COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT Supporting the Teaching Professions for Better Learning Outcomes Accompanying the document Communication from the Commission Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes
Date: 2012-11-20
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: economic growth, educational exchange, educational reform, job creation, new educational methods, teacher, teacher training, teaching curriculum, teaching quality

EUROPEAN 
COMMISSION 

Strasbourg, 20.11.2012  
SWD(2012) 374 final 

COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT 

Supporting the Teaching Professions for Better Learning Outcomes 

Accompanying the document 

Communication from the Commission 

Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes 

{COM(2012) 669 final} 
{SWD(2012) 371 final} 
{SWD(2012) 372 final} 
{SWD(2012) 373 final} 
{SWD(2012) 375 final} 
{SWD(2012) 376 final} 
{SWD(2012) 377 final} 

EN 

   EN 

 
 
 
 
  
 
Table of Contents 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ....................................................................................................................5 

1.  EUROPE'S TEACHING PROFESSIONS: COMMON CHALLENGES AND DIVERSITY.8 

Teachers........................................................................................................................................................8 

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- 

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-  

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Demographic profile of Teachers in Europe: ............................................................................................ 8 

 Teachers' pay ........................................................................................................................................... 8 

Responsibility for the definition of teachers’ competences:.................................................................. 10 

Recruitment and retention of teachers: ................................................................................................. 10 

Induction support for new teachers: ...................................................................................................... 11 

Professional development of teachers: .................................................................................................. 11 

Feedback on teachers’ performance ...................................................................................................... 12 

School leaders .............................................................................................................................................12 

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- 

Administrative burden:........................................................................................................................... 12 

Recruitment, induction and professional development:........................................................................ 12 

Teacher educators .......................................................................................................................................13 

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- 

The profile of teacher educators: ........................................................................................................... 13 

Teacher educators’ competences........................................................................................................... 13 

2.  SUPPORTING THE TEACHING PROFESSIONS: THE TIME IS NOW......................... 15 

Teachers are the key to improving the performance of learners… ................................................................15 

The crisis has had a strong impact on funding…............................................................................................15 

… also brings certain opportunities ..............................................................................................................16 

Demographic trends point to a serious shortage of teachers in Europe…......................................................17 

…and changes in the ways people teach and learn call for a new set of competences…  ...............................19 

These challenges call for a concerted and urgent effort to support the teaching professions…......................20 

…which can draw on co-operation and policy frameworks jointly developed at EU level…............................21 

3.  TEACHERS: ATTRACTING AND RETAINING THE BEST............................................. 22 

 
 
3.1 New sets of teaching competences ........................................................................................................22 

Defining teachers’ competences...................................................................................................................... 23 

Putting in place frameworks of teaching staff competences........................................................................... 27 

3.2 Recruiting and selecting the best............................................................................................................28 

Recruitment criteria and processes ................................................................................................................. 29 

Status, making the profession more attractive ................................................................................................ 29 

3.3 More effective initial teacher education.................................................................................................31 

3.4 How not to lose new teachers: personal and professional support .........................................................33 

3.5 Professional development: Helping teachers to keep on learning ...........................................................35 

Collaboration – a key factor for efficient professional development programmes......................................... 38 

Providing individualised learning opportunities embedded in the overall school development plans ........... 39 

Appraisal and feedback as key instruments for professional development and satisfaction .......................... 40 

Provision for teaching staff to acquire and develop their competences ......................................................... 42 

4.  STRENGTHENING SCHOOL LEADERSHIP ...................................................................... 43 

4.1 Who are the leaders?.............................................................................................................................43 

4.2 Leadership is not administration ............................................................................................................44 

4.3 Focus on the core competences of educational leadership .....................................................................46 

4.4 Increasing attractiveness, recruitment and retention .............................................................................47 

4.5 Initial preparation, support and continuous professional development ..................................................49 

5.1 Towards a coherent and comprehensive policy in support of teacher educators.....................................52 

5.2 Competences of teacher educators: much more than teachers...............................................................54 

5.3 Selecting teacher educators ...................................................................................................................55 

5.4 Professional development - helping Teacher Educators to keep on learning ...........................................56 

5.5 Supporting collaboration for better education of teachers .....................................................................58 

6. TEN KEY ACTIONS TO SUPPORT THE TEACHING PROFESSIONS .............................. 60 

6.1  

At Member State level ...................................................................................................................60 

 
 
Five key actions to support teachers and trainers: .......................................................................................... 60 

Three key actions to strengthen school leadership ......................................................................................... 63 

Two key actions to support teacher educators:............................................................................................... 64 

6.2  At European Commission level ..............................................................................................................64 

 
 
 
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

The  “Rethinking  Education”  Communication  aims  to  help  Member  States  by  setting  out  a 
range of fields in which the efficiency and effectiveness of education and training systems can 
be  improved.  In  this  context,  given  the  importance  of  the  teaching  professions  for  learning 
outcomes, and the large proportion of national education budgets that is spent on them, it is 
essential  to  identify  policies  that  reinforce  the  recruitment,  initial  education,  induction  and 
continuing  professional  development  of  teachers  and  trainers;  the  practice  of  school 
leadership; and the profession of teacher educators.  

The  teaching  professions  include  all  those  who  teach,  educate,  manage  learning,  or  educate 
educators in the following education fields: early childhood education and care; compulsory 
education; vocational education and training; and adult education1. This Document applies to 
all  these  professionals  (except  where  otherwise  stated)  and  highlights  the  evidence  base  for 
the corresponding policy proposals outlined in the Communication  “Rethinking Education”. 
The findings aim to support and encourage Member States to consider a number of priority 
areas for action and investment in teaching professions to achieve necessary reforms, taking 
into account the current socio-economic crisis. 

Its  findings  are  based  on  analyses,  coordinated  by  the  Commission  in  cooperation  with 
Member States, of best policy practice across the EU and beyond, and on comparative data 
and current research.  

The teaching professions now face rapidly changing demands, which require a new set of 
competences 

Nowadays,  the  key  focus  is  upon  improving  the  levels  of  attainment  of  each  and  every 
learner.  The  pace  of  change  in  the  world  is  so  fast,  that  every  teacher  needs  to  keep  her 
practice  under  constant,  critical  review  and  adjust  it  in  the  light  of  students’  outcomes  and 
latest research. Teaching staff need to offer individualised teaching so that all learners achieve 
specified  learning  outcomes,  whatever  their  particular  learning  needs,  cultural  or  social 
background;  they  need  to  take  maximum  advantage  of  the  latest  technologies  and 
methodologies. In short, teaching staff in the 21st century need a radically broader and more 
sophisticated set of competences than before.   

Europe's teaching professions have an exceptional impact on education 

Variation  in  learners'  achievements  is  predominantly  a  product  of  individual  and  family 
background characteristics. However, within educational institutions, teachers have the most 
important  impact  on  the  performance  of  learners;  other  staff,  such  as  educational  leaders, 
trainers and educators, are also essential to improve the quality of teaching and learning.  

On average, more than two-thirds of Member States' education budgets are spent directly and 
indirectly  on  these  teaching  professions.  This  spending  pattern  will  endure:  it  is  essential, 
therefore, to invest in the most efficient and effective way, in support of a high-quality, well-
trained and well-led teaching workforce which can help citizens to develop the competences 
they need in a global labour market based on ever higher skill levels.  

1  

Reference is, however, made to ongoing work on the quality of teaching in Higher Education. 
5 

 
 
                                                            
The crisis increases pressure on public budgets… 

As a result of the financial crisis and the need for fiscal consolidation, public budgets in all 
Member  States  are  under  great  pressure.  Governments  are  seeking  ways  of  achieving  more 
with fixed or reduced resources. All countries are seeking patterns of expenditure that limit or 
shrink current expenditure without dismantling the foundations of sustainable growth.  

Despite a general understanding that investing in education should be preserved as a priority 
due  to  the  centrality  of  skills  for  sustainable  growth,  education  is  not  immune  to  these 
pressures,  particularly  in  countries  where  the  need  for  short-term  fiscal  consolidation  is 
greatest.  These  financial  reductions  are  seriously  affecting  the  teaching  professions;  in  20 
education systems, cuts have been made in teaching staff salaries or a salary freeze has been 
applied in response to the economic downturn.2 

... as the ageing of teachers is becoming an alarming trend... 

Many  countries  have  serious  shortages  of  staff  in  some  subjects;  several  will  soon  have  to 
replace  large  numbers  of  staff  who  have  left  the  teaching  professions  or  who  will  retire 
shortly.  The  ageing  of  teachers  becomes  an  alarming  trend  in  many  Member  States  and 
corresponding  policies  will  need  to  be  balanced  against  the  changes  in  the  school-age 
population. There is a significant gender imbalance, with a general shortage of male staff in 
early  childhood  education,  primary  and  lower  secondary  education  and  insufficient  female 
staff in higher secondary education and in school-leaders positions. 

...and technology is rapidly changing the way people teach and learn. 

The impact of ICT and digital media on learning and teaching is already enormous, and will 
further change the way we acquire knowledge and competences. The growing availability of 
online  content  and  open  educational  material  and  methods  provides  new  learning 
opportunities  to  pupils  and  students,  but  also  to  teaching  professionals,  enabling  them  to 
acquire  and  provide  knowledge  in  a  flexible  way  (at  any  time  and  at  any  place),  in  a 
personalised  way  (with  selection  of  trainings  fitting  one  needs)  and  often  at  relatively  low 
cost.  

These challenges offer opportunities... 

The retirement of a high number of staff in the teaching professions inevitably brings losses in 
experience: this problem must be addressed now through recruitment and retention policies, 
bringing in the best candidates to develop a  new generation of teaching professionals. With 
the appropriate policies, the increasing numbers of job vacancies in the teaching professions 
over the coming years can be matched by job seekers, including young graduates, who may 
be attracted to the teaching professions; this opportunity should be used to the advantage of 
both  the  education  and  training  systems  and  of  the  individuals,  with  a  determined  effort  to 
address shortages in certain subjects as well as gender imbalances.  

Developing the competences of teaching staff and school leaders, including those who have 
been in the profession for a long time, is a continuing and increasingly urgent priority in all 
Member  States.  The  growing  potential  of  digital  learning  with  the  new  Open  Educational 
Resources should be fully explored in this regard.   

2  

Eurydice, ‘Teachers and School Heads Salaries and Allowances in Europe, 2011/12’. 

6 

 
 
                                                            
...and call for strong actions to support teachers, school leaders and teacher educators 

In the global economy, and in the current economic climate, education and training are more 
important  than  ever.  Helping  all  citizens  to  develop  the  competences  they  need  in  a  global 
labour market based on ever higher skill levels requires the Education and Training systems 
of  Europe  to  adapt  and  improve  thoroughly;  it  calls  for  radical  changes  in  teaching  and 
learning. This cannot be achieved without significant improvements to the ways that teaching 
staff  are  encouraged  and  supported  so  that  they  can  help  every  learner  to  achieve  optimum 
educational outcomes.  

There  is  a  long  way  to  go  to  achieve  these  changes.  All  Member  States  need  to  act  now, 
though  the  priorities  will  differ  from  country  to  country.  The  objective  has  to  be  the 
establishment of highly efficient and effective mechanisms to attract, recruit, educate, retain 
and  support  throughout  their  careers  teachers,  school  leaders  and  teacher  educators.  This 
Document aims to contribute to this joint effort, by highlighting ten priority areas for action.  

7 

 
 
1. 

EUROPE'S TEACHING PROFESSIONS: COMMON CHALLENGES AND DIVERSITY 

Although  a  number  of  common  European  challenges  can  be  identified,  there  are  also  very 
significant  differences  in  the  structure,  profile,  organisation,  social  status  or  perception  of 
teaching professions across the Member States. Policy actions must be carefully balanced to 
take the specificities outlined below into account as well as the general socio-economic trends 
and financial possibilities.    

Teachers 

- 

Demographic profile of Teachers in Europe3: 

There  are  approximately  six  million  teachers  in  the  European  Union.  The  demographic 
change  in  European  societies  strongly  affects  the  teaching  professions  in  Europe.  In  many 
Member  States,  the  majority  of  teachers  currently  in  employment  are  in  the  highest  age 
groups (40-49 and older than 50).  

Generally  speaking,  teachers  in  secondary  education  are  older  than  those  in  primary 
education. In 2010, in Germany and Italy more than half the teachers in secondary education 
were over 50. Similarly, in Bulgaria, Spain, and Austria very few teachers are under 30. The 
youngest  teachers  in  secondary  education  can  be  found  in  Poland  and  Portugal  where  a 
significant number of teachers is between 30 and 39 years old. 

The share of female and male teachers also varies by teaching sectors. Women are still over-
represented in primary and secondary education; in 2009,  in almost all Member States (e.g. 
Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Spain, France, Cyprus, Hungary, Luxembourg, 
Netherlands,  Poland,  Portugal,  Slovenia,  Slovakia,  Sweden,  UK,  Finland)  over  60%  of 
teacher  were  women.  In  Bulgaria,  Estonia,  Latvia  and  Lithuania  this  number  rises  to  80%. 
Tertiary education presents a sharp contrast to this picture: fewer than 50% of women were 
reported  for  most  European  countries,  the  only  exceptions  being  Latvia  (57.9%),  Lithuania 
(55.1%) and Finland (50.5%). 

The proportion of  graduates  at  higher education level working  in the field of education and 
training has  also been  falling significantly; some countries are particularly affected, such as 
Portugal (-6.7%), Hungary (-5.2%) and Belgium (-4.5%).  

At the same time, the school-age population itself is also declining, with the sharpest decrease 
in Austria, Germany and Poland.   

- 

 Teachers' pay4 

The  salaries  of  teaching  staff  account  for  around  70%  of  current  spending  on  education  (in 
primary and secondary education: 73%). 

3 

4  

Eurydice  /  Eurostat  2012,  ‘Key  Data  on  Education  in  Europe  2012’.European  Commission,  EACEA. 
OECD (2010) Education at Glance 2012, ‘What share of public spending goes to education?’ 
Eurydice, ‘Teachers and School Heads Salaries and Allowances in Europe, 2011/12’. 

8 

 
 
                                                            
There  are  very  diverging  situations  and  trends  across  Member  States;  for  example,  annual 
gross  salaries  in  lower  secondary  education  in  Austria  range  from  €32.115  to  €67.581,  in 
France from €26.169 to €47.610, and in Hungary from €5.563 to €11.267.  The highest actual 
salaries  can  be  found  in  Luxembourg  (€86,745  p.a.),  Denmark  (€56,336  p.a.)  and  Austria 
(€52,308 p.a.) (All salaries are expressed in purchasing power5). 

As a general tendency, actual teacher salaries in many of the countries with available data are 
close  to  the  maximum  statutory  salary.  This  can  be  explained  in  part  by  the  relatively  high 
share of teachers in the older age groups. In the Czech Republic, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, 
Poland, Slovakia, Finland and the United Kingdom (England and Wales), the actual teachers' 
salaries are even higher than statutory maxima, due to the range of additional allowances that 
teachers may receive. On the other hand, in Italy, Luxembourg and Portugal, actual teacher's 
salaries  are  almost  in  the  middle  of  the  statutory  scale;  this  can  be  partly  explained  by  the 
relatively  long  professional  experience  (between  25  and  34  years)  required  to  obtain  the 
maximum salary scale and, in the case of Luxembourg and Portugal, by the fact that almost 
50% of teachers are under 40 years old. However, this is not the case in Italy where most of 
the teachers are older than 50. 

The relation between maximum and minimum annual gross statutory salaries is a pointer to 
the long-term prospects of teachers in terms of the salary increases they can reasonably expect 
throughout  their  careers  if  only  their  length  of  service  is  taken  into  account.  The  maximum 
statutory salaries expressed in purchasing power (PPS €) are generally two times higher than 
the minimum salaries for new entrants. Teachers in primary education in the Czech Republic, 
Denmark,  Latvia  and  Turkey  may  receive  only  around  20%  salary  increase  during  their 
professional career. However, in upper secondary education, the maximum statutory salaries 
in Cyprus, Hungary, Austria, Portugal and Romania are more than double compared with the 
salary  at  the  beginning  of  the  professional  career.  This  fact,  together  with  the  frequency  of 
salary increases, may explain why teaching may be more attractive at some stages of a career 
than  others.  Clearly,  teachers  whose  salaries  rise  significantly  throughout  their  entire  career 
may be less inclined to leave the profession than those whose salaries do not progress beyond 
the  early  years  of  experience.  However,  this  factor  must  be  considered  together  with  the 
average number of years that are needed to obtain the maximum statutory salary. 

In most of the European countries, the average number of years that a teacher must complete 
to  obtain  the  maximum  basic  statutory  salary  is  between  15  and  25  years.  Nevertheless,  in 
Spain, Italy, Hungary, Austria, Portugal and Romania, it takes 34 years or more to achieve the 
maximum statutory salary. On the other hand, in Denmark, Estonia and the United Kingdom, 
a teacher with less than 13 years of professional experience can already be at the maximum 
salary scale. 

Granting allowances to teachers based on positive teaching performance or student results is 
also  unequally  spread  across  Member  States  with  the  following  countries  providing  such 
incentives:  Bulgaria,  Czech  Republic,  Denmark,  Estonia,  Greece,  Latvia,  Hungary,  Austria, 

5  

Purchasing Power Standard (PPS) is the artificial common reference currency unit used to express the 
volume of economic aggregates for the purpose of spatial comparisons in such a way that price level 
differences between countries are eliminated. 

9 

 
 
                                                            
Poland,  Romania,  Slovenia,  Finland,  Sweden,  United  Kingdom  (England  and  Wales; 
Northern Ireland), and Turkey. 

By mid-2010, the economic crisis had taken its toll on teachers’ pay, increasing numbers of 
countries  cutting  both  salaries  and  allowances  such  as  holiday  pay  and  bonuses.  Greece 
reduced  teachers'  basic  salaries  by  30%  and  stopped  paying  Christmas  and  Easter  bonuses. 
Ireland  cut  salaries  for  new  teachers  by  13% in  2011,  and  those  appointed  after  31  January 
this year faced a further 20% drop in pay due to the abolition of qualification allowances. In 
Spain, salaries of teachers and other public sector employees were cut in 2010 by around 5% 
and have not been adjusted to inflation since; similar measures have been applied in Portugal. 

- 

Responsibility for the definition of teachers’ competences6: 

The levels at which key decisions are taken about the competences required to be employed 
as a teacher vary. In a few Member States (e.g. Cyprus, Estonia, Slovenia, Germany and UK) 
the  decision  is  centralised  and  taken  by  ministries  or  other  government  bodies.  In  a  large 
number  of  countries  (e.g.  Austria,  Belgium,  Bulgaria,  Denmark,  France,  Hungary,  Ireland, 
Latvia,  Lithuania,  Luxembourg,  Netherlands,  Poland,  Portugal,  Romania,  Slovakia,  Spain, 
Sweden)  competence  requirements  are  outlined  at  national  level,  but  are  adapted  or  further 
defined  at  a  lower  level  by  teacher  education  institutions.  In  few  other  Member  States  (e.g. 
Finland,  Czech  Republic,  Greece,  and  Malta)  the  competence  requirements  are  only  set  by 
teacher education institutions. 

Those countries where the decision is taken at national level tend to have more explicit and 
detailed  descriptions  of  the  competences  that  teachers  are  required  to  possess.  In  those 
countries where teacher education institutions have the autonomy to decide, the definitions of 
competences of teachers tend to be more diverse.   

- 

Recruitment and retention of teachers7: 

There are three broad types of systems for the recruitment of teachers in the EU: 

• 

‘Open recruitment’- this refers to a decentralised system where recruitment is usually the 
responsibility of the school or local authorities. This system is used in a vast majority of 
European  countries.  Teachers  are  in  most  cases  directly  employed  by  schools  and  have 
contractual status based on general employment legislation.  

•  Recruitment  based  on  competitive  examinations  –  a  minority  of  countries  apply  this 
system  (France,  Spain,  Italy,  Luxembourg,  Malta,  Greece).  Many,  but  not  all  of  these 
staff,  are  employed  by  central  or  regional  education  authorities  and  become  career  civil 
servants, a status which guarantees appointment for life.  

•  Some  countries  also  use  ‘candidate  lists’  for  recruiting  teachers:  applications  for 
employment  are  made  by  submitting  candidates’  names  and  qualifications  to  the 
education authority.  

6 

7 

The data referred to in this section come from: Finnish Institute for Education Research 2009, ‘3 studies 
to support School Policy Development, Lot 2: Teacher Education Curricula in the EU’, Final Report. 
Eurydice: Key Data on Teachers and School Leaders, forthcoming, provisional data. 

10 

 
 
                                                            
The recruitment system does not, however, correspond exactly to the status conferred on the 
teacher.  Today,  the  status  of  career  civil  servant  is  less  widespread  than  before;  in  several 
countries it exists alongside the category of employees with contractual status. In some other 
countries  (Hungary,  Slovenia,  Finland),  teachers  are  employed  by  public  authorities  under 
legislation which is distinct from contractual teachers without the notion of appointment for 
life. 

Overall,  only  three  Member  States  offer  permanent  contracts  to  a  high  proportion  of  new 
teachers  (Malta  (88.5%),  Lithuania  (70.5%),  and  Estonia  (60%)8;  in  others  (e.g.  Austria, 
Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain), over 80% of the new teachers are 
offered fixed term contracts, and in many countries (e.g. Finland, Greece, Poland, Portugal, 
Romania, Slovakia, Spain and UK) the retention of teachers appears problematic. As many as 
40% of young teaching staff may leave before having completed five years in Belgium, and 
20% in the Netherlands.  

-  

Induction support for new teachers: 

Only half of EU countries or regions offer comprehensive, system-wide induction support to 
teachers after entering the profession.   

However,  several  countries  including  Cyprus,  Estonia,  Ireland,  Netherlands,  UK  (Scotland) 
and Norway have started to implement induction support systems.  

 -  

Professional development of teachers9: 

While  policies  aiming  to  promote  professional  development  exist  in  most  countries,  they 
remain rather limited in nature. Nearly 90% of teaching staff say they have recently taken part 
in professional development activities, but there is considerable country variation in the type 
of  activity,  its  impact,  the  intensity  of  participation,  and  the  age  and  proportion  of  teaching 
staff participating.  

Continuing professional development (CPD) is considered as a professional duty for teachers 
in 24 European countries or regions.  

The  most  common  incentive  for  participation  in  CPD  is  a  possibility  of  promotion.  In  17 
European  education  systems,  participation  in  CPD  is  linked  to  promotion  or  a  system  of 
advancement  to  a  different  occupational  grade.  Professional  development  is  however  rarely 
the  sole  condition  for  advancement  but  rather  a  valuable  asset.  It  is  also  an  important 
dimension when evaluating teachers. Several countries do not offer any incentive to teachers 
for participating in CPD10. 

Only  some  Member  States  (e.g.  Belgium,  Czech  Republic,  Lithuania,  Malta,  UK)  have 
compulsory professional development for teachers as part of their school development plans.  

8 
9 

10  

ibidem. 
Sources: European  Commission/OECD: ‘Teachers’ professional development,  Europe  in  international 
Comparison’;  
Eurydice / Eurostat 2012, ‘Key Data on Education in Europe 2012’ 
Eurydice: forthcoming - provisional data. 

11 

 
 
                                                            
The  perceived  need  by  teachers  for  professional  development  seems  to  be  greater  than  the 
actual  possibilities  they  have.  Many  teaching  staff  either  do  not  find  suitable  professional 
development,  or  cannot  attend  because  of  conflicting  work  schedules.  A  considerable 
proportion  of  teachers  feel  that  they  require  more  professional  development  than  they 
currently receive. 

The most widespread type of professional development activity takes individual teaching staff 
out of their schools, to follow a course whose relevance to individual or institutional needs, 
and therefore its impact, might be limited.  

- 

Feedback on teachers’ performance11 

Generally speaking, not enough teachers receive effective and regular feedback on their own 
teaching  performance  to  support  their  professional  development  effectively.  Some  countries 
(e.g.  Bulgaria,  Lithuania  and  Slovak  Republic)  have  made  efforts  in  this  direction,  the 
absence  of  feedback  is  particularly  acute  for  new  teachers;  many  new  teachers  report  never 
having received feedback (e.g.: 55% in Italy, 45% in Spain, and 25% in Portugal and Ireland). 

School leaders 

- 

Administrative burden12: 

On  average,  school  leaders  spend  more  than  40%  of  their  time  on  management  and 
administrative  activities  rather  than,  for  example,  developing  curriculum  and  pedagogical 
activities, teaching, or communication with parents and students. In Belgium, Denmark, Italy, 
Sweden  and  Norway,  school  leaders  spend  50%  of  their  time  on  management  and 
administrative activities. Only school leaders in France and Bulgaria spend less than 40% of 
their time on such issues.  

- 

Recruitment, induction and professional development13: 

In  general,  the  number  of  applicants  for  school  leadership  posts  is  often  very  low; 
significantly  this  is  not  the  case  for  positions  of  middle  leaders,  assistants  or  deputy 
principals.  As  for  teachers  the  average  age  of  principals  in  many  countries  is  now  over  50. 
The  age  profile  is  particularly  alarming  in  secondary  education  in  most  countries.  This 
profession is also characterised by gender imbalance, with most school leaders being male.  

In  almost  all  countries,  professional  teaching  experience  is  the  basic  condition  for 
appointment.  The  amount  of  experience  required  ranges  from  three  to  thirteen  years  and  is 
generally between three and five years.  

At the same time succession plans encouraging staff to progress from teaching to managerial 
positions  are  rare  across  Member  States,  though  there  are  some  positive  examples  in  place: 
the  UK  (England)  has  developed  specific  ‘fast  track’  programme  that  provide  accelerated 

11 
12 
13  

OECD ‘Creating Effective Teaching and Learning Environments. First Results from TALIS’. 2009. 
Eurydice Key Data on Education in Europe 2009. Brussels: EACEA. 
Sources: OECD (2008) ‘Improving school leadership Volume 1’.  

12 

 
 
                                                            
leadership development to those classroom teachers who have been identified as having the 
potential to progress rapidly to senior leadership positions. 

Continuing professional development (CPD) for School Leaders is considered a professional 
duty  in  22  countries  or  regions14.  In  the  United  Kingdom  (England,  Wales  and  Northern 
Ireland)  for  example,  the  National  College  for  School  Leadership  provides  a  range  of 
professional development opportunities for serving school heads.  

Some countries  define  the minimum  amount of time to be dedicated to CPD. In  the French 
Community of Belgium for example, school heads have to follow CPD activities during six 
half days per year. In Latvia, CPD for school management consist of 36 hours in three years. 

In  Spain,  Lithuania,  Portugal  and  Romania  participation  in  CPD  activities  is  not  only  a 
professional  duty  but  also  a  prerequisite  for  career  advancement  and  salary  increases.  In 
Slovenia and Slovakia, CPD is optional but yet necessary to be promoted. 

In  15  countries,  CPD  is  optional  for  school  heads.  However,  school  heads  might  well  be 
supported and encouraged to participate. In the Flemish Community of Belgium, for example, 
schools have a special training fund for the CPD of school heads allowing them to have the 
cost  of  CPD  covered  throughout  their  career.  In  Ireland,  the  'Leadership  Development  for 
Schools  service'  offers  programmes  for  recently  appointed  school  heads  and  for  more 
experienced school heads working together in school teams.  

Teacher educators 

- 

The profile of teacher educators: 

Many  people  have  responsibilities  for  educating  teachers  (university  academics  in  subject 
departments and in departments of education, teaching practice supervisors, school mentors, 
induction  tutors;  those  in  charge  of  continuous  professional  development...).  They  work  in 
multiple contexts (universities, schools, private sector, trade unions …).   

Policies  to  support  the  education  of  teachers  are  rarely  systematic.  It  appears  that  many 
Member  States do not have systematic  evidence  or  monitoring  about  the  profiles  of  teacher 
educators.  For  example,  in  some  countries  this  group  merely  includes  university  lecturers. 
Member States such as Estonia or Belgium (Flanders) include university teacher educators as 
well  as  individuals  working  in  a  profession  concerning  teaching  practices  (this  excludes 
teachers'  professional  development).  Other  Member  States  (Austria,  Ireland,  Hungary, 
Luxembourg,  Netherlands,  Slovenia)  use  a  wider  concept  that  encompasses  academic  staff 
and educators and school teachers concerned with continuous professional development.  

- 

Teacher educators’ competences 

Very few Member States have standards regarding the necessary competences required to be 
a  teacher  educator.  Teaching  practice  and  basic  pedagogical  skills  are  a  requirement  in 
Belgium  (Flanders),  Cyprus,  Estonia,  Ireland,  and  Slovenia.  In  most  Member  States,  for 

14  

Eurydice: provisional data 

13 

 
 
                                                            
example  Austria,  Czech  Republic,  Estonia,  the  definition  of  basic  competences  is  the 
responsibility  of  central  authorities.  In  Germany,  for  instance,  national  standards  demand 
specific  knowledge,  thus  employment  in  teacher  training  colleges  (Ausbilder)  require 
intercultural, collaborative, supervising and pedagogical competences.      

14 

 
 
2. 

SUPPORTING THE TEACHING PROFESSIONS: THE TIME IS NOW 

Teachers are the key to improving the performance of learners… 

The  key  aim  of  enabling  all  people  in  the  European  Union  to  acquire  and  continuously 
upgrade  the  competences  they  need  for  life,  whilst  also  fully  developing  their  human 
potential,  puts  the  spotlight  upon  the  many  different  ways  in  which  European  societies 
conceive of education and training, and organise themselves to provide it.  

Variation  in  learner  achievement  is  predominantly  a  product  of  individual  and  family 
background  characteristics;  Member  States  therefore  need  to  strengthen  their  efforts  to 
reinforce equity of opportunity, treatment and outcomes in education systems, and indeed in 
society  as  a  whole.  Within  educational  institutions,  however,  teaching  professionals  are  the 
most important determinants of how learners will perform; and it is what teachers know, do, 
and care about that matters. 

The EU is fortunate that the major proportion of its teaching workforce is made up of highly 
experienced  and committed  professionals  who  devote themselves to helping each and  every 
learner to be the best that they can be. They generally work many hours more than they are 
required  to  do.  They  regularly  engage  in  professional  development  to  extend  their 
competences.  However,  there  is  an  increasing  trend  that,  as  teachers  leave  the  profession, 
institutions are obliged to fill vacancies with unqualified staff or trainees. 

The crisis has had a strong impact on funding15… 

The  salaries  of  teaching  staff  account  for  around  70%  of  current  spending  on  education  (in 
primary  and  secondary  education:  73%),  yet  systems  of  recruitment,  education  and  support 
for the teaching professions continue to show important weaknesses, which prevent Member 
States from getting the best return on this investment.  

The global economic downturn and declining revenue in many Member States in recent years 
have aggravated this problem and put greater pressure on education and training budgets, as 
countries try to balance their public finances. Fiscal constraints have led to cut-backs in public 
funding for some phases of education, such as adult learning. Some Member States' responses 
to the economic crisis have had a negative impact on the status of the teaching professions, 
which risks engendering high costs later. 

Provisional  data  from  Eurydice  show  that  the  economic  crisis  is  impacting  differently  on 
education  and  training  systems  in  different  Member  States.  In  the  period  2007  to  2010,  for 
example,  while  some  countries  have  seen  a  drop  in  general  government  expenditure  on 
education as a share of total public expenditure, many have shown stability, and some have 
seen a rise. However, in the period 2010 – 2012, budgets for school education decreased in a 
significant  number  of  countries  Belgium  (French  Community),  Bulgaria,  Estonia,  Ireland, 

15 

Sources: Eurydice: forthcoming - provisional data;  
ETUCE / EFEE, ‘Recruitment and Retention in the Education Sector’, forthcoming. 

15 

 
 
                                                            
Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Romania, Croatia, Slovakia, and Turkey. Teachers in Ireland, Greece, 
Spain,  Portugal  and  Slovenia  are  the  worst  affected  by  budget  restrictions  and  austerity 
measures.  Teachers'  salaries  in  Bulgaria,  Cyprus,  Estonia,  France,  Hungary,  Italy,  Latvia, 
Lithuania, United Kingdom, Croatia and Liechtenstein have fallen slightly or stayed the same. 
In Romania the decrease was 17%, and in Cyprus, Latvia, Slovakia, Croatia the decrease was 
over  5%.  However,  in  four  countries,  the  Czech  Republic,  Poland,  Slovakia  and  Iceland, 
teachers' salaries have increased since mid-2010, while pay in Romania is now almost back to 
pre-crisis levels.  

In tertiary education, budgets decreased in the same period by as much as 20% in Estonia, and 
by over 10% in half of countries. 

In  general  in  the  EU,  teachers  appear  to  be  losing  some  of  their  purchasing  power.  In  20 
education systems, cuts have been made in teaching staff salaries or a salary freeze has been 
applied.  

There  are  indications  that  more  Member  States  are  employing  more  teaching  staff  on 
temporary and short-term contracts. At the same time, according to a forthcoming joint study 
by the teacher unions and the education employers, there are existing and/or forecast teacher 
shortages  at  all  levels  of  school  education  across  half  or  more  of  the  twenty  European 
countries  they  surveyed,  particularly  in  mathematics, sciences, technical subjects,  languages 
and  arts.  In  Greece,  Spain  and  the  United  Kingdom,  respondents  observed  an  increased 
number of redundancies and unfilled vacancies at the primary level, as a consequence of the 
impact of the crisis on public budgets and teacher recruitment. 

Funding  for  teachers’  continuing  professional  development  has  been  reduced  in  at  least  six 
countries (Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Slovenia, UK (Wales)). 

Teaching  staff  are  also  affected  in  other  ways.  Budgets  for  construction,  maintenance  and 
renovation of educational institutions (ISCED 0-3) have decreased between 2010 and 2012 in 
several  countries  (Finland,  Spain,  Portugal,  UK  (England),  Ireland).  Budgets  for  computer 
equipment have decreased in Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Poland and Iceland. Funds for specific 
programmes of support (for linguistic, geographical, social or other reasons) have decreased 
in Belgium (Flemish Community), Czech Republic, Ireland, UK (Wales) and UK (England). 

… also brings certain opportunities16 

Research  confirms  that,  in  many  Member  States,  the  career  choices  of  teaching  staff  or 
teacher  candidates  are  strongly  influenced  by  labour  market  conditions.  When  the  labour 
market  is  depressed,  teaching  graduates  and  teaching  staff  are  less  likely  to  take  up  a  job 
outside education and teaching is considered a “fall-back” profession. Conversely, when the 
labour market is buoyant, teaching graduates and teaching staff more often move into jobs in 
sectors outside education. The supply of male teaching staff is more sensitive to the condition 
of graduate employment and relative wages than the supply of females.  

16 

European Commission, ‘Mobility of Teachers and Trainers. Final Report’, London: GHK, 2006. 
16 

 
 
                                                            
This  suggests  that  the  current  difficult  economic  climate  could  make  teaching  careers  more 
attractive; there is therefore now an opportunity for Member States to attract better qualified 
candidates from a wider pool than before, and to select them more rigorously. Furthermore, 
current conditions are likely to make teaching careers more attractive to men, giving Member 
States  an  opportunity  to  redress  the  gender  imbalance  at  many  levels  of  the  teaching 
professions. The joint ETUCE/EFEE survey on recruitment and retention gives an indication 
that  this  trend  is  already  happening,  with  an  increasing  number  of  candidates  for  teaching 
positions in some countries (Spain, Ireland), and more male graduates in shortage subjects.  

Against  this,  and  as  showed  above,  it  must  also  be  noted  that  whilst  some  Member  States 
have chosen to protect teacher salaries during recent rounds of expenditure cuts, others have 
significantly reduced the salaries (and pensions) of teachers, who were already poorly paid by 
comparison with other professionals. This will not make it easy to recruit into the profession 
candidates of the highest possible calibre – the kind of candidates who might otherwise join 
professions such as medicine or the law. 

Demographic trends point to a serious shortage of teachers in Europe17…. 

Demographic ageing is a general long-term trend across Europe. It is particularly acute and 
immediate in the case of teachers.  

Some Member States will shortly have to recruit large numbers of new teaching staff - in all 
subjects - to fill the gap left by a big wave of teacher retirements. In Sweden, Germany and 
Italy, for example, around 50% of the teaching workforce is aged 50+.  

There is a general shortage of male staff, especially in early childhood education, primary and 
lower  secondary  education.  Some  sectors  can  expect  to  see  a  rising  demand  for  staff;  for 
example,  the  growing  number  of  adults  needing  to  upgrade  skills  may  lead  to  increased 
demand for adult educators and trainers. 

17 

Eurydice ‘Key Data on Education in Europe 2012’. European Commission, EACEA. 

17 

 
 
                                                            
Age  distribution  of  teachers  in  lower  and  upper  secondary  school.  %.  2010  
(Source: Eurostat, UOE; in Eurydice Key Data on Education 2012) 

In  some  sectors,  such  as  early  childhood  education  and  care  (ECEC),  there  is  a  general 
shortage of qualified staff. Many countries have serious shortages of suitably trained school 
teaching  staff  in  some  subjects,  including  science,  maths,  ICT  and  foreign  languages.  PISA 
2009 found that 20% of 15 years olds were in schools where a lack of qualified mathematics 
or science teaching staff was hindering instruction.  

18 

 
 
 
Percentages of students aged 15 attending schools where teaching is affected by a lack of 
qualified teachers in the core subjects, 2009.   
(Source: OECD, PISA 2009 in Eurydice Key Data on Education 2012) 

…and changes in the ways people teach and learn call for a new set of competences… 18 

There  are  several  other  factors  which  point  to  the  need  for  Member  States  to  review  and 
reform their policies in support of the teaching professions, as a matter of priority. Not only is 
the  economic  crisis  forcing  spending  decisions  on  education 
long-term 
consequences  for the teaching  profession, but  also are there rapid developments in ICT and 
digital media which have huge impact on learning and teaching.  

that  have 

Our evolving understanding of learning and teaching also includes significant developments 
in  neuroscience  and  a  better  and  deeper  knowledge  of  the  many  and  varied  ways  in  which 
people learn. The changes in how we understand learning, and the roles of learner and teacher 
mean that we can no longer afford to build education systems on the outdated notion that the 
teacher merely ‘transmits’ existing knowledge into the heads of passive learners. But nor does 
the evidence support a complete reliance on ‘constructivist’ approaches, seeing teachers only 
as ‘co-creating’ knowledge with their students.  

Teaching professionals now face unprecedented challenges; the demands that society places 
on  them  are  constantly  evolving  at  the  same  time  as  our  understanding  of  what  makes  for 
effective  learning.  A  key  challenge  is  not  so  much  updating  staff  subject  knowledge,  as 
deepening  their  understanding  of  pedagogy  and  how  it  connects  with  the  wider  world  of 
learning.  Changes  in  the  content  of  what  is  taught  are  minimal  when  compared  with  the 
continuous and sustained change in “the nature of pedagogy, the technologies of teaching and 

18 

Sources: MacBeath, J. ‘Future of Teaching Profession’. Cambridge University / Education International 
Research 
2012.  
European  Commission  /  OECD:  (2010)  ‘Teacher  Professional  Development:  Europe  in  international 
comparison’. 

Institute 

19 

 
 
 
                                                            
learning,  new  contexts  of  learning,  the  social  world  of  the  child,  the  occupational  and 
economic  structure  …”.  Teaching  effectiveness  requires  all  teachers  to  deploy  a  broad 
spectrum of classroom teaching skills and to have access to rich teaching repertoires. 

This also implies a rethinking of schools and other institutions, so that they become learning 
environments  that  "encourage  student  engagement,  ensure  that  learning  is  social  and 
collaborative,  are  relevant  and  attuned  to  students’  motivations,  are  sensitive  to  individual 
differences,  provide  formative  feedback,  promote  connections  across  activities  and  subjects 
both in and out of school, and are demanding of every student without overloading them”.  

In  settings  where  attendance  is  not  compulsory,  such  as  adult learning,  teaching  must  be  of 
sufficient  quality  to  attract  and  retain  learners,  so  as  to  equip  them  with  the  changing 
competences they need for life. Adult and VET educators play the key role in upskilling the 
workforce,  including  over  73  million  low-skilled  and  low-qualified  individuals,  and  in 
improving the social inclusion of the vulnerable individuals.  

These  challenges  call  for  a  concerted  and  urgent  effort  to  support  the  teaching 
professions…19  

Policy  on  the  teaching  professions  has  in  many  Member  States  been  a  case  of  incremental, 
piecemeal  changes.  For  each  of  the  teaching  professions,  Member  States  face  common 
challenges. Beyond this common ground in approach and policy, there are specific systemic 
challenges  in  different  phases  of  education;  for  example,  in  early  childhood  education  and 
care, VET and Adult education, staff is much more heterogeneous than in compulsory school 
education in terms of competences, extent of initial pedagogic education etc. 

Learning  is  not  separate  from  learners’  personal  lives,  socio-economic  situation,  or  the 
attitudes, values, traditions, and beliefs held by their community. Making education systems 
more  relevant  and  effective  requires  an  approach  that  recognises  the  interconnecting  roles 
played by many different stakeholders, including parents, wider society and government. On 
the  one  hand,  therefore,  expecting  the  teaching  professions  alone  to  bring  about  complete 
system reform is unrealistic; on the other hand, the key expertise in promoting the quality and 
effectiveness of education systems day-to-day lies with teaching staff.  

The current circumstances and the challenges described above amount to a strong incentive 
for  Member  States  to  set  in  train  radical  reforms  of  policies  and  provision  supporting  the 
teaching  professions;  they  offer  opportunities  to  significantly  improve  the  quality  and 
effectiveness  of  policies  and  programmes  for  the  teaching  workforce.  But  if  the  teaching 
professions are to meet the significant challenges a systemic response is needed with coherent 
and  consistent  policies  and  programmes  for  their  recruitment,  selection,  initial  education, 
induction, professional development and working conditions.  

19 

Sources: Schleicher A. (Ed.)(2012) ‘Preparing  Teaching  staff  and  Developing  School Leaders  for  the 
21st 
OECD.  
European Commission (2012) Conclusions of the Peer Learning Conference 'Education²: Policy support 
for Teacher Educators', Brussels, March 2012 

Century: 

Lessons 

World’, 

around 

from 

the 

20 

 
 
                                                            
The  time  to  act  is  now.  This  economic,  educational,  technological  and  labour-market 
challenge is also an opportunity for policy-makers to transform teaching across the EU. The 
purpose  of  this  paper  is  to  outline  ways  to  strengthen  support  for  each  of  the  three  main 
groups of teaching professionals. 

…which can draw on co-operation and policy frameworks jointly developed at EU level…20 

The 2010 Joint Progress Report of the Council and the Commission found that there is a clear 
trend across the EU towards competence-based teaching and learning, and that the European 
Framework of Key Competences has contributed considerably to this.  

In September 2012, the EU High Level Group of Experts on Literacy recommended that all 
teachers in primary, secondary and adult education possess a wide range of literacy-specific 
teaching strategies as part of their initial education and professional development.  

In November 2009, Ministers reached a number of clear conclusions on the development of 
teachers and school leaders: teacher education and professional development needs to be seen 
as a lifelong task, and be structured and resourced in coherent and coordinated provision; such 
provision should span high quality initial teacher education, systematic support for beginning 
teaching  staff  and  continuing  professional  development;  reform  needs  to  be  thorough  and 
systemic; and each Member State’s efforts need to be coordinated and consistent. 

Over five years of peer learning looking at many examples of teacher policy from around the 
European  Union,  the  same  key  findings  emerge:  education  systems  need  to  be  based  upon 
trust, clarity of purpose, clear lines of responsibility, mutual respect, and a culture of learning 
that permeates all levels of the system. 

20 

Sources:  European  Commission.  Communication  ‘Key  Competences  for  a  changing  world’.  COM 
(2009) 
final.  
640 
Conclusions  of  the  Council  November  2009  on  the  professional  development  of  teaching  staff  and 
school leaders (OJ 2009/C 302/04).   

21 

 
 
                                                            
3. 

TEACHERS: ATTRACTING AND RETAINING THE BEST 

This section focusses on policies to support the effectiveness of teachers: developing a clear 
understanding of the competences that all staff must possess; defining criteria and procedures 
to attract and select the best candidates into teaching; improving the status of the professions; 
assessing the effectiveness of Initial Education; providing personal and professional support 
(‘induction’) for every new member of the profession, as well as individualised provision for 
the professional development of teaching staff in schools and other institutions, which should 
be conceived as collaborative learning organizations.  

3.1 New sets of teaching competences 

The  teaching  professions  now  face  rapidly  changing  demands,  which  require  a  new  set  of 
competences. Helping all learners to develop the competences they need in a rapidly evolving 
society,  and  a  global  labour  market  based  on  ever  higher  skill  levels,  requires  new  sets  of 
competences.  

They need specific competences to enable them to work in settings that include learners with 
different  abilities,  and  from  ever  more  different  backgrounds.  And,  of  course,  all  teaching 
staff  need  to  possess  the  Key  Competences  that  all  citizens  are  expected  to  have,  including 
some  that  staff  themselves  may  not  have  acquired  during  their  own  education,  such  as 
‘learning to learn’ (see the Staff Working Document on Key Competences accompanying the 
"Rethinking Education" Communication). 

Furthermore, the recent World Summit on Teaching noted that teachers need to help students 
acquire not only “the skills that are easiest to teach and easiest to test” but more importantly, 
ways  of  thinking  (creativity,  critical  thinking,  problem-solving,  decision-making  and 
learning); ways of working (communication and collaboration); tools for working (including 
information and communications technologies); and skills around citizenship, life and career 
and personal and social responsibility for success in modern democracies”. 

When  many  teaching  staff  undertook  their  initial  education,  knowledge  about  learning  and 
teaching was less developed, many teaching tools were not available and the role of education 
and  training  was  more  narrowly  conceived.  For  example,  the  increased  availability  of 
educational resources via the worldwide web (Open Educational Resources) means that both 
teaching staff and learners have, potentially, a much wider range of learning materials at their 
disposal. Research into the impact of this phenomenon on the quality of learning is not as yet 
available;  however,  teaching  staff  will  increasingly  need  the  competences  to  find,  evaluate 
and  deploy  learning  materials  from  a  wider  range  of  sources,  and  to  help  learners  acquire 
these  competences.  The  availability  of  OER  may  also  change  the  nature  of  the  teaching-
learning  activity  itself,  with  self-directed  learners  able  to  take  more  control  over  their 
learning. 

So  teaching  staff  nowadays  also  need  the  competences  needed  to  constantly  innovate  and 
adapt;  this  includes  having  critical,  evidence-based  attitudes,  enabling  them  to  respond  to 

22 

 
 
students’  outcomes,  new  evidence  from  inside  and  outside  the  classroom,  and  professional 
dialogue, in order to adapt their own practices.  

Teaching  competences  are  thus  complex  combinations  of  knowledge,  skills,  understanding, 
values and attitudes, leading to effective action in situation. Since teaching is much more than 
a  task,  and  involves  values  or  assumptions  concerning  education,  learning  and  society,  the 
concept of teacher competences is likely to resonate differently in different national contexts.  

This range and complexity of competences required for teaching in the 21st century is so great 
that  any  one  individual  is  unlikely  to  have  them  all,  nor  to  have  developed  them  all  to  the 
same high degree. Attention must therefore be focused also on the competences or attributes 
of an education system or of a teaching team.21 This, again, highlights two essential facts:  

1. 

2. 

effective  teaching  must  be  collaborative,  collegial;  in  some  Member  States,  and  in 
many educational institutions, this will require significant changes; and  

even the best teachers cannot be fully effective if they work in a team or an education 
system that lacks some of the essential competences. 

Defining teachers’ competences22 

A lack of clarity about what society can reasonably expect from its teaching staff can make it 
more difficult for Member States to ensure that the same high standards of teaching apply in 
all schools and other institutions; it can hinder sound decisions about expenditure on staffing 
including recruitment, selection and human resource development.  

This can also have a negative impact on the status and development of the profession. While 
many  professions  are  built  around  consensus  about  general  standards,  as  well  as  specific 
practices,  in  teaching  such  common  ground  is  too  often  lacking.  In  most  professions,  new 
knowledge  is  accommodated  by  periodically  revising  practice  guidelines  –  which  is  not 
generally the case in teaching. Therefore, Member States increasingly acknowledge the need 
to define what teaching staff are expected to know, and above all be able to do, with clear and 
concise statements; these differ from Teacher Education curricula that focus mostly on what 
student teachers should learn.  

• 

• 

21 

22 

In most Member States, the competences that teaching staff should possess - and be 
able to demonstrate - in order to carry out their tasks effectively are not defined by 
Government.  

However,  the  following  countries  have  defined  the  competences  that  teachers 
require, in greater or lesser detail: Austria, Belgium (Flemish Community), Estonia, 
Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and the 
United  Kingdom.  These  competences  are  specifically  linked  to  professional 
standards in Estonia, Germany and the UK (Scotland).  

European  Commission,  ‘Competence  Requirements  in  Early  Childhood  Education  and  Care.  Final 
Report’. University of East London and University of Ghent, September 2011. 
Sources: Levin, B. ‘Governments and education reform: some lessons from the last 50 years’. Journal 
2010.  
of 
Finnish Institute for Education Research 2009, ‘3 studies to support School Policy Development, Lot 2: 
Teacher 
Report.  
in 
European Commission, Thematic Working Group ‘Teacher Professional Development’: survey. 
23 

Education 

Education 

Curricula 

Policy, 

Final 

EU’, 

the 

(6) 

25 

 
 
                                                            
• 

• 

• 

• 

In Estonia, the competence expectations for teachers were first described in a set of 
Teachers’ Professional Standards; these have become the conceptual foundations of 
teacher  education  and  are  used  for  updating  initial  teacher  education  study 
programmes  and  organising  the  induction  year  as  well  as  teachers’  continuing 
professional  development.  Headway  is  also  being  made  in  the  recognition  of  prior 
learning and professional experience.  

In  the  Netherlands  and  UK  (Scotland),  a  long-standing  tradition  of  teacher 
competence  frameworks  provides  common  orientations  and  a  shared  discourse 
between education stakeholders, linking initial and in-service training.  

Both  Germany  and  Sweden  have  been  developing  comprehensive  policies  to 
promote  the  continuum  of  Teacher  Education  -  a  common  Educational  Monitoring 
Strategy in Germany, and a policy focus on teacher competences in Sweden - which 
aim at teacher quality as connected to student learning and educational improvement.  

Serving  teachers  can  be  motivated  to  develop  higher  levels  of  competence  as  they 
gain  experience.  Belgium  (Flemish  Community),  Croatia,  Sweden  and  the  United 
Kingdom (Scotland) are examples of countries that specify the competences that are 
appropriate at several different career stages, teaching areas or levels.  

Although developing  a common understanding  of the purpose of education and the  roles of 
teaching  staff  is  challenging,  it  does  not  start  from  zero.  Much  is  already  known  about  the 
kinds of competence that effective teaching staff require. The following overview, drawing on 
policy  and  research,  outlines  a  possible  way  to  describe  a  core  of  competences  (knowledge 
and understanding, skills and attitudes) required of teaching staff, which will find consensus 
amongst many education professionals. 

24 

 
 
 
Competences required for effective teaching in the 21st century 

Subject matter knowledge 

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), implying deep knowledge about
content and structure of subject matter: 

•  knowledge of tasks, learning contexts and objectives 
•  knowledge  of  students'  prior  knowledge  and  recurrent,  subject-

specific learning difficulties 

•  strategic  knowledge  of  instructional  methods  and  curricular

materials

Knowledge 

Pedagogical knowledge (knowledge of teaching and learning processes)

and 

understanding 

Curricular knowledge (knowledge of subject curricula – e.g. the planned 
and guided learning of subject-specific contents)

Educational  sciences  foundations  (intercultural,  historical,  philosophical,
psychological, sociological knowledge)

Contextual, institutional, organizational aspects of educational policies

Issues of inclusion and diversity

Effective use of technologies in learning

Developmental psychology

Group processes and dynamics, learning theories, motivational issues

Evaluation and assessment processes and methods 

Planning, managing and coordinating teaching 

Using teaching materials and technologies

Managing students and groups

Monitoring,  adapting  and  assessing  teaching/learning  objectives  and
processes 

Collecting,  analysing,  interpreting  evidence  and  data  (school  learning
outcomes,  external  assessments  results)  for  professional  decisions  and 
teaching/learning improvement

Using, developing and creating research knowledge to inform practices

Collaborating with colleagues, parents and social services 

Negotiation  skills  (social  and  political 
educational stakeholders, actors and contexts)

interactions  with  multiple

Reflective,  metacognitive,  interpersonal  skills  for  learning  individually
and in professional communities

Adapting  to  educational  contexts  characterised  by  multi-level  dynamics 
with cross-influences (from the macro level of government policies to the 
meso  level  of  school  contexts,  and  the  micro  level  of  classroom  and
student dynamics) 

25 

Skills 

 
 
Dispositions: 

Epistemological  awareness  (issues  concerning  features  and  historical
development  of  subject  area  and  its  status,  as  related  to  other  subject
areas) 

Dispositions  to  change,  flexibility,  ongoing  learning  and  professional
improvement, including study and research 

beliefs,  attitudes, 

Commitment to promoting the learning of all students 

values, 

commitment 

Dispositions  to  promote  students'  democratic  attitudes  and  practices,  as
European 
and
multiculturality) 

appreciation 

(including 

diversity 

citizens 

of 

Critical  attitudes 
questioning practices)

to  one's  own 

teaching  (examining,  discussing,

Dispositions to team-working, collaboration and networking 

Sense of self-efficacy 

In  addition  to  ‘core’  teaching  competences,  each  group  of  teaching  professionals  requires 
specific competences to teach certain subjects (general or technical skills and knowledge) to a 
certain age group (e.g. adults) or in specific settings (e.g. in the workplace). Further, sector-
specific, examples of work to define the competences required by teaching staff are provided 
in the studies ‘Competence Requirements in Early Childhood Education and Care (European 
Commission  2011)  and  ‘Key  competences  for  adult  learning  professionals’  (European 
Commission 2010). 

Effective teaching is not, of course, about competences alone. It also draws upon key personal 
qualities, attitudes and values, which have been described in the following way:  

Characteristics 
EC/OECD 
(Source: 
Europe in international comparison’ 2010) 

more 
‘Teachers’ 

of 

effective 
Professional 

teachers.  
Development:  

Cluster 

Characteristic 

Description 

Commitment 

Commitment to do everything possible for each student 
and enable all students to be successful 

Professionalism 

Confidence 

Belief  in  one's  ability  to  be  effective  and  to  take  on 
challenges 

Trustworthiness  Being consistent and fair; keeping one's word 

Respect 

Belief that all persons matter and deserve respect 

Thinking/ 
reasoning 

Analytical 
thinking 

Ability  to  think  logically,  break  things  down,  and 
recognise cause and effect 

Conceptual 
thinking 

Ability  to  see  patterns  and  connections,  even  when  a 
great deal of detail is present 

26 

 
 
Drive 
improvement 

for 

Relentless  energy  for  setting  and  meeting  challenging 
targets, for students and the school 

Expectations 

Information-
seeking 

Drive  to  find  out  more  and  get  to  the  heart  of  things; 
intellectual curiosity 

Initiative 

Drive to act now to anticipate and pre-empt events 

Flexibility 

Ability  and  willingness  to  adapt  to  the  needs  of  a 
situation and change tactics 

Leadership 

Accountability 

Drive  and  ability 
to  set  clear  expectations  and 
parameters and hold others accountable for performance

Passion 
learning 

for 

Drive  and  ability  to  support  students  in  their  learning 
and  to  help  them  become  confident  and  independent 
learners 

Values, competences and attitudes are closely interlinked. Having a certain attitude, belief or 
aptitude is a start, but putting it into practice demands knowledge and the skills to implement 
it  in  messy  real-life  situations.  For  example,  the  European  Agency  for  the  Development  of 
Special  Needs  Education  has  identified  four  core  values  as  the  basis  for  the  work  of  all 
teachers, if education is to be truly inclusive. They are: valuing learner diversity, supporting 
all learners, working with others and personal professional development.23 

Putting in place frameworks of teaching staff competences24 

Education  systems  will  benefit  if  governments,  stakeholders  and  the  teaching  professions 
reach a new understanding about the competences and qualities that teaching staff require, for 
example through the development of frameworks of professional competences. These need to 
be  embedded  throughout  education  systems  -  they  should  be  closely  linked  with  student 
learning objectives and a shared understanding of what counts as effective teaching, as well as 
providing  profession-wide  standards  and  reference  points  for  developing  programmes  of 
Initial Teacher Education and continuing professional development. In order to encourage the 
ongoing  development  of  professional  competence,  such  frameworks  could  define  different 
levels  of  competence  -  for  example  one  level  for  newly  qualified  staff,  another  for 
experienced  teaching  staff,  and  others  for  staff  with  specific  responsibilities.  Moreover, 
teacher competence frameworks should take into account the specificities of each branch of 
the teaching professions.  

23 
24 

EADSNE (2011). ‘Teacher Education for Inclusion Across Europe – Challenges and Opportunities’.. 
Sources: European Commission Report of a Peer Learning Activity: ‘Policy approaches to defining and 
competences’.  
describing 
OECD 
Matter’.  
EADSNE (2011) op cit. 

‘Teachers 

teacher 

(2005) 

27 

 
 
 
                                                            
The process of developing teacher competence frameworks is as important as the outcome; it 
has been described in full in the report of recent peer learning, which reached the following 
conclusions: 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Defining  and  developing  teacher  competence  frameworks  is  complex,  but  if  the 
process  leads  to  a  shared  discourse  and  vision  of  teacher  competences,  with  the 
purposeful involvement of main stakeholders, it can strengthen the knowledge base 
and  profession  of  teaching  staff,  enhancing  quality  control  and  professional 
development. 

Effective  competence  frameworks  require  coherence  in  development,  use  and 
purpose – representing overall consensus on what teaching and education are for – as 
well as integration in the national continuum of education and Teacher Education.  

Competence frameworks need to be carefully used so that they promote the agency, 
empowerment  and  responsibility  of  teaching  staff,  rather  than  their  control  and 
disempowerment. The ownership of the process by teaching staff is key; the stronger 
and deeper the involvement, the higher their commitment to the outcomes.  

Teacher competence descriptors should be based on learning outcomes; they should 
be linked to culture and context, have sufficient details for their purpose, and employ 
concrete, clear, consistent and action-oriented language. In order to be effective, the 
framework should be stable, durable and flexible. 

Such  frameworks  can  have  multiple  uses:  as  a  tool  for  self-reflection  by  student 
teachers, as a resource in Teacher Education, as a guide to help teachers identify their 
personal  priorities  for  professional  learning,  as  a  starting  point  for  school 
development activities, and as a guide in recruitment and selection procedures. 

So the description of the competences required by teaching staff is, in itself, only useful if it is 
embedded  in  a  wider  systemic  strategy  to  select  the  right  candidates,  develop  their  core 
competences  in Initial Teacher  Education, and ensure they further develop them throughout 
their careers, as discussed in the following sections. 

3.2 Recruiting and selecting the best25 

High-performing  systems  build  up  their  human  resources  by  attracting,  training,  and 
supporting good teaching staff: research suggests that the world’s best-performing education 
systems  recruit  all  of  their  teaching  staff  from  the  top  tier  of  graduates,  with  a  mutually 
reinforcing  balance  between  high  selectivity  and  attractive  working  conditions.  But  few 
European countries achieve this.  

So  a  key  challenge  for  the  European  Union  in  coming  years  is  not  merely  filling  vacant 
teaching posts, but finding the best candidates to fill them: research shows that having a good 
teacher as opposed to a mediocre or poor one makes a big difference. Having a teacher who is 
only one-standard deviation above the mean average raises the learners’ test score by (at least) 
25% of a standard deviation: the same student can systematically achieve significantly higher 

25 

Sources:  OECD/Asia  Society  Partnership  for  Global  Learning  (2011)  ‘International  summit  on  the 
teaching 
world’.  
McKinsey & Company.(2010) ‘Closing the talent gap: Attracting and retaining top-third graduates to 
careers in teaching’. EADSNE (op cit).  

Improving 

profession 

teacher 

quality 

around 

the 

- 

28 

 
 
 
                                                            
scores, if given better teacher quality. Furthermore, the assignment of pupils to teaching staff 
of varying quality may play a part in generating socio-economic attainment gaps.  

Furthermore, recruiting and selecting the very best candidates differs for the various areas of 
education and training. 

Recruitment criteria and processes26 

Currently, it cannot be stated with any confidence that recruitment and selection procedures 
attract or pick out the best candidates in some Member States. This can sometimes be due to 
the low number of applicants. In order for greater selectivity to be possible, the pool of high 
quality candidates has to be large enough – but this is not the case in many Member States.  

Where teaching staff have civil servant status, security of employment may be attractive, but 
can make the teaching workforce less adaptive to rapidly changing needs. Adaptation is also a 
key issue for teachers, as what it is to be a teacher has been swiftly changing, and is likely to 
keep  on  changing  over  the  next  few  decades.  Just  as  a  medicine  or  law  professional  who 
qualified  30  years  ago  would  be  unable  to  work  today  without  significant  upgrading  of 
knowledge  and  skills,  rapid  changes  in  society  and  the  economy  require  revisiting  and 
refining traditional criteria for entry into the teaching profession, whose license to teach can 
be valid for four or even five decades from recruitment to retirement. 

Member States are thus faced with a double challenge – how to enlarge the pool of applicants 
for Teacher Education, and also tighten the criteria for selecting people for teaching posts.  

Effective recruitment systems must be based on a clear profile or framework of competences 
along with appropriate quality assurance measures. These are essential pre-conditions for re-
engineering recruitment systems, so that they attract and select only the best candidates into 
initial teacher education (ITE). As noted in the preceding chapters Member States should fully 
explore  the  potential  of  the  higher  availability  of  suitable  candidates  caused  by  the  current 
economic  conditions  to  attract  people  with  the  right  knowledge,  skills,  values  and  attitudes. 
Finally, Member States need to keep under permanent review their strategies to attract, select 
and support excellent teaching staff. 

Status, making the profession more attractive27 

The  joint  ETUCE/EFEE  survey  on  recruitment  and  retention  identifies  as  the  four  most 
important factors for attracting teachers to the profession: salary, employment security, status 
of the profession, and commitment to education/ contribution to society. 

26 
27 

(Ed.) 

(2012) 

‘Preparing  Teaching 

‘Teachers  and  School  Heads  Salaries  and  Allowances 
the 

MacBeath, J. (2012) op cit. 
Sources:  ETUCE  /  EFEE,  ‘Recruitment  and  Retention  in  the  Education  Sector’,  forthcoming.  
the  21st  Century’.  
Schleicher,  A. 
in  Europe,  2011/12’.  
Eurydice, 
2011'.  
OECD 
MacBeath, 
cit. 
cit. 
OECD/Asia 
All  salaries  are  expressed  in  Purchasing  Power  Standard  (PPS):  the  artificial  common  reference 
currency unit used to express the volume of economic aggregates for the purpose of spatial comparisons 
in such a way that price level differences between countries are eliminated. 

teacher 
J. 
Partnership 

'Improving 

staff  … 

Learning 

Society 

quality 

around 

Global 

(2011) 

(2012) 

world’ 

for 

for 

op 

op 

29 

 
 
                                                            
The  attractiveness  of  the  teaching  profession  is  a  key  challenge  in  many  Member  States.  
Teaching  is  often  seen  as  a  low  status  profession;  in  some  countries  there  is  a  downward 
spiral  -  lowered  entry  standards  reduce  confidence  in  the  profession,  resulting  in  more 
prescriptive teaching and less personalised learning experiences. That risks driving the most 
talented  staff  out  of  the  profession,  increasing  the  mismatch  between  teacher  demand  and 
supply.  

In  the  fields  of  VET  and  adult  education  in  particular,  reasons  cited  for  people  not  being 
attracted  to  the  profession  include  low  pay,  lack  of  career  prospects  and  precarious  work 
contracts. In addition, few countries recognise adult teaching as a profession. The High Level 
Group on Literacy recommended raising the professional profile of the adult literacy teacher, 
by  providing  tailored  initial  and  continuing  pedagogical  training,  good  career  prospects  and 
adequate remuneration.  

Measures to raise the status of teaching may include better remuneration, though this is not 
the only (or in many Member States even the main) factor. However, it is true that there is 
significant variation in the remuneration offered to teaching staff in the European Union.  

For  example,  annual  gross  salaries  in  lower  secondary  education  in  Austria  range  from 
€32.115  to  €67.581,  in  France  from  €26.169  to  €47.610,  and  in  Hungary  from  €5.563  to 
€11.267.  The highest actual salaries can be found in Luxembourg (€86,745 p.a.), Denmark 
(€56,336 p.a.) and Austria (€52,308 p.a.). 

As  compared  to  national  GDP,  minimum  basic  teacher  salaries  in  primary  and  general 
secondary  education  are  less  than  50%  of  national  GDP  per  capita  in  Latvia,  Lithuania, 
Romania and Slovakia; at the other end of the scale are salaries in Germany (141% of national 
GDP),  Spain  (136%),  Portugal  (133%)  and  Turkey  (150%).  For  teachers  in  secondary 
education  the  highest  maximum  statutory  salaries  compared  with  the  GDP  per  capita  are  in 
Cyprus (282%), Portugal (271%) and Germany (211%), (however it may take as much as 30 
years to obtain such a maximum salary). In contrast, in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, 
Lithuania  and  Slovakia  even  the  maximum  statutory  salaries  at  all  three  levels  of  school 
education are still lower than the GDP per capita.  

In  many  Member  States  starting  salaries  are  low  compared  with  other  professions. 
Furthermore,  in  most  European  countries,  it  takes  a  teacher  on  average  between  15  and  25 
years to obtain the maximum basic statutory salary.  

In some Member States the cuts in the salaries and in education budgets overall imposed by 
current finical difficulties further reduced the status of the profession.  

Therefore,  other  measures  to  make  the  profession  more  attractive  could  include  clearer 
criteria for progression towards higher remuneration levels, and a wider variety of pathways 
offering salary progression and promotion within the profession.  

But it is not only salaries or allowances that affect perceptions of the profession. Additional 
policy  options  include  providing  attractive  possibilities  for  professional  development, 
including the chance to study for a full range of teaching qualifications, including at MA and 

30 

 
 
PhD  levels;  this  is  needed  in  order  to  place  teaching  on  a  par  with  other  high  status 
professions.   

Boosting the attractiveness of teaching also means transforming the profession from within; if 
it  entails  a  high  level  of  responsibility  and  skills  and  is  well  rewarded,  it  can  attract  highly 
qualified graduates. Recruiting excellent people into teaching requires a more attractive work 
environment — where teaching staff are treated like professionals, and have sufficient scope 
to work autonomously. According to recent reviews of the evidence, developing and retaining 
a  motivated,  committed  teaching  profession  requires  limiting  ‘dissatisfiers’  and  increasing 
‘satisfiers’. ‘Dissatisfiers’ for teaching staff include: feeling not in control, lack of time for all 
work required, isolation from colleagues; prescribed curricula, bureaucracy, pressure to meet 
targets,  testing,  an  overload  of  new  policies  and  initiatives;  lack  of  parental  support,  poor 
student  behaviour  and  stress.  The  ‘satisfiers’  concern:  being  valued,  trusted  and  listened  to; 
adequate  time  for  learning,  teaching  and  planning;  autonomy,  initiative,  creativity;  contact 
with  pupils,  collegiality;  scope  for  innovation  and  experimentation.  In  satisfactory  work 
environments,  which  tend  to  have  fewer  layers  of  management,  workers  are  consulted  and 
they  have  autonomy,  informed  by  validated  expert  knowledge,  in  diagnosing  needs  and 
deciding on services.  

The recognition of a wider range of tasks and responsibilities for schools and teaching staff 
also  calls  for  the  creation  of  new  roles  –  such  as  mentor  of  beginning  and  trainee  teaching 
staff,  co-coordinator  of  in-service  education,  and  school  project  co-coordinator.  Greater 
diversification  of  teaching  careers  can  benefit  the  profession;  in  most  countries,  promotion 
and higher responsibilities often take good teaching staff out of the classroom, and diminish 
job satisfaction. Creating new positions with specific tasks and roles in addition to classroom 
teaching  can  increase  horizontal  career  differentiation;  a  career  ladder  that  recognizes  extra 
responsibilities, where access to each stage is more demanding, entails more responsibilities 
and a tighter selection, but also a higher status and remuneration.  

3.3 More effective initial teacher education28 

Clear frameworks of teacher competences are vital to ensure that all Initial Teacher Education 
programmes  develop  new  teaching  staff  who  can  deploy  a  common  core  of  teaching 
competences,  and  who  have  the  capacities  and  motivation  to  carry  on  renewing  these 
throughout their careers.  

The level of the qualification giving access to the teaching profession is being addressed by 
many Member  States; for  school  teaching staff, there is a general trend towards requiring a 
qualification at Masters level, and for ECEC staff there is consensus that the level of initial 
professional preparation should be at BA level. But what matters most is what competences 
staff  have  developed  at  the  end  of  the  course,  rather  than  course  length.  In  half  of  the 
countries  surveyed  by  the  Unions  and  Employers,  respondents  reported  a  gap  between  the 
skills and competences teachers have, and those needed to teach (Czech Republic, Germany, 

28 

Sources:  ETUCE  /  EFEE,  ‘Recruitment  and  Retention  in  the  Education  Sector’,  forthcoming.  
Eurydice: 
2011’. 
OECD/Asia Society Partnership for Global Learning (2011) op cit.  

in  Europe:  Contexts,  Policies 

‘Teaching  Reading 

and  Practices 

31 

 
 
                                                            
Denmark, Spain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Slovenia). The main gaps were: 
ICT  skills,  diversity  in  the  classroom,  working  with  special  needs  children,  addressing 
conflict or violence. 

Initial Teacher Education should provide more than pedagogical competences, subject-matter 
knowledge  and  subject  didactics.  It  should  also  develop  students'  capacities  for  reflective 
practice and on-the-job research; it should prepare them to diagnose student problems swiftly 
and  accurately,  and  to  draw  from  a  wide  repertoire  of  possible  solutions  those  that  are 
appropriate to the diagnosis. Further, ITE should equip educators to create effective learning 
situations fitting learners’ specific needs, with the awareness that there can be multiple ways 
to  reach  the  expected  learning  outcomes.  Learner-oriented  teaching  methods,  and  the 
combination of different learning locations and methods, are of key importance; staff should 
be fully prepared to employ e-learning and Open Learning Resources (OER). A wide range of 
assessment techniques should be acquired. 

Initial  teacher  education  in  high-performing  countries  starts  with  clear  standards  that  define 
what  teaching  staff  are  expected  to  know  and  to  be  able  to  do  upon  graduation  from  their 
Initial  Teacher  Education.  This  is  further  coupled  with  frequent  opportunities  for  extended 
teaching practice under the supervision of expert teaching staff.  

There  is  a  trend  towards  remodelling  Initial  Teacher  Education  for  student  teaching  staff  to 
learn  in  school  settings  so  that  they  can  get  into  real  classrooms  early  in  the  programme, 
spend  more  time  there  and  receive  stronger  support  in  the  process.  This  can  include  both 
extensive  course  work  on  how  to  teach  –  with  an  emphasis  on  using  recent  practice-based 
research  –  and  at  least  a  year’s  teaching  in  a  school,  where  student  teachers  develop 
innovative practices and undertake research on learning and teaching.  

• 

• 

• 

However, the amount of time devoted to practical training in schools varies widely 
between countries. 

For example, the number of hours of ‘practical’ school placement in Initial Teacher 
Education  programmes  for  primary  teachers  ranges  from  40  in  Latvia  and  60  in 
Cyprus, to 630 in Italy and 900 in Austria. 

For teachers in lower secondary, the number of hours of ‘practical’ school placement 
in Initial Teacher Education ranges from 34 in Luxembourg and 40 in Latvia to 540 
in Lithuania and 778 in UK. 

The  ‘practicum’  element  of  Initial  Teacher  Education  programmes  should  be  carefully 
planned  and  implemented;  peer  learning  has  identified  key  factors  in  successful  ITE 
programmes:  

• 

• 

effective partnerships between Teacher Education Institutions and host schools, with 
agreed responsibilities, roles and resources; 

careful  planning  of  the  practical  classroom  elements  of  Initial  Teacher  Education 
programmes,  involving  both  Teacher  Education  Institutions  and  schools,  and 
including appropriate use of observation, feedback, reflection and collaboration with 
other colleagues/ student teaching staff; 

32 

 
 
• 

• 

mentorship  support  matching  the  individual  learning  needs  of  all  student  teaching 
staff, with adequately selected, educated, supported and remunerated mentors; and 

both formative and summative assessment for student teaching staff. 

Policies on Initial Teacher Education should ensure that:  

• 

• 

• 

Teacher  Education  Institutions  receive  clear  guidance  on  what  new  teaching  staff 
should know and be  able  to  do,  according to the specific sector for which they are 
being prepared; 

Teacher Education Institutions are fully accountable for ensuring that teaching staff 
have these competences; 

student teaching staff develop a wide pedagogical repertoire including co-operative 
and  inquiry-based  learning,  the  effective  use  of  formative  assessment  and  data  to 
guide  their  practice,  and  research  skills  to  diagnose  and  solve  classroom  problems 
based on evidence. 

3.4 How not to lose new teachers: personal and professional support 29 

All  beginning  teachers  should  be  active  in  a  systematic  programme  of  personal  and 
professional  support  (“induction”)  covering  their  first,  crucial  years  of  service;  the 
development of effective induction policy measures should involve all key actors (beginning 
teaching staff, school leaders, staff and mentors in practice schools, teacher educators, trade 
unions, policy makers and so on).  

Induction  can  help  in  tackling  the  teacher  retention  issue  in  several  countries,  where  young 
(and expensively-trained) teaching staff leave the profession after only a few years. As many 
as  40%  may  leave  before  five  years  in  Belgium,  and  20%  in  the  Netherlands.  Moreover, 
induction  programmes  can  add  value  by  improving  the  overall  quality  of  teaching,  and 
supporting the development of teacher professionalism.  

Ministers  have  agreed  to  introduce  systematic  support  for  beginning  teaching  staff;  to  date, 
however,  as  the  table  below  illustrates,  only  half  of  European  countries  or  regions  offer 
comprehensive, system-wide support (induction) to professionals after their entering teaching. 

29 

Sources:  European  Commission  ‘Developing  Coherent  and  System-wide  Induction  Programmes  for 
final. 
Beginning  Teaching 
OECD 
OECD 
European Union, Conclusions of the Council of 26 November 2009 on the professional development of 
teaching staff and school leaders (OJ 2009/C 302/04). 

policymakers’.  SEC(2010)538 

a 
Teachers 

handbook 

Matter. 

(2005) 

Paris: 

staff 

for 

- 

33 

 
 
                                                            
Induction  systems  for  beginning  teachers  at  pre-primary,  primary  and  general  (lower 
and upper) secondary education (ISCED 0, 1, 2 and 3), 2011/12 (Provisional data)    

ISCED 0 
1 

ISCED 0-

An induction system 

  exists 

  does not exist 

Source: 

Eurydice, 

provisional data. 

Induction needs to be embedded in career-long Teacher Education: building on what teaching 
staff  have  experienced  in  initial  Teacher  Education,  and  preparing  them  for  a  career  of 
continuing  development  in  a  reflective  profession.  This  requires  effective  links  between 
providers  at  national  and  local  levels,  as  well  as  sharing  a  common  language  about  the 
competences  and  qualities  of  effective  teaching  staff,  and  how  they  can  develop  over  time. 
Thus, awareness of roles and responsibilities by all actors, as well as clear objectives, are key 
for a successful induction programme.  

Induction  is  most  effective  if  it  is  delivered  as  a  coherent  programme.  It  should  provide 
beginning teaching staff with three different kinds of support - personal/ emotional, social and 
professional  –  through  interlocking  systems  for  mentoring,  peer  support/learning,  expert 
feedback  and  self-reflection.  A  key  to  successful  implementation  is  ensuring  that  all  actors 
have the skills and attitudes for an effective induction programme. This requires a supportive 
environment  in  the  school,  where  beginning  teaching  staff  represent  a  significant  asset, 
34 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
bringing  new  ideas  and  perspectives.  Therefore,  the  beginning  teacher  should  be  allocated 
fewer  teaching  hours,  to  allow  more  time  for  lesson  preparation,  induction  activities  and 
meetings  with  mentors,  (who  also  need  time  off  teaching  duties  to  perform  their  role 
effectively). Finally, an induction system should be present in all beginning teachers’ schools. 
There should be a regular review and evaluation of induction policies and provision.  

• 

In  its  Staff  Working  Document  of  2010,  the  Commission  identified  the  following 
countries  as  exemplifying  different  aspects  of  induction  programmes  for  beginning 
teachers: Cyprus, Estonia, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and UK (Scotland). 

3.5 Professional development: Helping teachers to keep on learning30 

Initial  Teacher  Education,  even  at  Masters  level,  cannot  give  teaching  staff  all  the 
competences  they  will  require  throughout  their  career.  The  numbers  of  new  teaching  staff 
joining the professions each year are small compared with the workforce as a whole. In the 
short-to-medium term, improvements in school performance and pupil attainment must come 
largely from the current teaching force.  

As a consequence, in-service professional development is essential, and it must be organised 
in such a way that it helps teachers improve their practice.  

Teaching  staff  need  it  to  update  their  knowledge  of  subject  matter  periodically,  with  new 
developments; they need it to update their skills, encompassing new teaching techniques and 
educational  research.  In  most  sectors of education, in-service education is required to equip 
staff with vital competences that they did not acquire during Initial Teachers Education, such 
as the use of formative assessment, the definition of learning outcomes, working effectively in 
inclusive  settings,  learner-centred  pedagogies,  individualised  learning,  and  more  effective 
uses  of  ICT  and  open  education  resources.  Teacher  surveys  regularly  highlight  the  fact  that 
many  of  them  feel  ill-equipped  to  deal  with  ‘teaching  special  learning  needs  students’, 
‘student discipline and behaviour’ and ‘ICT teaching skills’.  

Professional  development  can  also:  support  teaching  staff  in  applying  curricular  changes; 
enable  schools  to  develop  innovations  in  teaching  practice;  and  help  weaker  teaching  staff 
become more effective.  

• 

30 

In Slovenia, a national programme for ‘e-Competent teachers’ has been co-financed 
by  the  European  Social  Fund.  It  has  developed  competence  standards  for  teachers, 
for school ICT coordinators and for school leaders, covering a range of competences 
for  planning,  performing  and  evaluating  teaching  by  using  ICT  and  the  critical  use 
and evaluation of processes and resources. It provides ‘bottom-up’ teacher CPD, as 
pioneering  subject  teachers  with  experience  in  ICT  provide  the  training  to  their 
colleagues in the same subject. The training combines seminars with e-education and 
a certification of the e-competences of teachers not only in the use of ICT, but also in 
the  didactic  use  of  ICT  tools  in  their  own  subjects.  In  parallel,  schools  are  offered 

Sources:  European  Union.  Conclusions  of  the  Council  of  November  2009  on  the  professional 
302/04). 
development 
European  Commission,  reports  of  peer  learning  activities  on  Vocational  Education  and  Training. 
Eurydice, 
2012. 
OECD TALIS (2009). 

teaching 

2009/C 

leaders 

school 

Data 

staff 

Key 

and 

(OJ 

of 

35 

 
 
                                                            
consultancy  for  implementing  a  whole  school  adoption  of  ICT  moving  towards  e-
contents and an e-learning environment.   

In sectors such as adult education and VET, in which many teaching staff have transferred to 
teaching from other professions, without having received initial teacher education, or in early 
childhood  education  and  care  in  which  many  staff  are  unqualified,  the  provision  of  higher 
quality and more accessible continuing professional development is vital for moving towards 
more  consistent  standards  of  teaching.  Work-based  continuing  learning  is  particularly 
important to enable VET teachers to keep abreast of technological developments in the field.  

• 

Continuing professional development (CPD) is considered as a professional duty for 
teachers  in  24  European  countries  or  regions.  In  France,  Lithuania,  Romania  and 
Slovenia,  taking  part  in  CPD  is  a  prerequisite  for  career  advancement  and  salary 
increases.  Ten  countries  provide  teachers  with  financial  allowances  for  obtaining 
further CPD qualifications. 

In a context of increasing professionalisation and teacher autonomy, all teaching staff need a 
commitment  to  reflective  practice,  research,  and  systematic  engagement  in  professional 
learning throughout their careers.  

• 

• 

• 

• 

In half of the countries, the quality or value of the work carried out by teachers may 
be  rewarded  by  additional  payments  following  its  appraisal  or  based  on  the  results 
their students obtain in examinations. 

In  Germany,  economic  and  career  advancement  incentives  are  linked  with  an 
external assessment of teachers’ competences.  

In the Netherlands and Sweden, the approach is to encourage and support teachers to 
upgrade their competences and acquire higher academic qualifications.  

In  Sweden,  the  'Boost  for  Teachers'  initiative  funded  approximately  a  fifth  of  all 
teachers  to  take  advanced  continuing  professional  education  at  higher  education 
institutions in the period 2007-2010.  

However, current provision for in-service training is often not as effective as it should be, and 
for  a  large  proportion  of  teaching  staff  the  need  is  felt  for  more.  The  2010  Joint  Progress 
Report  of  the  Council  and  the  Commission  found  that  although  curricular  change  is  under 
way,  and  in  some  countries  initial  teacher  education  prepares  teachers  to  use  the  key 
competences approach, for the majority of teachers already in service there are few systematic 
opportunities to update their competences accordingly. 

This is a serious shortcoming as high-performing schools are characterised by systematic and 
well supported professional development, which is longer in duration, more active and more 
collaborative.  

Although  the  OECD  TALIS  survey  reports  nearly  90%  of  teaching  staff  as  recently  taking 
part  in  professional  development  activities,  there  is  considerable  variation  in  activity  type, 
intensity  of  participation,  age  and  proportion  of  teaching  staff  participating.  Many  teaching 
staff  either  do  not  find  suitable  professional  development,  or  cannot  attend  because  of 
conflicting work schedules. A considerable proportion of teachers feel that they require more 
professional development than they currently receive, as the graphic shows. 

36 

 
 
Percentage  of  teachers  who  wanted  more  development  than  received  in  previous  18 
months (2007-08). Source: OECD. 

The great majority of those participating in continuous professional development report that it 
had  a  moderate  or  high  impact;  in  around  half  of  countries,  teaching  staff  reported 
significantly higher levels of self-efficacy, usually linked with the mastery of a wider array of 
classroom methods.  

However, as a result of the economic crisis, in many Member States continuing professional 
development is more often than before organised outside working hours, and budgets devoted 
to  it  have  been  reduced.  Some  30-40  %  of  the  organisations  represented  by  the  European 
Trader  Unions  Committee  for  Education  have  noted  that  economic  crisis  has  had  negative 
effect on the initial education, induction and professional development.31 

A  radical  reform  of  in-service  learning  provision  is  thus  urgently  required,  to  ensure  that 
serving teaching staff and trainers keep up their professional learning through medium- and 
long-term  collaborative  development  activities  in  their  educational  institutions,  or  through 
traineeships in enterprises;32 further social networking opportunities are offered in initiatives 
such as the EU’s eTwinning action, with a clear focus on improving learners’ outcomes.  

Studying or working abroad can bring significant learning benefits to teachers. Teachers are 
amongst the most mobile professionals in the Union. However, because of the differences in 
training  and  in  the  organisation  of  the  profession,  fully  qualified  teachers  often  encounter 
difficulties in obtaining recognition of their qualifications in a host Member State. Smoother 
and  more  transparent  recognition  procedures  can  help  overcoming  shortages  and  strengthen 
cultural diversity in the classroom.  

European  programmes  for  professional  mobility  (Comenius  grants,  and  Grundtvig  for  adult 
education) have proved to be a strong factor for innovation and collaborative learning among 

31 

32 

ETUCE  ‘Analysis  of  a  mini-survey  on  the  impact  of  the  economic  crisis  on  teacher  education  in  the 
European Union’, 2012  http://etuce.homestead.com/Publications_2012/ 
Results_of_ETUCE_Minisurvey_on_Crisis_effecting_teacher_education_.pdf 
Conclusions of the Council on the priorities for enhanced European cooperation in vocational education 
and training for 2011-2020. OJ C 2341.12.2010  
37 

 
 
 
                                                            
teachers and learners, and will be strengthened in the new EU programme “Erasmus for All” 
from 2014. 

Above all, Member States need to ensure that teacher professional development is integrated 
into  each  individual  teacher’s  career  and  in  school  and  system  changes,  with  in-service 
education,  feedback,  appraisal  and  remuneration  closely  aligned.  Learning  that  improves 
individual  competences  must  be  complemented  by  effective  collaboration  among  teaching 
staff, to produce better learning both in staff and pupils. 

Collaboration – a key factor for efficient professional development programmes 

It is the responsibility of each Member State to make sure that every member of the teaching 
workforce,  at  every  career  stage,  has  all  the  competences  needed  for  the  particular  tasks 
required;  coherent  systems  are  needed  to  ensure  that  teachers  can  make  the  most  of  their 
potential, throughout their working lives. 

Ministers of Education have already identified their need to develop integrated, career-wide 
support  for  the  education,  induction  and  career-long  professional  development  of  teaching 
staff, and of their educators and leaders.  

However,  in  many  Member  States,  measures  for  provision  and  delivery  of  professional 
learning  for  teaching  staff  have  grown  up  piecemeal  over  the  years,  overlooking  research 
input on the effectiveness of professional development. 

In  a  context  of  increased  pressure  on  budgets,  Member  States  will  wish  to  make  sure  that 
resources allocated to teacher professional development are spent only on those activities that 
have a proven and positive impact on the quality of teaching and on learner outcomes. 

teacher 

learning 

that  effective 

is  school-based  and  collaborative; 
Research  shows 
collaborative  forms  of  continuous  professional  development  –  which  the  OECD  TALIS 
survey found to be less often practiced - have been shown to benefit both the teacher and the 
learner.  For  example,  a  survey  undertaken  by  the  former  General  Teaching  Council  in 
England33  notes  that  continuous  professional  development  -  in  which  teaching  staff  learn 
together - is more effective than individual learning: 

• 

• 

• 

in bringing about positive changes in teaching practice, attitudes or beliefs of staff (in 
all studies reviewed, against only some evidence of this for individual CPD);  

in bringing improvements in pupils’ learning, behaviour or attitudes (in almost all the 
studies, while there was only some evidence of this for individual CPD); and  

in  bringing  positive  changes  in  classroom  behaviours  and  attitudes  to  professional 
development of teaching staff (in half of the studies, unlike individual CPD). 

33 

General Teaching Council for England (December 2005) ‘Continuing Professional Development’.  

38 

 
 
                                                            
Comparison  of  impact  and  participation  by  types  of  development  activity  (2007–08). 
Source: OECD. 

Despite  these  evidence  that  collaborative  CPD  is  more  beneficial  for  both  teachers  and 
students, the TALIS survey found that ‘co-operation’ by teaching staff in all countries mostly 
means  exchanging  and  coordinating  ideas  and  information,  rather  than  direct  professional 
collaboration such as team teaching.  

In order to change educational practices, it is also necessary to break the traditional circle of 
training  and  teaching,  which  represents  a  major  challenge  for  teacher  educators  and 
researchers. Teaching staff are expected to facilitate knowledge construction by learners, and 
yet the rationale of many teacher training courses still relies on the view of teachers as ‘empty 
vessels’ to be filled by ‘experts’, in training centres far away from school.  

Overcoming  the  view  of  teaching  as  an  isolated  activity,  taking  place  behind  closed  doors, 
represents a key challenge, and highlights the need to ‘deprivatise’ teaching. Much learning 
can take place by the simple expedient of teaching staff regularly observing and collaborating 
with their peers, and reflecting critically on the experience.  

• 

There  are  significant  differences  among  countries,  however;  professional 
collaboration  is  more  common  in  Poland,  Slovakia  and  Turkey,  and  less  so  in 
Belgium (Flanders), Slovenia and Spain.  

Providing individualised learning opportunities embedded in the overall school development 
plans34  

In a fast-changing world, teaching staff need to update their competences every year. This is 
not only an issue of investment - it means applying  to  teaching staff the same principles of 

34 

Sources: European Commission, Thematic Working Group 'Teacher Professional Development' (2011) 
Report of a Peer Learning Activity ‘Policy approaches to defining and describing teacher competences’. 
European  Commission.  Conclusions  of  the  Peer  Learning  Conference  'Education²:  Policy  support  for 
Teacher 
2012. 
ETF ‘VET teacher professional development in a policy learning perspective’.  

Educators'. 

Brussels, 

March 

39 

 
 
 
                                                            
individualised learning they are to employ with learners. Member States thus need systematic 
programmes  to  regularly  assess  each  teacher’s  learning  needs,  and  provide  relevant 
individualised training. There is also significant scope for the teaching professions to play a 
more  active  role  in  matters  such  as  defining  professional  standards  and  deontology  and 
promoting research about teaching and learning. 

The  continuing  professional  development  of  teaching  staff  cannot  be  seen  in  isolation  from 
the development of the school as a whole. For example, introducing new approaches to pupil 
assessment  in  a  school  (as  described  in  the  companion  document  ‘Assessment  of  Key 
Competences’),  will  require  all  teaching  staff  –  and  indeed  learners  -  to  acquire  new 
competences,  depending  on  their  role  in  the  process.  Some  teachers  will  need  to  acquire 
competences  in  new  assessment  methods;  others  will  need  to  develop  their  skills  in 
collaborating with colleagues to arrive at coherent approaches across departments; others will 
need competences in the leadership of innovation and change.  

The  development  of  the  school  and  the  development  of  staff  must  go  hand  in  hand.  Thus, 
systems and provision will be most effective if they:  

• 

• 

• 

• 

relate the content and supply of professional learning opportunities to the particular 
development  needs  of  each  individual  teacher  (this  implies  a  regular  review  of  the 
teacher’s learning needs, within the school’s development plan);  

promote  systematic  and  positive  support  for  professional  learning  within  every 
school; 

ensure teaching staff have full access to the professional learning opportunities that 
they (and their school) need, and  

ensure  that  professional  learning  opportunities  are  designed  as  collaborative 
experiences. 

In spite of these findings strongly suggesting that the quality of teachers’ work is influenced 
as  much  by  the  institutional  environment  where  they  work  as  by  their  formal  teacher 
education,  the  most  widespread  professional  development  model  in  Europe  takes  individual 
teaching  staff  out  of  their  schools  to  follow  a  ‘course'’  whose  relevance  to  individual  or 
institutional needs might be limited.  

Appraisal and feedback as key instruments for professional development and satisfaction35 

It is not enough for education systems to attract and educate good teaching staff; they need to 
be  retained  in  the  profession,  and  they  need  to  be  nurtured.  Education  systems  need  to 
identify,  esteem  and  support  those  teaching  staff  who  have  powerful  influences  on  student 
learning. In this context, effective appraisal and feedback systems can have a positive impact 
on what happens in the classroom, by encouraging staff to build upon their strengths.  

35 

and 

continuous 

Sources: European Commission, Report of a Peer Learning Activity ‘Policy approaches supporting the 
acquisition 
competences’. 
development 
Hattie, J. (2003) ‘Teachers make a difference – what is the research evidence?’ Professional Learning 
DET. 
and 
OECD 
2009. 
EFEE  (European  Federation  of  Education  Employers)  ‘School  Leadership  and  governance:  lifelong 
learning’. School Leadership Report, April 2012. 
40 

Development, 

Leadership 

TALIS. 

teacher 

NSW 

of 

 
 
                                                            
 
Meaningful feedback refers to evidence-based information on a teacher’s performance, so as 
to allow for professional learning that is focused, individually tailored and based upon regular 
assessments  of  needs.  Teaching  staff  who  receive  appraisal  and  feedback  tend  to  value  it 
highly and find it helpful in their work, reporting positive changes in their teaching practices, 
especially  improving  learners’  test  scores,  pupil  discipline,  and  classroom  management. 
Indeed,  public  recognition  of  a  teacher’s  work  is  highly  related  to  teacher  self-efficacy;  the 
aspects that are emphasised in teacher appraisals send important  signals about what is most 
(and least) valued in teaching – for example, pedagogical knowledge, classroom management 
or innovative teaching.  

However,  at  a  time  when  the  importance  of  giving  regular  feedback  to  all  learners  is  better 
understood,  many  teaching  staff  are  not  getting  appropriate  feedback  on  their  work,  and  in 
several Member States there is none at all.  

More than 13% of teaching staff report that they have never been appraised. Large numbers of 
teaching  staff  only  receive  appraisal  and  feedback  once  a  year  or  less.  What  is  more,  even 
when  teaching  staff  were  appraised,  they  often  did  not  receive  relevant  feedback  on  their 
performance.  As  the  Education  Employers  have  noted,  many  countries  are  experiencing 
difficulties  in  establishing  even  the  criteria  for  successfully  evaluating  teacher  performance, 
though some countries have begun to make progress on this issue. 

• 

• 

In Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland over a quarter of teachers said that they had not 
received feedback on their performance.  

At  the  other  end  of  the  scale,  almost  all  teachers  in  Bulgaria,  Lithuania  and  the 
Slovak Republic said they received feedback on their work. 

Teachers  who  received  no  appraisal  or  feedback  and  teachers  in  schools  that  had  no 
school evaluation in the previous five years (2007 – 08). Source: OECD. 

In  order  to  improve  teaching  quality,  Member  States  need  to  ensure  that  every  teacher 
receives  feedback,  leading  to  a  specific,  individualised  professional  learning  plan  for  the 
forthcoming year. School leadership has a key role to play in this. 

41 

 
 
 
Provision for teaching staff to acquire and develop their competences 

Participation  in  professional  development  and  mobility  is  often  made  difficult  by  lack  of 
teaching  cover  or  formal  recognition  of  training  activities,  or  by  conflicts  with  other 
commitments. Member States need to tackle these practical obstacles to staff improvement.  

Effective policy support for the lifelong learning of teachers is a key system issue, and must 
be based on a career-long perspective of competence development; it should: 

• 

• 

• 

stimulate  the  active  engagement  of  teaching  staff  in  continuous  learning  (through 
opportunities, incentives and requirements),  

assess teachers’ competence development throughout their careers, and  

provide relevant, career-long opportunities for teaching staff to acquire and enhance 
the competences they need.  

Measures for the assessment of teaching staff competence ought to be linked and consistent 
with the competence framework, and encompass the three main career phases: Initial Teacher 
Education,  induction,  and  continuing  professional  development.  Their  formative  and 
summative uses should be clearly linked to tools and techniques, roles and responsibilities of 
different  stakeholders,  as  well  as  to  their  prevailing  focus  on  individual,  school  or  system 
level  -  on  input  (e.g.  professional  development  attendance)  or  outcome  (change  in  teacher 
competences or learner attainment).  

* * * 
This Chapter has highlighted the need for Member States to reform their policy and provision 
to provide focused support and thus enable the teaching professions to be ever more effective. 
As a start, this means developing a clear understanding of the competences that all staff must 
possess, defining criteria and procedures to attract and select the best candidates into teaching; 
improving  the  status  of  the  professions;  assessing  the  effectiveness  of  Initial  Education; 
providing  personal  and  professional  support  (‘induction’)  for  every  new  member  of  the 
profession,  as  well  as,  relevant  formative  feedback  on  their  work  leading  to  individualised, 
relevant  continuing  professional  development  for  teaching  staff  in  order  to  support  them  in 
developing their competences throughout their careers.  

42 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
4. 

STRENGTHENING SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

36 

School leadership is second only to teaching among the school-related factors that determine 
what  students  learn  and  how  successfully.  It  is  an  issue  to  which  policymakers  in  several 
Member  States  need  to  pay  closer  attention,  if  educational  institutions  and  systems  are  to 
achieve their maximum potential. 

The impact of educational leadership on student attainment is clear; some research shows that 
leadership  accounts  for  27%  of  the  variation  in  student  achievement  across  schools.  It  has 
been  demonstrated  that  the  quality  of  leadership  helps  determine  both  the  motivation  of 
teaching staff and the quality of their teaching. Student achievement on PISA tests was higher 
when  teaching  staff  were  held  accountable  through  the  involvement  of  school  leaders  and 
external inspectors in monitoring lessons.  

School  leadership  uses  the  unique  competences  of  staff,  learners  and  parents  to  achieve 
common educational goals. The quality of leadership matters also in determining the ethos of 
the school, the motivation of teachers, the depth of their continuing professional learning, and 
the quality of teaching and learning..  

Recent peer learning work concluded that leadership should be conceived as a role, and not as 
a post or a place in a structure. A commonly agreed policy framework for school leadership 
should be part of each education system.   

The  impact  of  school  leaders  tends  to  be  stronger  where  there  is  a  higher  degree  of  school 
autonomy. However, systems vary significantly in the extent to which school principals can, 
for example, select the staff they are expected to lead, or adjust the school curriculum to local 
needs.  

4.1 Who are the leaders? 

The concept of leadership generally implies ownership and authority as well as responsibility. 
Leadership  may  be  formal  or  informal:  it  is  possible  to  be  a  school  principal,  without 
exercising leadership. It is also possible for other school staff to exercise leadership. Indeed, 
leadership is one of the key competences for all educators. In some systems, one person may 
exercise  leadership  in  a  group  of  schools.  Other  actors  are  also  called  upon  to  exercise 
educational leadership and to play their part in the development of the education system, e.g. 
school  boards,  inspectors  and  advisors,  ministries  and  professional  organisations.  There  is 
greatest  potential  for  successful  system  reform  when  the  various  actors  involved  work  and 
develop together.  

36 

in 

of 

OECD 

01/2012’. 

‘Teaching 

Educational 

Sources: 
2012. 
focus, 
Muijs,  D.  ‘Leadership  and  organisational  performance:  from  research  to  prescription?’  International 
Journal 
(1).  
Lumby,  J.  ‘Leading  organisational  culture:  issues  of  power  and  equity’.  Educational  Management 
576-591.  
Administration 
40, 
February 
EPNoSL 
2012. 
ETUCE 
and  opportunities’.  2012. 
European Commission: Report of a Peer Learning Activity ‘School Leadership for learning’.  
43 

September 
in 
challenges 

Leadership, 
EPNoSL 
in  Europe: 

‘School  Leadership 

2012, 
Munich, 

PLA 
issues, 

Management, 

OECD, 

Report 

Paris 

on 

25 

& 

 
 
                                                            
For  example,  in  Norway,  some  schools  have  a  three-person  school  leader  group:  one 
responsible  for  pedagogy,  one  for  personnel  matters  and  one  for  finance.  In  secondary 
education in France, the school leader is supported by a leadership team that includes one or 
several  deputy  principals,  an  administrative  manager  and  one  or  more  educational 
counsellors. 

The national or regional educational context has a significant influence upon the conception 
of  ‘school’  and  the  degree  to  which  a  school  is  understood  as  a  community  or  organisation 
that  needs  to  be  led.  Some  languages  do  not  even  have  a  term  for  ‘school  leader’.    Such 
contextual factors, in turn, affect the expectations of Ministries, parents and other key actors, 
as well as the roles that principals and other staff are able to play. There are thus overlapping 
concepts and differences in titles (e.g. principal, head teacher, director etc.), responsibilities, 
and structures.  

4.2 Leadership is not administration37 

Clearly,  school  leaders  exert  a  key  influence  on  learner  achievement,  mainly  by  helping  to 
create  a  school  environment  that  is  favourable  to  learning:  an  environment  that  values 
responsiveness to student needs over bureaucratic control, that provides psychological safety 
to learn and a focus on student learning.  

• 

• 

• 

However; research shows that administrative demands take up about 40% of school 
leaders' time, clearly competing with instructional leadership as their top priority.  

In  primary  education,  in  most  countries,  school  heads  spend  the  majority  of  their 
time, on average more than 40%, on management and administrative activities such 
as appointing and managing staff and budgeting.  

In  Belgium  (French  Community),  Denmark,  Italy,  Sweden  and  Norway  the 
proportion is even higher, with 50% or more of their time spent on management and 
administrative activities.  

37 

OECD (2012) Teaching in focus, 01/2012.  

44 

 
 
                                                            
Proportion of the time spent in a range of activities by the heads of schools attended by 
pupils 
2006. 
(Source: Eurydice Key Data on Education 2009) 

education, 

primary 

fourth 

year 

the 

in 

of 

European  Ministers  of  Education  have  already  agreed  that  there  needs  to  be  an  explicit 
redefinition of the roles of school managerial staff, so that they focus their energies and time 
on  improving  learning  by  staff  and  students;  for  this  they  need  to  be  liberated  from 
administrative  tasks,  which  in  turn  may  require  more  countries  to  adopt  the  practice  of 
employing school administrators for routine administrative and budgetary functions.  

This should allow school leaders to focus more on teacher monitoring and evaluation. In some 
Member  States,  for  example,  school  leaders  spend  much  of  their  time  giving  feedback  to 
teaching  staff  about  their  work.  Developing  teacher  quality,  supporting  and  guiding  new 
teaching  staff  should  be  the  core  of  school  leaders'  role.  This  includes  co-coordinating  the 
curriculum  and  teaching  programme,  monitoring  and  evaluating  teaching  practice,  giving 
regular formative feedback, and supporting collaborative work cultures.  

45 

 
 
 
 
 
School leaders are important in building effective relations between the educational institution 
and  the  outside  world,  including  parents,  local  enterprise,  universities,  or  local  authorities. 
This is particularly important for VET and for leaders in adult education, where collaboration 
with companies is crucial. Leaders should also be aware of the importance of engaging their 
education and training institutions into the regional and local development plans and equipped 
with relevant tools.   

4.3 Focus on the core competences of educational leadership38 

School  leadership  is  a  challenging  profession  that  demands  a  range  of  highly  developed 
competences underpinned by core values. National policies will be most effective when they 
are  based  upon  a  shared  understanding  about  the  roles  that  school  leaders  are  expected  to 
play,  and  the  professional  values  and  competences  (knowledge,  skills  and  attitudes)  that 
school leaders require in order to fulfil these roles effectively. 

Educational employers advocate a greater uniformity in the formulation of the standards and 
competences  required  of  School  Leaders,  so  that  appropriate  training  and  professional 
development  can  be  developed.  Recent  peer  learning  suggests  that  the  main  competences 
required  by  people  in  leadership  roles  can  be  identified.  Some  are  context-  and  culture-
specific;  however,  in  all  contexts,  policies  can  support  effective  school  leadership  by  being 
based upon the following core leadership competences:  

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

vision - the ability to inspire staff and pupils; 

strategic thinking - the ability to take a holistic view; 

the ability to enhance learning environments and learning cultures; 

the capacity to improve the quality of students’ learning and their learning outcomes; 

the capacity to manage resources effectively; 

a sound knowledge of the education system; 

strong communication skills and openness, as well as 

problem solving skills. 

School leadership staff are also likely to be most effective if they possess personal attributes 
such  as  courage,  optimism,  resilience,  tolerance,  emotional  intelligence,  self-awareness, 
energy, ambition, commitment and a desire for learning. 

Effective educational leadership requires a team approach and the different members of any 
leadership  team  may  have  different,  complementary  expertise  and  competence  profiles;  this 
does not affect the core competences required by school leaders, it rather underlines the need 
for clarity of roles. 

In adult learning, many of the educational institutions are small or based in NGOs or attached 
to  community  libraries,  etc.  Here  the  leadership  role  may  be  combined  with  teaching  or 
additional tasks, but it is no less important to develop the leadership role in such settings. 

38 

EFEE ‘School Leadership and governance: lifelong learning’. School Leadership Report, April 2012. 

46 

 
 
                                                            
4.4 Increasing attractiveness, recruitment and retention39  

School headship and leadership should be a career path that is chosen and prepared for, rather 
than a forced or accidental assignment. Putting the right people into leadership roles should 
clearly  be  a  key  objective  of  education  policy  in  all  Member  States.  Countries  need  to  pay 
much  closer  attention  to  the  recruitment  and  preparation  of  the  right  staff  for  school 
management positions.  

In  the  EU,  education  employers  have  expressed  the  need  for  enhanced  professional 
recruitment processes at both school and system level, to ensure that recruitment procedures, 
tools and criteria are effective, transparent and consistent in assessing candidates.  

A number of different criteria are considered when appointing someone as a school head. In 
all European countries, regulations set out the official requirements expected of those wishing 
to  become  school  heads.  Almost  everywhere,  professional  teaching  experience  is  the  basic 
condition for appointment. The amount of experience required ranges from three to thirteen 
years and is generally between three and five years. In most countries, additional conditions 
are  applied,  which  may  include  administrative  experience,  leadership  and  management 
competencies, the completion of special training courses. 

But in general, the number of applicants for school headship posts is very low; significantly, 
this  is  not  the  case  for  positions  of  middle  leaders,  assistant  or  deputy  principals.  Teaching 
staff and middle management staff with high leadership potential are often not interested in 
moving up to headship. In some Member States, only some 1.25 candidates apply per post on 
average;  in  others,  large  numbers  of  principal  posts  have  to  be  re-advertised  because  no 
suitable candidate comes forward.  

This is the more alarming, as in most OECD countries, the average age of school principals 
has  been  rising  over  the  past  two  decades  and  a  significant  majority  of  principals  in  many 
countries are now over 50. The age profile is particularly alarming in secondary education in 
most  countries.  As  with  teaching  staff,  the  imminent  retirement  of  many  principals  brings 
both a major loss of experience and an opportunity to recruit and develop a new generation 
with  the  competences  needed  by  future  education  systems.  There  is  also  an  opportunity  to 
rectify  the  current  gender  imbalance:  although  most  teaching  staff  are  women,  most  School 
Leaders are men. 

39 

(2008) 

Sources: 
OECD 
on  Education 
Eurydice 
OECD 
‘Teaching 
(2012) 
EPNoSL Report on PLA in Munich, Feb. 2012. 

EFEE 
school 

‘Key  Data 

‘Improving 

(2012) 

leadership’,  Volume 
in  Europe 

in 

op 

Policy 

cit. 
Practice.  
1: 
2012’.  Brussels:  EACEA. 
01/2012. 

focus’, 

and 

47 

 
 
                                                            
Percentage 
Source: OECD ‘Improving School Leadership’. 

of  principals 

aged 

50 

and 

over, 

2006/7,  public 

schools.  

Recruitment  and  retention  is  thus  an  urgent  problem  which  needs  to  be  addressed.  In  many 
Member  States,  recruitment  problems  occur  in  part  because  of  the  growing  workload  on 
school leaders. Studies have shown that leaders are affected by the growing demands on their 
time. For example, in England, 61% of head teaching staff described their work-life balance 
as  poor  or  very  poor.  Some  school  heads  have  attributed  this  to  long  working  hours  or  to 
deficiencies  in  working  practices,  such  as  not  knowing  how  to  prioritize  or  delegate  their 
work. 

In  many  Member  States,  school  headship  is  not  a  desirable  option  for  many  possible 
candidates because: 

• 

• 

• 

• 

they  see  that  it  involves  predominantly  administrative  or  managerial  duties  rather 
than higher-order leadership or pedagogical leadership tasks; 

the posts are not attractively remunerated and often involve a heavy teaching load in 
addition to administrative tasks; 

they lack experience; and 

they perceive school heads as not receiving the support they require from educational 
leadership outside the school, even in situations of stress and conflict. 

The efforts to free school leaders from some of the administrative tasks (see section above) 
could have a positive impact upon the status and attractiveness of the profession. 

Another vital aspect is adequate succession planning allowing to identify and prepare teaching 
staff to take up leadership roles. 

• 

Some Member States, including Denmark and Netherlands, have specific strategies 
for inspiring, identifying and developing future school leaders.  

48 

 
 
 
• 

In  the  UK  (England)  a  ‘fast  track’  programme  provides  accelerated  leadership 
development  to  those  classroom  teachers  who  have  been  identified  as  having  the 
potential  to  progress  rapidly  to  senior  leadership  positions.  The  UK  (Scotland)  has 
developed  specific  development  programmes  for  project-,  team-,  school-  and 
strategic- leadership.   

4.5 Initial preparation, support and continuous professional development40 

The changing profile of school leaders and their increased responsibility, including managing 
financial and human resources, underline the need for them to be effectively prepared and to 
receive continuous support and on-going professional development matching their individual 
needs. Proper systems to induct School Leaders into their new roles and support them during 
the first years are also necessary, but are few and far between at the moment. 

The  conclusions  of  peer  learning  suggest  that  education  systems  will  be  more  effective  in 
promoting  high  quality  learning  if  they  prioritise  school  leaders’  continuous  professional 
development as part of a systematic (and system-wide) process that aligns the development of 
school leaders with that of the system as a whole. The career-long professional development 
of school leaders should become both a right and a professional responsibility. 

Some  research  suggests  that  high-performing  and  equitable  school  systems  tend  to  grant 
greater  autonomy  to  schools  in  curricula  and  assessment.  Effective  use  of  school  autonomy 
depends  on  effective  leaders,  including  system  leaders,  principals,  teacher  leaders,  senior 
teaching  staff  and  head  teaching  staff,  as  well  as  strong  support  systems.  That,  in  turn, 
requires effectively distributed leadership, new types of training and development for school 
leaders, and appropriate support and incentives.  

As  greater  responsibility  is  given  to,  and  greater  accountability  is  demanded  of,  school 
leaders, leadership needs to be distributed effectively within and across schools. Collaborative 
leadership,  as  opposed  to  leadership  of  the  principal  alone,  may  offer  a  path  to  school 
improvement.  Distributed  leadership  arrangements  may  vary  depending  on  the  context. 
Leadership structures or more informal ad hoc groups based on expertise and current needs 
can be formed to encourage a distribution of responsibility among these actors.  

• 

For  example,  Norway,  Netherlands  and  UK  (Scotland)  are  countries  that  use 
distributed leadership arrangements. 

There is great diversity in school leadership training in European countries.  

Continuing professional development (CPD) is considered a professional duty in 22 countries 
or regions41. In the United Kingdom (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) for example, the 
National  College  for  School  Leadership  provides  a  range  of  professional  development 
opportunities  for  serving  school  heads.  These  include  'Head  Start',  a  programme  for  recent 
graduates of the National Professional Qualification for Headship during their first two years 
as school heads.  

40 

41  

EPNoSL 

Sources: 
OECD 
Schleicher, A ‘Preparing Teachers and Developing School Leaders for 21st century’. OECD, 2012 
Eurydice: provisional data 

‘Teaching 

February 

focus’, 

Report 

PLA 

on 

in 

2012. 
01/2012.  

49 

 
 
                                                            
Some countries  define  the minimum  amount of time to be dedicated  to  CPD. In the French 
Community of Belgium for example, school heads have to follow CPD activities during six 
half days per year. In Latvia, CPD for school management consist of 36 hours in three years. 

As for teachers, in Spain, Lithuania, Portugal and Romania participation in CPD activities is 
not  only  a  professional  duty  but  also  a  prerequisite  for  career  advancement  and  salary 
increases. In Slovenia and Slovakia, CPD is optional but yet necessary to be promoted. 

In  15  countries,  CPD  is  optional  for  school  heads.  However,  school  heads  might  well  be 
supported and encouraged to participate. In the Flemish Community of Belgium, for example, 
schools have a special training fund for the CPD of school heads allowing them to have the 
cost  of  CPD  covered  throughout  their  career.  In  Ireland,  the  'Leadership  Development  for 
Schools  service'  offers  programmes  for  recently  appointed  school  heads  and  for  more 
experienced school heads working together in school teams.   

• 

Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Sweden, parts of Germany and the UK have developed 
very  specific  systems,  programmes  or  academies  aimed  at  professionalising  a  new 
generation of leaders.  

These may involve various strategies for developing educational leadership at all levels of the 
education system, including in Ministries; they have an important role to play and need to be 
further  developed  in  those  Member  States  where  they  do  not  yet  exist.  Crucially,  such 
leadership must be focussed on improving the quality of learning.  

School  leaders’  professional  development  activities  should  be  ongoing,  career-staged  and 
seamless. To be effective, school leader continuous professional development should also be:  

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

linked into the wider provision of CPD;  

organised as a group activity in which school leaders interact with peers; 

relevant to the development needs of the individual school leader and the school; 

founded upon critical reflection of self, practice and organisation; and 

valued and recognised.  

In some contexts there is a need to stimulate school leaders who have been in post for some 
time to further develop their competences; for example, where school leaders are reappointed 
periodically,  a  condition  of  their  re-appointment  could  be  proof  that  they  have  continued  to 
develop as professionals.  

Depending  on  the  national  context,  there  may  also  be  a  need  to  consider  the  place  of 
stakeholders in the design of the professional development for school leaders, to consider the 
need  for  programmes  or  providers  to  be  accredited,  and  further  developed  in  their  quality 
assurance. 

Leadership staff themselves need to recognize their own need to continue to learn throughout 
their  career,  and  the  availability  of  high  quality  self-development  programmes  is  very 
important. 

50 

 
 
For instance, the increasingly complex tasks of early childhood education and care institutions 
require the same level of attention and investment in developing leadership capacities as is the 
case  with  schools.  A  greater  degree  of  networking  and  mutual  learning  between  school 
leaders at local, national and European level can bring benefits for school leaders themselves, 
but  also  for  their  schools  and  the  education  system  as  a  whole;  such  collaboration  can 
promote  self-reflection,  encourage  further  professional  development,  facilitate  mutual 
support, disseminate policy and practice, assist the development of the profession of School 
Leadership, and mitigate some of the effects of between-school competition.  

* * * 

This  Chapter  has  highlighted  the  key  directions  to  provide  support  to  school  leaders:  while 
policies on school leadership cannot be shaped in isolation, since they are closely related to 
policies  on  curriculum,  assessment,  teacher  learning  and  school  development,  the  key  steps 
for  the  development  of  effective  policies  in  school  leadership  should  include  redefining  the 
roles  of  principals  and  senior  staff,  so  that  they  are  able  to  focus  on  improving  learning  by 
teaching  staff  and  students;  reinforcing  recruitment  and  retention  of  school  leaders  in 
particular  through    succession  planning,  to  ensure  that  potential  leaders  are  identified  and 
trained  early  in  their  careers;  and  the  development  and  provision  of  efficient  professional  
paths.
development 

51 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
5. 

SUPPORTING TEACHER EDUCATORS: TEACHING THE TEACHERS  

Teacher  educators  are  crucial  for  the  quality  of  the  teaching  workforce,  and  too  often 
neglected  in  policy-making.  It  is  they  who  are  present  at  every  stage  of  the  teacher’s  life-
cycle,  teaching  and  guiding  them;  it  is  they who  should  model  and  exemplify  in  their  daily 
teaching  what  it  means  to  be  a  professional  learner-centred  teacher;  and  it  is  they  who 
undertake the key research that develops our understanding of teaching and learning.  

Peer Learning has provided new insights into the state of play and policy pointers for support 
to teacher educators. All Member States have scope to make a significant improvement in the 
quality  of  teaching,  by  improving  the  ways  they  select  and  educate  those  who  educate 
teaching  staff.  Policy  actions  should  aim  at  better  defining  the  role  and  the  competences  of 
quality teacher educators to improve their positive impact on teachers’ teaching.  

5.1 Towards a coherent and comprehensive policy in support of teacher educators42 

The  2009  Council  Conclusions  on  the  professional  development  of  teachers  and  school 
leaders  underline  that  those  responsible  for  educating  teachers  –  and  indeed  for  educating 
teacher  educators  –  should  themselves  have  attained  a  high  academic  standard  and  possess 
solid  practical  experience  of  teaching,  as  well  as  the  competences  which  good  teaching 
requires. 

However, in most Member States there is little explicit policy provision either to define what 
quality  means  in  the  work  of  a  teacher  educator,  or  what  are  academic  and  professional 
development requirements. Few Member States have set standards for Teacher Educators or 
defined the competences required to be allowed to work as a teacher educator. And yet, the 
coherent definition of the role and competences of quality teacher educators has the potential 
for  huge  impact  upon  the  quality  of  teachers’  teaching,  as  well  as  upon  developing 
knowledge,  research  and  innovation  on  how  to  achieve  the  shift  to  learning  outcome-based 
systems and assess learning appropriately.  

The  apparently  simple  job  title  hides  many  different  realities:  Higher  Education  academics 
with  a  responsibility  for  Teacher  Education,  research,  subject  studies  or  didactics;  teaching 
practice supervisors, school mentors,  induction tutors and networks of induction supporters; 
those in charge of teaching staff’s continuous professional development - all of these play a 
part in educating teachers. 

They  work  in  multiple  contexts  (universities,  schools,  private  sector,  trade  unions),  often 
having little contact with those in another - which may lead to inconsistencies in programme 
content and delivery, thus potentially undermining the effectiveness of teaching and training.  

42 

Educators’, 

Sources:  Murray,  J.  (2012)  Presentation  at  peer  learning  conference  ‘Education2:  Policy  support  for 
Teacher 
2012.  
European Commission ‘Perspectives on Teacher Educator policies in European countries: an overview’. 
Working Document prepared for the peer learning conference 'Education²: Policy support for Teacher 
Educators', 
Caena. 
2012. 
Swennen, A., Jones, K., Volman, M. ‘Teacher educators: their identities, sub-identities and implications 
for professional development’. Professional Development in Education, 36,  2010 

Francesca 

Brussels, 

Brussels 

Author: 

March 

March 

26-28 

52 

 
 
                                                            
Policy  support  for  those  who  educate  school  teachers  can  be  defined  as  under-  or  un-
developed; in most countries, for those who educate early education and training staff, adult 
educators and VET trainers it is even lower on the policy agenda. 

The first step is to ensure that policy actions cover all those engaged in the task of educating 
teachers.  A  recent  survey  found  that  in  several  countries  there  is  no  clear  understanding  of 
who performs this task: that might mean, for example, no single body with responsibility for 
professional  standards  related  to  the  recruitment  or  selection  of  teacher  educators.  The 
common understanding reached during peer learning activities was that all those who actively 
facilitate  the  (formal)  learning  of  teachers,  including  university  academic  staff,  CPD 
educators  as  well  as  school-based  teacher  educators  should  be  considered  as  teacher 
educators.  However,  this  broad  understanding  seems  to  operate  in  only  seven  countries 
(Austria,  Ireland,  Norway,  Hungary,  Luxembourg,  Netherlands,  Slovenia).  In  others,  only 
university staff teaching pedagogy and didactics are considered as teacher educators (e.g. in 
Croatia).  Initial  Teacher  Education  and  CPD  can  also  be  seen  as  quite  separate  activities  in 
terms of providers, trainers, standards and curricula (e.g. in Poland). 

Recent research outlines four identities of teacher educators: as school teachers, teachers in 
higher education, researchers and teachers of teachers. The divide in perspectives on and by 
teacher educators is affected by location (within academia or practice) and by responsibilities 
(university  research  or  teaching).  Status  issues  and  tensions  between  teacher  educators  with 
different qualifications, subject specialisations, and training contexts, often arise because of 
lack of clarity and coordination about different roles in schools and universities.  

From  a  policy  perspective,  it  is  unlikely,  in  any  one  country,  that  all  those  involved  in 
educating  teaching  staff  can  be  considered  (by  themselves  and  others)  as  a  single, 
homogenous  professional  body.  Fragmentation  is  reflected  by  the  features  of  teacher 
educators’ work, as discussed in the European Commission’s peer learning conference on the 
Teacher  Education  profession  (Education2:  Policy  Support  for  Teacher  Educators,  Brussels, 
26-28 March 2012).43 

For instance, Teacher Educators in schools may have little contact with those in universities 
(or  other  Teacher  Education  Institutions),  while  university  teaching  staff  in  subject 
departments  often  have  limited  professional  dialogue  with  their  colleagues  in  faculties  or 
departments  of  education.  This  has  serious  implications  for  the  development  and  sharing  of 
knowledge,  the  relevance  and  accuracy  of  what  is  taught,  and  the  coherence  of  support 
student teachers receive for competence development.  

Likewise,  teacher  educators  in  the  Faculty  of  Education  of  a  university  (or  another  Higher 
Education  Institution)  may  see  their  roles  differently  from  those  in  other  Faculties.  Finally, 
the  recruitment,  selection,  education  and  professional  development  of  different  groups  of 
Teacher  Educators  may  be  the  responsibility  of  different  actors  (e.g.  universities,  schools, 
government departments). 

43 

http://ec.europa.eu/education/school-education/teacher-educator_en.htm  

53 

 
 
                                                            
Available evidence and peer learning seems to suggest therefore that teacher educators, face 
several  interlinked  challenges,  which  significantly  impact  upon  their  ability  to  provide  the 
highest possible quality of education for the teaching workforce: 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

lack  of  consensus  on  minimum  competence  or  qualification  requirements,  linked 
with quality control and selection into the profession; 

absent  or  limited  support  and  regulations  about  initial  training,  induction  and  CPD 
for teacher educators; 

lack  of  systemic  and  effective  collaboration  between  different  stakeholders, 
institutions and teacher educators; 

no overview of specific professional characteristics of teacher educators by Member 
State authorities; 

weak conceptualisations, identities and status;   

limited  or  no  formal  recognition,  regulations  or  standards  concerning  teacher 
educators’ professionalism, and 

heterogeneity  of  profiles,  qualifications,  experiences,  settings,  identities  and 
institutional constraints. 

The following systemic variables, which affect teacher educator policies and practices, entail 
major issues that Member States need to address:  

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

degrees of control and support at the state, regional and local levels for policies on 
teacher educators (including availability of budget); 

institutional responsibilities and roles for quality in teacher education; 

types and dimensions of institutional contexts and settings; 

degrees  of  definition  of  teacher  educators’  profiles,  requirements  and  career  paths 
(i.e. in Higher Education Institutions, schools, CPD), and 

school teaching levels and subject areas. 

5.2 Competences of teacher educators: much more than teachers44 

The  issue  of  teacher  educators’  professional  competences  is  of  paramount  importance:  if 
teachers are the most important in-school factor influencing the quality of students’ learning, 
the competences of those who educate and support teachers must be of the highest order. 

However, the teaching of teacher educators cannot be equated with classroom teaching. They 
are  required  to  deploy  specific,  additional  competences,  which  set  them  apart  from  other 
teaching  staff  or  academics.  In  fact,  their  competences  have  to  do  not  only  with  first-order 
knowledge  –  about  schooling,  as  related  to  specific  subject  areas  –  but  also  second-order 
knowledge – about teacher education itself, teachers as adult learners and related pedagogies, 
as well as organizational knowledge of their own and their student teachers’ workplaces.  

44 

Sources: Snoek, M., Swennen, A. and van der Klink, M. (2009) ‘The quality of teacher educators in the 
European  policy  debate.  Actions  and  measures  to  improve  professionalism  of  teacher  educators’. 
Presented at ATEE Conference 2009  

54 

 
 
                                                            
According  to  recent  peer  learning  conclusions,  the  following  competences  are  required  of 
teacher  educators,  mirroring  those  required  of  teachers  as  well  as  of  learners  (i.e.  key 
competences for lifelong learning): 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

first order teacher competences (competence in teaching learners); 

second order teacher competences (competence in teaching about teaching); 

knowledge development (research competences); 

system  competences  (i.e.  managing  the  complexity  of  teacher  education  activities, 
roles and relationships); 

transversal  competences  –  crossing  and  re-crossing  boundaries  of  different 
professional learning contexts, in schools and universities, within the distinctiveness 
of teacher education partnerships; 

leadership competences – inspiring teachers and colleagues; 

more widely, competences in collaborating and making connections with other areas. 

Second  order  teaching  competences  represent  distinctive  features  of  the  profession  - 
reflecting,  researching,  communicating,  modelling  and  teaching  about  the  act  of  teaching. 
The areas of expertise or knowledge required of teacher educators, according to recent peer 
learning include:  

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

pedagogy of educating teaching staff; 

educational studies, school-based education; 

(practice-based)  research,  linked  with  the  daily  realities  of  teachers  and  teacher 
educators in their working contexts; 

general didactics; 

the discipline; 

the discipline as school subject; 

the discipline didactics; and 

new skills (e.g. digital competences). 

5.3 Selecting teacher educators45 

This being the case, it is clear that careful attention must be paid to the ways in which people 
are selected to exercise the role of teacher educators. However, according to the recent survey 
discussed  in  the  peer  learning  conference,  in  most  countries  specific  qualification 
requirements for teacher educators are either lacking, or are under development or debate.  

Furthermore,  most  countries  have  no  professional  standards  or  models  of  competences  for 
teacher educators (beyond the academic competences required of all Higher Education staff). 
However, exceptions include: 

45 

European Commission ‘Perspectives on Teacher Educator policies in European countries: an overview’. 
Working Document prepared for the peer learning conference 'Education²: Policy support for Teacher 
Educators', Brussels March 2012. Author: Francesca Caena. 

55 

 
 
                                                            
• 

• 

The  Netherlands  which  has  developed  a  set  of  teacher  educator  standards,  with 
different levels of competence. There is a professional register of teacher educators. 
Joint work by the professional association VELON and a university is developing a 
specific knowledge base that describes the key elements of being a teacher educator.  

In  Belgium  (Flemish  Community)  a  developmental  profile  for  teacher  educators  in 
Teacher  Education  institutions  has  been  developed  by  one  of  the  country’s  teacher 
education networks, in consultation with other networks, and is being disseminated 
by the Flemish Association of Teacher Educators (VELOV). 

The issues of quality and selection of teacher educators are important for all Member States 
who  wish  to  improve  the  quality  of  teaching,  particularly  for  those  undergoing  education 
reforms. Efforts to define the competences of teaching staff inevitably lead to a focus on the 
competences  of  teacher  educators.  However,  teacher  educators’  roles  are  still  often  under-
valued  and  their  quality  poorly  regulated,  partly  owing  to  fragmented  and  heterogeneous 
responsibilities for their recruitment and selection. 

Where  professional  standards  are  present,  national 
requirements  about  minimum 
qualifications and experience may not be in place - hence a notable freedom of decision that 
may  be  left  to  those  in  charge  of  teacher  educator  recruitment.  There  is  an  emerging 
agreement that teacher educators should achieve a higher qualification level than those they 
teach (at least a Master, or in other cases a PhD). 

Competences  are  likely  to  differ  with  different  responsibilities,  and  requirements  should  be 
clearly  set  out  at  the  recruitment  stage,  considering  the  teacher  educator  as  a  member  of  a 
team. Useful approaches for effective teacher educator selection and recruitment can consider 
complementarity of staff within areas, strengthening partnerships, and identifying the required 
team competences, including a mix of different profiles (e.g. subject specialists, pedagogues, 
mentors). 

The  recognition  and  competences  of  school-based  teacher  educators/  mentors  require 
attention,  especially  where  reforms  impact  their  status  or  working  conditions.  In  particular, 
the induction mentor is of key importance, given the crucial professional stage of the mentee, 
as  well  as  the  time  and  commitment  required  of  the  mentor’s  role.  Those  in  charge  of 
induction for beginning teachers and those responsible for in-service CPD, however, may be 
appointed  by  different  institutions  (school  or  university),  with  a  differentiation  of  expected 
competences.  The  development  of  standards  for  school  mentors’  recruitment  could  help 
reinforce this important role.  

• 

In  Hungary,  for  example,  formal  university  education  programmes  for  Teacher 
Educators (mentors) are being introduced.  

5.4 Professional development - helping Teacher Educators to keep on learning46 

‘In  order  to  meet  the  demands  placed  on  the  profession,  all  teacher  educators  –  including 
mentors at schools – should be given the opportunity to undertake proper lifelong learning of 
their own.’  

46 

ETUCE (2008) ‘Teacher Education in Europe’. Brussels: ETUCE. 

56 

 
 
                                                            
There is the need for official initial training, systematic induction, and formal regulations in 
relation  to  professional  development,  which  is generally  dependent  on institutional  policies; 
formal  training  and  development  for  school  mentors  ought  to  be  compulsory.  Currently, 
however, Member States rely mostly on self-directed initiatives.  

The professional development of teacher educators is generally viewed as the responsibility of 
employers  –  whether  of  academic  institutions  or  school  organisations  -  which  are  of  very 
different  kinds,  with  diverse  visions  and  practices.  Recurring  problems  include  insufficient 
funding, lack of incentives, few research opportunities in professional development, and little 
coordination between institutions.  

In some contexts there is a need to establish a new way of working with stakeholders, in order 
to overcome the divide between higher education and teaching staff.  

• 

• 

In Estonia, for example, a programme funded by the ESF supports the professional 
development  of  teacher  educators  by  organising  professional  development  courses 
and  exchange  placements  in  different  teacher  education  contexts  (e.g.  schools, 
Higher Education Institutions).  

In  Norway,  a  national  graduate  school,  NAFOL,  offers  teacher  educators  the 
opportunity  to  work  towards  higher  academic  qualifications  (PhD)  while  doing 
work-relevant research, thus raising the quality of research-based teacher education. 
The  PRAKUT  programme  aims  develop  research  expertise  and  knowledge  base  in 
Teacher  Education  and  to  improve  the  application  of  research-based  knowledge  in 
the field of school practice, linking it with teacher education. 

The  role  of  Teacher  Educators’  professional  associations,  where  they  exist,  is  key  in  taking 
forward  CPD  initiatives,  networking  and  cooperation.  Relevant  activities  may  include,  for 
example,  courses,  professional  platforms,  conferences,  meetings,  research  coordination, 
journal publications.  

• 

• 

Active professional associations for teacher educators exist in, for example, Belgium 
(Flemish Community), Hungary and the Netherlands.  

the  Netherlands  professional  association,  VELON, 

in 
The  role  of 
strengthening  self-awareness,  professional  identity  and  tools  for  professional 
development.  It  is  a  recognized  stakeholder  within  debates  on  teacher  education, 
receives  financial  support  for  relevant  projects,  and  is  in  charge  of  the  process  of 
development and revision of professional standards.  

is  key 

Reforms  promoting  systematic  quality  enhancement,  restructuring  and  cooperation  between 
different  kinds  of  teacher  education  institutions  offer  potential  for  boosting  the  quality  of 
Teacher  Educators  and  their  professional  development.  In  the  future  generation  of  EU 
education  and  training  programmes,  there  is  scope  for  supporting  continuing  professional 
development through in-service training and mobility opportunities.  

Teaching staff must help young people acquire the competences for a rapidly changing world; 
likewise,  school  curricula  and  organisational  approaches  to  education  need  to  adapt  to 
evolving  social  and  economic  needs.  So  do  teacher  educators,  who  are  responsible  for 
developing  the  knowledge,  skills  and  attitudes  of  teaching  staff;  they  must  be  ready  for 
constant updating in their own professional body of knowledge, skills and attitudes. Lifelong 

57 

 
 
learning  is  as  important  for  teacher  educators  as  it  is  for  teaching  staff  or  all  learners,  and 
provision should be structured as a coherent continuum.  

The professional quality of teacher educators is often subject to criticism. Teacher educators 
working  in  different  settings  (school,  university,  CPD)  do  not  always  share  the  same 
pedagogical views; some are perceived as too far removed from the reality of teaching, while 
others  need  to  obtain  specific  knowledge  and  skills  –  for  instance,  about  special  needs 
education and ICT applied to teaching.  

All  teacher  educators,  whatever  their  career  entry  stage  or  profile,  need  to  take  part  in  a 
suitable programme of induction into the task of educating teachers, as well as into their new 
employer  institution.  Thereafter,  they  need  access  to  high-quality  CPD  opportunities, 
throughout  their  careers  -  course-based  or  tailor-made,  formal  or  non-formal,  individual  or 
collective  –  available  within  an  adequate  supply  of  suitable  educational  and  professional 
development. The needs of different kinds of teacher educators might require specific courses 
leading to relevant qualifications – e.g. Professional or Educational Doctorates. 

5.5 Supporting collaboration for better education of teachers  

The  key  stakeholders  who  have  been  identified  in  recent  peer  learning  -  government  and 
education  authorities;  employers  of  teacher  educators  in  universities  and  schools;  teacher 
educators  themselves;  those  that  benefit  from  their  work,  i.e.  school  leaders  and  teachers; 
professional  associations  and  unions  -  need  to  be  involved  in  decisions  about  the  teacher 
educators. What is important is that these stakeholders should achieve consensus on a shared 
vision with a common understanding of the importance  of the quality of  educating teachers 
and in consequence on the actions needed to support teacher educators.  

The  peer  learning  suggests  a  number  of  systemic  conditions  that  would  enhance  the 
effectiveness of the work of teacher educators: 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Creating,  where  appropriate,    the  necessary  regulations/legislative  framework  in 
which the teacher educators can be most effective; 

safeguarding the coherence of actions increasing the quality of teacher educators; 

providing a framework of professional characteristics defining teacher educators  

setting quality criteria for the (initial and continuing) education and development of 
teacher educators; 

setting competence criteria for the selection of teacher educators; 

regularly assessing the quality of teacher educators, and 

providing  adequate  Initial  Education,  induction  and  CPD  opportunities  for  teacher 
educators. 

Whilst  the  mechanisms  and  the  stakeholders  involved  may  vary  according  to  national 
contexts, some of these key conditions are still not present in many cases – often because of 
unclear or divided responsibilities or insufficient organisation of teacher educators to present 
co-ordinated opinions or views.   

58 

 
 
5.6. Reinforcing the knowledge base on teacher education47 

Teacher  educators  should  be  involved  both  in  theory  and  in  practice,  in  dialogue  between 
teaching  and  research,  and  maintain  a  good  balance  of  all  these  aspects.  More  and  better 
knowledge on teacher educators’ learning is needed, in order to ensure that induction or CPD 
activities have the greatest impact on their quality.  

There  is  a  growing  need  for  research  related  to  pedagogy,  teaching  and  teacher  education. 
Although  relevant  international  literature  output  has  increased  in  the  last  five  years,  the 
amount of research on teacher education policies and teacher educators is limited: “…there is 
still little empirical research which focuses directly on the professional learning of this unique 
group.  Policy  documents  about  teacher  education  rarely  include  a  strong  focus  on  their 
professional development”.  

The  question  concerning  the  domains  of  teacher  educator  knowledge,  and  thus  the  kind  of 
teacher  educators  needed  to  scaffold  and  support  teachers’  knowledge  construction,  is  not 
straightforward, for a social activity like teaching or training; many diverse teacher education 
paradigms and perspectives can (co)exist in different cultural contexts.  

Particular  types  of  scholarship  and  research  are  related  to  the  profession’s  dual  nature,  as 
linked  with  multiple  professional  learning  contexts  (i.e.  universities  and  schools)  and  the 
development  of  teacher  competences.  For  instance,  the  development  of  practical  theorizing 
skills with students and teachers needs particular support. Also the specificities of workplace 
learning,  as  well  as  the  role  of  experiential  learning,  can  require  a  deeper  understanding, 
useful to enhance both quality and professional development of teacher educators. 

* * * 

This  Chapter  has  aimed  to  bring  together  available  knowledge  on  the  situation  of  teacher 
educators  suggesting  that  there  is  large  scope  to  improve  the  general  quality  of  teaching  by 
targeting those who educate teachers.  Policy actions should start by clarifying  who can and 
should perform these tasks. Further steps should include defining their competences including 
explicit  and  competence-based  entry  criteria  and  improving  the  ways  they  are  selected  and 
educated.  In  each  education  system,  there  should  be  a  place  for  professional  development 
opportunities,  conceived  specifically  to  meet  the  needs  of  teacher  educators.  Effective 
professional  collaboration  between  teacher  educators  working  in  different  settings  (HE 
discipline  departments,  HE  education  departments,  schools,  local  authorities,  private  sector) 
needs to also be actively promoted by education authorities.  

47 

Murray, J. & Harrison, J. Editorial. European Journal of Teacher Education, 31 (2), May 2008. 
59 

 
 
                                                            
6. TEN KEY ACTIONS TO SUPPORT THE TEACHING PROFESSIONS 

A more effective and efficient use of public funds must include coherent and comprehensive 
systems  for  the  recruitment,  selection,  education,  induction  and  career-long  individualised 
professional development of the teaching professions.  

This  section  suggests  ten  key  policy  pointers  for  action,  based  on  the  main  findings  of  this 
Staff Working Document. The policy rationale, evidence and examples of good practices are 
provided in the corresponding chapters of this Document.  

The  diversity  in  country  situations  highlight  the  need  to  tailor  these  policy  pointers  in 
accordance  with  national  and  sub-national  circumstances:  Member  States  are  best  placed  to 
target their education policies and investments, including the Structural Funds and other EU 
programmes, to address the systemic challenges facing their teaching professions: 

6.1   At Member State level 

Five key actions to support teachers and trainers: 

Since  teaching  staff  are  the  most  important  in-school  factor  affecting  student  outcomes, 
targeting  them  is  likely  to  bring  the  biggest  returns  in  terms  of  efficiency  of  education 
systems.  In  order  to  attract,  educate  and  retrain  high-quality  teaching  staff,  it  is  essential  to 
focus on coherent and coordinated provision, including high quality initial teacher education, 
systemic  support  for  beginning  teaching  staff,  and  individualised  career-long  professional 
development:  

• 

Define the competences and qualities required of teachers. Teaching competences 
are  complex  combinations  of  knowledge,  skills,  understanding,  values  and  attitudes, 
leading  to  effective  action  in  situation,  and  thus  is  likely  to  resonate  differently  in 
different  national  contexts.  However,  the  starting  point  for  teacher  education  and 
professional  development  should  always  be  a  shared  understanding  of 
the 
competences and qualities that teaching staff require to start, and progress, within the 
profession.  Evidence  points  to  the  need  to  develop  frameworks  or  profiles  of 
professional  competences  based  on  teachers’  learning  outcomes.  In  spite  of  national 
differences,  a  basic  overview  outlining  possible  ways  to  describe  the  core  fields  of 
competence  of  teaching  staff  can  already  be  established  and  is  provided  in  this 
Document  (see  section  3.)  Those  countries  which  are  starting  to  develop  such  a 
definition of competences are invited to draw on this example.  

Countries where competence descriptions already exist should focus on refining them 
and  defining  the  different  levels  of  competences  required  at  different  stages  in  a 
teacher’s career, or in different teaching areas or levels.  

Countries  where  progression  through  the  salary  scale  is  based  upon  inputs  (e.g. 
number of hours of training attended) will wish to establish transparent criteria based 
upon  outcomes  (e.g.  additional  competences  acquired  or  developed)  for  successfully 
evaluating staff performance in each of the teaching professions, and setting standards 
and reference points.   

60 

 
 
The  framework  of  professional  competences  must  be  used  as  the  basis  for  other 
policies throughout the whole education system, across all its levels and branches, and 
constantly  up-dated 
technological 
developments.  For  this  reason  it  requires  intensive  co-operation  within  broad 
partnerships  involving  government,  regional  authorities  with  education-related 
competences, and representatives of the teaching professions and other stakeholders.  

latest  pedagogical,  societal  and 

to  reflect 

• 

• 

Establishing competence frameworks does not necessary require significant financial 
investment.  Furthermore,  their  multiple  uses  -  as  a  resource  in  teacher  education,  a 
guide  to  help  teachers  identify  their  personal  priorities  for  professional  learning  and 
development,  a  starting  point  for  school  development  activities,  and  a  guide  in 
recruitment and selection procedures - can bring significant gains from more efficient 
investment. 

to  differ  significantly  across  Member  States 

Re-design recruitment systems to select the best into teaching. The policy response 
will  need 
to  address  specific 
vulnerabilities.  In  countries  with  significant  teacher  shortages,  policies  will  need  to 
address the attractiveness of the profession, strengthen teacher education programmes 
and review incentives for students/ graduates to enter the profession. The challenge to 
recruit  new  staff  is  not  merely  to  fill  vacant  posts,  but  to  find  best  candidates.  The 
crisis  creates  some  opportunities  in  this  regard;  some  Member  States  have  already 
begun  putting  in  place  programmes  and  incentives  to  recruit  the  best  graduates  into 
teaching. 

Countries with a decreasing school-age population will need to ensure that the number 
of  graduates  leaving  teacher  education  programmes  matches  demand  and  thus  does 
not result in high individual and social costs.  

Along  with  the  appropriate  quality  assurance  measures,  a  competence  framework 
should  be  the  basis  for  re-engineering  recruitment  systems.  The  issue  of  gender 
balance in different education levels and sectors should be addressed through specific 
measures and incentives.  

Countries,  especially  those  in  which  teaching  staff  have  civil  servant  status,  need  to 
find the right balance between offering teachers job security and ensuring workforce 
flexibility. Countries which offer predominately fixed-term contracts need to focus on 
reinforcing its security and on increasing the general  attractiveness  of the profession 
through clear progression paths based on transparent criteria.  

All countries should put in place mechanisms to allow for high quality candidates to 
enter  the  profession  in  mid-career,  to  bring  in  specific  skills  and  expertise,  and  help 
the teaching workforce adapt to rapidly changing needs.  

Salaries – both entry-level salaries and the time taken to reach the top of the scale - are 
an  important  influence  on  the  overall  attractiveness  of  the  profession  in  many 
countries.  However,  investing  solely  in  raising  teacher  salaries  is  not  necessarily  the 
most efficient way to improve student attainment    

Ensure systematic induction support for new teachers. All beginning teaching staff 
should  take  part  in  a  systematic  programme  of  personal  and  professional  support 
(‘induction’)  in  their  first  years.  This  need  not  necessarily  entail  significant  extra 
costs;  some  Member  States  already  have  some  elements  of  such  a  system  (e.g. 
mentoring)  in  place.  Investment  must  be  also  judged  in  relation  to  the  returns: 
induction  support  and  systematic  guidance  for  beginning  teachers  has  critical 
implications  for  their  subsequent  professional  commitment;  it  has  the  potential  to 
tackle skills deficits in teaching; to improve school and teacher performance; to make 

61 

 
 
teaching  more  attractive,  and,  crucially,  to  prevent  new  and  expensively-trained 
teachers from leaving the profession early.  

To  be  effective,  induction  support  must  be  delivered  as  a  coherent  programme.  It 
should  provide  beginning  teaching  staff  with  personal/  emotional,  social  and 
professional  support  –  through  for  example  mentoring,  peer  support/learning,  expert 
feedback and self-reflection.  

Countries that already have some form of induction programme should seek to fill any 
gaps to ensure, for example, that it offers effective professional and personal support 
to  all  beginning  teachers  and  at  all  levels  of  education  (pre-primary,  primary  and 
general secondary education).  

In  countries  without  systematic  induction,  the  design  and  implementation  of  an 
induction  programme  should  be  based  upon  a  clear  definition  of  the  roles  and 
responsibilities of all the stakeholders involved, harnessing the commitment of school 
leaders and well-trained mentors to create supportive environments and collaborative 
learning cultures in schools.  

The development of effective induction policy measures should involve all key actors 
(beginning teaching staff, school leaders, staff and mentors in practice schools, teacher 
educators, trade unions, policy makers and so on).  

A  regular  review  and  evaluation  of  induction  policies  and  provision  is  necessary  to 
ensure that they continue to meet the needs of beginning teachers. 

Finally, national induction programmes should be seen as the first part of career-long 
system of continuous professional development.   

• 

Review in-service learning provision, to ensure that teachers take part in career-
long collaborative professional learning.   

Especially  in  the  current  circumstances  of  limited  budgetary  possibilities,  countries 
should review and adapt their offer of in-service learning opportunities to maximise its 
impact  upon  learner  attainment,  and  its  relevance  to  teachers’  individual  needs  for 
professional  development.  Teacher  learning  should  be  part  of  the  overall  school 
development  plan  and  be  seen  as  an  integral  part  of  teacher’s  regular  professional 
activities.  Passive  off-site  learning  should  be  replaced  by  collaborative  professional 
development  activities  which  focus  on  improving  pupil  learning.  The  use  of  virtual 
mobility  (such  as  the  EU’s  eTwinning  action  and  the  upcoming  EPALE  (European 
Platform  for  Adult  Learning  in  Europe)  and  of  open  education  resources  should  be 
explored, especially in circumstances of severely limited budgets.  

More favourable financial conditions should allow Member States to further promote 
in-service learning by introducing a compulsory element for professional development 
in  school  development  plans,  and  by  providing  greater  incentives  for  participation 
through salary or allowance increases.  

• 

Base teacher development on regular feedback on their performance.  

Meaningful  feedback  on  teachers’  performance  is  a  fundamental  aspect  of  effective 
professional  development  systems  and  is  cost-effective  in  improving  the  quality  of 
teaching;  but  in  several  Member  States,  teachers  receive  only  limited  feedback  on 
their performance; these countries should focus on putting in place a regular review of 
teachers’ learning needs within the context of the schools' development plan.  

Feedback, based upon monitoring of teachers' and learners’ progress during the year, 
should  provide  guidance  and  support  to  help  teachers  build  on  their  strengths  and 

62 

 
 
overcome  any  weaknesses.  It  should  be  supported  by  appropriate  professional 
development activities.  

Feedback  should  be  set  within  an  evaluation  system  that  establishes  a  framework  of 
standards  defining  what  knowledge,  skills,  behaviour,  attitudes  and  results  are 
required of a competent teacher. 

Three key actions to strengthen school leadership 

Educational leadership determines the overall ethos of educational institutions, the motivation 
of  staff,  the  depth  of  their  continuing  professional  learning,  and  the  quality  of  teaching  and 
learning:  

• 

Allow  school  leaders  to  focus  on  improving  learning,  not  on  administration. 
School  leaders  exert  a  key  influence  on  learner  achievement.  But  in  most  countries, 
leaders’ administrative activities have taken over an increasing share of their activities, 
significantly undermining the attractiveness of the profession. This calls for a number 
of  actions:  explicit  definition  of  the  roles  of  education  leaders;  developing 
administrative  support  mechanisms;  and  re-evaluating  the  administrative  burden  put 
on education and training institutions.  

Redefinition of the roles of school leaders should result in strengthened responsibility 
for  ensuring  quality  learning  and  teaching;  better  communication  with  students  and 
parents  and  stronger  links  with  key  partners  including  business  and  regional/  local 
authorities; these roles should be supported with professional development measures.  

• 

Reinforce  recruitment  and  retention  of  school  leaders.  Recruitment  and  retention 
of the right staff for leadership positions is a challenge for many Member States.  

As with teaching staff, the imminent retirement of many school heads, and the impact 
of  the  crisis,  bring  both  a  major  loss  of  experience  and  an  opportunity  to  recruit  a 
greater  number  of  more  suitable  candidates.  All  countries,  but  in  particular  those 
facing significant renewal of staff, should invest in greater collaborative work between 
all  education  stakeholders  which  can  significantly  help  to  find  relevant  solutions 
within  budgetary  possibilities.  Several  measures,  which  do  not  always  require 
significant  financial  resources,  can  help  Member  States  render  the  recruitment  and 
retention  policies  more  effective:  reaching  a  common  understanding  about  the  role 
school leaders are expected to play and the professional values and competences they 
should  possess;  establishing  transparent  and  consistent  criteria  for  assessing 
candidates;  and  putting  in  place  mechanisms  to  identify  potential  leaders  and  train 
them  early  in  their  careers.  These  measures  can  also  help  to  address  the  gender 
imbalance.  

• 

Develop  efficient  professional  development  paths  for  school  leadership.  School 
leadership  requires  constant  adaptation  to  changing  responsibilities  (including 
managing  financial  and  human  resources)  and  high  professional  values  and 
competences.   

Programmes for educational leadership can significantly increase the attractiveness of 
the  profession.  They  should:  include  an  induction  period  with  strengthened  support 
during  the  first  years  of  the  leadership  career;  lead  to  the  acquisition  of  specified 
leadership  competences;  respond  to  the  specific  development  needs  of  each 
participant; and be based on active learning through a variety of teaching and learning 
methods  (e.g.  self-reflection,  coaching,  peer  learning  communities  and  networks, 
research).  The  monitoring  and  evaluation  of  staff  as  well  as  team  building  and 
collaboration with external partners should be important features of these professional 

63 

 
 
learning  programmes;  outreach  and  co-operation  with  the  world  of  business  is 
particularly important for school-leaders in VET and adult education. The experience 
of several Member States can offer examples of good practice in the development of 
effective leadership at all levels of education and training systems. 

Two key actions to support teacher educators: 

The  selection  and  professional  development  of  those  who  educate  teachers  is  a 
prerequisite  for  raising  the  quality  of  teaching  and  improving  learning  outcomes. 
Teacher  educators  guide  teaching  staff  at  all  stages  in  their  careers,  model  good 
practice, and undertake the key research that develops our understanding of teaching 
and learning:  

• 

• 

Develop  an  explicit  profile  of  the  competences  required  by  teacher  educators. 
Reforms  that  enhance  the  quality  of  teacher  educators  can  make  a  significant 
improvement  to  the  general  quality  of  teaching  and  therefore  raise  pupil  attainment. 
Countries which have not already done so need to define explicitly what competences 
are  required  by  any  professional  involved  in  the  initial  or  continuous  education  of 
teachers,  in  whichever  institutional  setting  they  may  work.  The  competences  should 
encompass  both  first order and second order competences:  the  former includes basic 
teaching,  research 
includes 
teaching  competences; 
competences,  pedagogy  and,  didactics.  The  knowledge  base  about  the  education  of 
teaching  professionals  and  teacher  educators  is  also  insufficient  and  should  be 
developed through research and analysis. Member States should specify competence-
based  criteria  for  entry  into  the  profession,  and  offer  specific  professional 
development opportunities.  

teaching  about 

latter 

the 

Reinforce  collaboration  between  all  the  key  actors  in  all  phases  of  teacher 
education. Effective professional collaboration between teacher educators working in 
different  settings  (Higher  Education  subject  departments  and  departments  of 
Education,  Pedagogy  or  Didactics,  schools,  training  or  adult  education  centres,  local 
authorities, private sector) is vital for the relevance and accuracy of what is taught and 
therefore must be reinforced. To this end, the opinions of teacher educators should be 
heard and taken into account: education policies should thus support, as appropriate, 
the development of groupings and networks, to ensure that the teacher educators are 
fully represented in social and professional dialogues. 

6.2  At European Commission level 

The Commission can contribute to the efforts of Member States and other stakeholders in the 
ten key areas for action described above, by:   

• 

• 

Providing more detailed policy advice, based on a strengthened knowledge base. 
In  order  to  facilitate  exchange  between  policy  makers,  practitioners,  researchers  and 
other  stakeholders,  the  Commission  will  strengthen  peer  learning  and  expert 
collaboration across the priority fields identified in this Document, with the necessary 
differentiation to address country-specific requirements; 

Focusing  the  EU  education  and  training  programme  2014-2020  on  actions  with 
potential  systemic  impact  and  multiplier  effects  on  the  teaching  professions,  e.g. 
through  strategic  partnerships  bringing  together  key  stakeholders  for  innovative 
solutions;  through  targeted  mobility  of  teachers  and  teaching  professionals  to  learn 
from their peers’ and also outside the school environment. The Erasmus for All Sector 
Skills  Alliances  and  Knowledge  Alliances,  as  well  as  the  new  Marie  Skłodowska 

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Curie  programme,  will  provide  the  impetus  for  partnerships  between  education, 
business and research which can help support the teaching professions;  

Supporting  a  School  Leadership  Policy  Network  to  facilitate  exchange  between 
national  policy  makers,  practitioners,  researchers  and  other  stakeholders,  to  mediate 
and  disseminate  the  fruits  of  research  and  to  stimulate  the  development  of  national 
networks for school leadership; 

Exploit  the  work  of  the  High  Level  Group  on  Modernising  Higher  Education, 
which in its first year will focus on excellence in teaching, looking at existing policy 
and institutional practices prior to making recommendations in 2013 to support policy 
reforms and innovations to promote excellence in teaching all over Europe. 

Extending  European  virtual  communication  and  cooperation  between  schools 
professionals. Extend the eTwinning action to cover teachers, teacher educators and 
student  teaching  staff,  as  well  as  provide  a  web  environment  for  exchange  between 
policy makers and a channel of communication with the school community.  

team  building  and  professional  exchange  and 
Supporting  networking, 
development  among  adult  educators:  through  a  new  electronic  platform  -  EPALE, 
European Platform for Adult Learning in Europe. 

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