Series · Teachers Media
Changing Teachers
A series about how experienced teachers change — what shifts them, what resists change, and how schools can build the conditions that make growth more likely than stagnation. It's a set of episodes worth returning to over a year rather than binging in a week.
About this series
Teacher change is one of the harder problems in education. The evidence — from the EEF's guidance on effective professional development, from the international research on teacher expertise, from decades of implementation science — points to the same picture: most CPD leaves practice untouched, and the CPD that does change practice shares specific features. Sustained duration. Collective participation. Content grounded in classroom problems. And a school culture that expects and supports experimentation.
The interesting thing about this series is that it sits with the individual teacher's experience of changing, not just the school leader's theory of it. Change is uncomfortable — it means holding your prior confidence lightly, admitting something you've done for years may not be as effective as you thought, and being willing to look clumsy in front of pupils and colleagues while you rebuild a routine. Not every teacher chooses that discomfort. The ones who do tend to have specific supports around them.
For CPD leaders and heads of department, the series is a useful mirror. It asks: are you creating the conditions in which change is possible, or are you just running events and hoping? The answer is usually visible in what happens between the CPD sessions — in whether colleagues have time and trust to try things and talk honestly about what happened.
What makes teacher change more likely
- A problem the teacher owns. Change starts with a genuine dissatisfaction — usually about a specific group of pupils or a specific piece of practice — not with a school initiative dropped from above.
- A colleague to think with. Solo change is rare. A department or trio that meets, tries, and reviews together is where most durable change happens.
- Time to try, safely. Enough classroom time to attempt something imperfectly, and psychological safety with observers who know they're watching a work-in-progress.
- Evidence of pupil impact. Something concrete — pupil work, a recorded discussion, an exit ticket — that shows whether the change is landing. Without that, change collapses back to old habits within weeks.
- Recognition, not reward. Leaders noticing the effort, asking what's being learned, sharing findings across the staff.
Discussion prompts
- What was the last significant change you made to your practice, and what made you willing to make it?
- What in your school's culture actively supports experimentation? What actively discourages it?
- If you asked a colleague to describe how they've changed as a teacher in the last three years, would they have an answer?
Try this in your school
- Pick one episode of the series and watch it with a colleague. Agree one thing you'll each try before the next fortnightly meeting, and one thing you'll gather to bring back.
- Write down one aspect of your teaching you'd change if the risks were lower. Show it to a trusted colleague and ask what they see.
- If you lead CPD, audit what happens between sessions. Is there anywhere the "trying" actually happens?