An integrated professional development model for effective teaching J.M. Kuijpers a, * , A.A.M. Houtveen b , Th. Wubbels c a Institute for Education and Communication, NHL University of Applied Sciences, PO Box 1080, 8900 CB Leeuwarden, The Netherlands b Research Centre for Prevention of Reading Problems, Faculty of Education, Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, PO Box 14007, 3508 SB Utrecht, The Netherlands c Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, PO Box 80140, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands article info Article history: Received 10 July 2008 Received in revised form 14 April 2010 Accepted 24 June 2010 Keywords: Student achievement Teacher practice School improvement School effectiveness Coaching Professional development model abstract This article examines the design of a professional development model that aims to improve student achievement. This model has been designed by combining and supplementing elements from school- improvement literature and existing professional development models. Existing models from two largely independent approaches to professional development of teachers were examined for the presence of nine principles for effective school improvement. On the basis of this examination six aspects from the existing models were incorporated in the new model (presentation of theory, demonstration of skills, practice in a secure environment, pre-conference, observation and post-conference). Three further aspects were added to ensure compliance with all nine principles for effective school improvement (creation of the appropriate conditions, evaluation and monitoring conference and a focus on goals at school, teacher and student level). Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction It is clear from the literature on teacher and school effectiveness that the quality of teacher instruction can explain the greater part of the variance observed in student outcomes (Houtveen, Grift, & Creemers, 2004; Creemers & Kyriakides, 2007). The teacher is the key figure when it comes to influencing student performance and therefore teacher professional development programmes should focus on improving teaching quality. However, research has shown that certain kinds of professional development programmes though influencing teachers’ practice fail to improve student achievement (Houtveen & Vegt, 1991; Fishman, Marx, Best, & Revital, 2003; Supovitz, 2001). We suppose that one of the reasons for this lack of effect on student achievement is a focus in professional development programs on teaching quality with too little attention for the conditions needed to support teachers’ performance at school level. We find agreement for this supposi- tion in several studies, including Wilson and Berne (1999), Guskey (2000) and Ragan and Liston (2008). We think that improvements in student achievement are to be expected only when there is a clear link between interventions at the class and school levels. On the basis of a thorough review of the literature, Mijs, Houtveen, Wubbels, & Creemers, (2005) recently developed nine principles for effective school improvement. These are: 1. take the school in question as a starting point (context-specific approach), 2. use a systematic cyclic approach to improvement, 3. focus on internal conditions (teaching and learning processes), 4. focus on school procedures, roles, structures and facilities that support the teaching and learning processes, 5. formulate educational goals at school, teacher and student level, 6. apply a multi-level perspective, 7. adopt integrated implementation strategies, 8. include external support, 9. use integrated information from various research domains. The present article examines the design of a professional development model for effective teaching which incorporates the above-mentioned nine principles. We screened existing profes- sional development models for the presence of the nine principles. On the basis of this examination six aspects from the existing models were incorporated in the new model and three further aspects were added to ensure compliance with all nine principles for effective school improvement. Therefore we believe that improvement in student performance might be reached by implementing this model. This explanation is based on our experience in several comprehensive school-improvement projects. In the first project, the Mathematics Improvement Programme (MIP), student results with regard to mathematics were strongly improved in most schools involved (Houtveen et al., 2004). Effective teaching was implemented by using an explicitly goal oriented professional development model, closely related to the Joyce and Showers * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ31 58 2511394. E-mail address: j.m.kuijpers@iec.nhl.nl (J.M. Kuijpers). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Teaching and Teacher Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tate 0742-051X/$ e see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2010.06.021 Teaching and Teacher Education 26 (2010) 1687e1694