Teachers in England spend half as many days on professional development as their colleagues abroad, according to research by the OECD.
The Teaching and Learning International Survey (Talis) – which collects information on school learning environments in more than 30 countries, focusing on those teaching 11-16 year-olds – found that England's teachers are also less likely to engage with in-depth professional development activities such as research or studying for a qualification.
Three quarters of teachers in England took training courses or workshops during the past 12 months – higher than the average across all the Talis countries, which stands at 71%. But only one in 10 English teachers studied for a formal qualification, and teachers in England were also more likely to miss conferences or seminars because of work schedules. Overall, the number of days spent on professional development per teacher was only half the average across Talis countries.
David Weston, chief executive of the Teacher Development Trust, said: "In England, we don't have a system of formal qualifications that you can go through to advance your career – there are no longer identifiable next steps once you're qualified unless you want to move into management. In Singapore, for example, after a number of years you can move up to the next level and specialise, but this is measured by management responsibility."
Work schedule is the main barrier to teachers in England taking part in professional development – 60.4% of lower secondary teachers agree or strongly agree that work is the prime obstacle. This is the same situation in other advanced education systems, such as Japan and Finland; in Japan this figure increases to 86.4% whereas in Finland only 51.9% of teachers say the same.
Most English teachers have high levels of access to professional development, according to the report, which found that teachers are rarely expected to pay for training. Formal inductions – where teachers are introduced to a new school – and mentoring programmes are almost universal.
Nearly all teachers in England also have formal appraisals, the research suggests. But it warns that only one third of people say they this feedback improves their motivation, public recognition, job satisfaction or responsibilities.
"Making appraisal and feedback meaningful is especially important for teachers' feelings of self-efficacy and job satisfaction in England," the report reads. "Those teachers who believe that appraisal and feedback influence their teaching also report higher job satisfaction, whereas those who feel that it is only an administrative exercise report lower self-efficacy."
More than half (51%) of lower secondary teachers in England agree or strongly agree that teacher appraisals and feedback are largely done to fill administrative requirements.
Commenting on the results, Weston said: "Many schools feel under pressure to make performance management systems improve the appearance of the school for accountability purposes rather than making it about growing the teachers and helping the children succeed.
"In some schools there's an element of ticking boxes and jumping through hoops to satisfy Ofsted rather than helping children in the classroom or helping teachers develop as professionals and this can have an affect on how they view appraisals."
Collaborative working among teachers was related to higher levels of job satisfaction across the Talis countries; teachers who participate in collaborative professional development five times a year or more report significantly enhanced levels of job satisfaction in two-thirds of the countries. Only 19.5% of English teachers said that observing other schools was part of their professional development, however, and this was 0.5% above the average for responses from other countries.
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