RSA2 - What Research Tells Us: Common Characteristics of Professional Learning that Leads to Student Achievement.

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     The topic of this week’s module looked at which methods of professional development have the most impact on student learning. The article “Teaching Teachers: Professional Development to Improve Student Achievement” (Hill & Cohen, 2005) cited three main ways that teachers can significantly improve student learning through professional development. They include focusing on how students learn a particular subject matter, instructional practices that are specifically related to the subject matter and how students understand it, and strengthening teachers’ knowledge of specific subject matter content.

     While Hill and Cohen find three clear ways to help teacher development, it must be noted that the article is from 2005, nearly 10 years ago. A second, more recent article, "What Research Tells Us: Common Characteristics of Professional Learning that Leads to Student Achievement" (Blank, 2013) also explored the relationship between professional development and student achievement. Blank identified 16 significant studies, of more than 400 hundred published professional development studies ( (Blank, 2013, p. 52), that scientifically proved that student learning had achieved gains because of professional development. The article came to some significant, data driven solutions, which suggest that the type of professional development given, does have impact on student learning.

     Both articles come to two very similar conclusions on teacher development.  The first is that professional development must focus on a way for teachers to directly apply what they learn to their teaching.  According to Hill and Cohen (2005),  “Research shows that professional development leads to better instructions and improved student learning when it connects to the curriculum materials that teachers use. (p. 2) The second conclusion is “that the more time teachers spend on professional development, the more significantly they change their practices”. (Hill & Cohen, 2005, p. 2) Blank agrees by saying that teachers need both “More time for professional learning” (p. 52) and “Longer duration of professional learning” (p. 52).

     Both articles agree that in order to move student learning, teachers need professional development that is focused on the content that they teach, and that they need more of that type of professional development than they are currently receiving.

Works Cited

Blank, R. (2013, Feb). What Research Tells Us: Common Characteristics of Professional Learning that Leads to Student Achievement. Journal of Staff Development, 34(1), 50-53.

Hill, H., & Cohen, D. (2005). Teaching Teachers: Professional Development to Improve Student Achievement. Research Points, 3(1), 1-4.