We are delighted to welcome Professor Daniel Muijs to our Advisory Board.
He says:
40 years of research in educational effectiveness clearly shows that what teachers do in the classroom matters. The impact of the teacher is greater than anything other than the individual pupil herself. Improving teacher effectiveness is therefore a key part of any successful education system. Crucially, this has to be the case not just in initial teacher education, but throughout the teaching career, as teachers’ develop, their needs change and their subject and pedagogy develop.
However, to be effective, professional development has to be systematic and embedded in a programme of development linked to school goals, and be based on what we know about good practise in adult learning and development. It also needs to be evaluated for impact. Unfortunately, in many schools the approach taken to professional development is ad-hoc and unsystematic, and not subject to any evaluation.
The work of the Teacher Development Trust is making an important difference to this picture, getting schools to think systematically and rigorously about professional development and its aims, and it is to be hoped that the Trust can continue to work with ever more schools, as well as further develop its mechanisms for ascertaining the quality of CPD provision. I was, therefore, delighted to be asked to join the board of the Teacher Development Trust, and look forward to working with colleagues on helping to improve the quality of professional development, and thus ultimately the quality of teaching.
About Professor Muijs
Daniel Muijs is Professor of Education at the University of Southampton. Previously he worked as Professor of Pedagogy and Teacher Development at the University of Manchester (School of Education); Professor of School Leadership and Management at the University of Newcastle and Senior Lecturer in quantitative research methods at Warwick Institute of Education. He is an acknowledged expert in the fields of Educational and Teacher Effectiveness and quantitative research methods, and is co-editor of the journal ‘School Effectiveness and School Improvement’. He has published widely in the areas of teacher and school effectiveness and improvement, educational leadership and research methods, and has a strong interest in the relationship between research, policy and practice.
Professor Muijs holds a PhD in Social Sciences from the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium), a MSc in Managerial Economics (Catholic University of Leuven) and a BA in Communication Sciences (Catholic University of Leuven).
He is currently Deputy Head of School and Director of Research at Southampton Education School, Treasurer of the International Congress on School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI), and a governor at Wyvern Academy.
Our Chief Executive, David Weston:
“I’m absolutely delighted to welcome Professor Daniel Muijs to the TDT advisory board. As one of the world’s leading experts in effective teaching and education research we are looking forward to his contribution to our work with schools and colleges. This demonstrates our commitment to be a leading champion for evidence-based and powerful professional development which helps children succeed and teachers thrive.”
Professor Muijs’ website can be found here.
Twitter: @ProfDanielMuijs
Find out more about our Team, Advisory Board and Trustees here.