Offer CPD formats that visibly support professional growth and career progression.
  • Design CPD around current teaching challenges and conduct needs assessments to tailor content to subject areas, contexts, and career stages.
  • Embed tangible classroom applications into each session to ensure 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.

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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.

Mentoring provides structured guidance from experienced colleagues to those newer to the profession. It builds trust, offers role models, and supports the practical integration of new knowledge into daily teaching practice.

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.

Access to professional communities and networks strengthens CPD by enabling teachers to exchange ideas, share teaching materials, and collaborate beyond individual training events, thereby ensuring sustainability of professional learning.

  • Mentoring provides structured guidance that supports teachers at different career stages and facilitates reflective transfer of new knowledge into practice.
  • Coaching enables personalised learning tailored to teachers’ goals and contexts.
  • Peer observation and feedback foster mutual trust, reduce professional isolation, and deepen shared understanding of effective practice.
  • Professional networks sustain motivation, innovation, and resource exchange beyond training events.
  • Use structured mentoring groups or peer-led modules to provide follow-up guidance and role modelling.
  • Introduce coaching formats with ongoing individual feedback and goal-setting to support reflective practice and professional growth.
  • Embed reciprocal peer observation and feedback cycles into CPD design to promote mutual learning and shared professional language.
  • Establish cross-school or digital professional networks that enable collaboration, material exchange, and sustained knowledge transfer.

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.

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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. Participation is strengthened when teachers have autonomy to select CPD activities within a structured framework. Choosing opportunities that align with their professional goals and school responsibilities increases motivation, ownership, and meaningful engagement.

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. Teachers’ participation in the design and planning of CPD ensures that activities are relevant and responsive to real teaching needs. Involving educators through surveys, committees, or working groups enhances acceptance, promotes shared responsibility, and strengthens links to school development priorities.

Professional learning is more effective when connected to broader institutional priorities. Linking CPD to school improvement strategies fosters coherence and collective progress. Professional learning is more effective when it is directly connected to wider school development strategies. Linking CPD to institutional improvement plans fosters coherence, shared responsibility among staff, and collective progress towards common educational objectives.

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. Participation in CPD is also shaped by external actors such as ministries, school leaders, and employers. Their guidance through regulations, funding, and strategic vision can support school development, but is most effective when balanced with teachers’ professional agency and local needs.

  • Autonomous and locally contextualised CPD formats enhance teacher agency, motivation, and meaningful engagement.
  • Transparent governance structures strengthen CPD legitimacy and alignment with institutional goals.
  • Reflective and autonomous learning formats enhance teacher agency.
  • Transparent governance and awareness of the wider policy landscape increase legitimacy and teacher engagement in CPD.
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  • Offer teachers structured options for CPD and communicate learning goals clearly to support informed choice and ownership.
  • Involve participants in co-design of CPD content or delivery modes.
  • Ensure coherence between participants, school goals and regional strategies.
  • Align CPD content with school development priorities and ensure coherence with institutional and regional strategies.
  • 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.

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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. Scheduling CPD within regular working hours or preparation time reduces workload pressure and promotes equitable access for all teachers. It demonstrates institutional support and signals that professional learning is an integral and valued part of the teaching profession.

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. Holding CPD in external environments such as universities, museums, or cultural centres fosters creativity and inspiration. These settings promote interdisciplinary learning and strengthen connections between schools and wider educational and 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. Offering a variety of delivery modes increases access and flexibility across different teaching contexts. Online formats expand opportunities and reach, while face-to-face formats support practical testing, interaction, and reflection. Hybrid and blended approaches combine the advantages of both, accommodating diverse preferences and levels of digital readiness.

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. Providing CPD in short workshops, multi-day courses, or longer-term programmes enables teachers to choose formats that best fit their needs and time resources. Flexible scheduling supports sustained participation, encourages continuous professional learning, and accommodates the varying rhythms of teachers’ professional lives.

  • Flexible scheduling and timing promote equity and remove access barriers.
  • External venues such as universities or cultural institutions inspire creativity, foster interdisciplinary learning, and build institutional links.
  • A variety of delivery formats ensures relevance across diverse educational contexts.
  • A variety of delivery formats (face-to-face, blended, hybrid, online) ensures relevance across diverse contexts and alignment with CPD content.
  • CPD format reflects CPD content and subject.
  • Co-located or online CPD options enhance cost-efficiency and broaden participation.
  • Cost-efficient and accessible formats broaden participation and sustain engagement across teaching communities.
  • Schedule CPD within working hours or preparation time and align formats with teaching timetables
  • Use external educational and cultural venues (e.g. universities, museums) to foster creativity and interdisciplinary connections.
  • Provide diverse delivery modes, including face-to-face, blended, hybrid, synchronous, and asynchronous formats, adapted to CPD content.
  • Offer flexible pacing and varied durations (short workshops, multi-day courses, ongoing programmes) with opportunities for 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.

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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. CPD is most effective when teachers can directly transfer what they learn into their classrooms. Hands-on activities such as lesson planning, classroom simulations, or try-outs strengthen the link between theory and practice and serve as clear indicators of impact on teaching.

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. Collaborative formats enable teachers to co-construct knowledge, solve problems collectively, and reflect on diverse perspectives. Structured group dialogue enhances engagement, builds professional identity, and reinforces motivation and long-term commitment to professional learning.

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. Teachers value CPD that creates space for authentic and informal exchange. Storytelling, discussion of teaching dilemmas, and sharing lived experiences ground theoretical input in everyday practice and foster a trusting, safe environment for learning.

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. Actively working with teaching resources during CPD encourages creativity, adaptability, and ownership. When participants co-develop, adapt, and test materials, professional learning becomes more engaging and directly relevant to teachers’ classroom practice.

  • 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.
  • Active co-creation and adaptation of teaching materials strengthen creativity, ownership, and classroom relevance.
  • 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.
  • Encourage informal exchange through storytelling, teaching dilemmas, and lived experiences to connect theory with everyday practice.
  • Prioritise dialogic and hands-on formats over lecture-based delivery.
  • Facilitate small-group design projects and collective development, adaptation, and testing of teaching materials.
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