Conclusion

This book has provided evidence-informed insights and practical suggestions based on concrete lived experiences in different contexts to help you run high-quality and ambitious but realistic and effective professional learning programmes for your staff. I have been extremely fortunate to have worked with like-minded colleagues who developed and implemented inspiring and effective models of teacher research which were successfully disseminated and adopted across whole regions. I have also been involved with cutting-edge organisations which set up evidence-informed schemes that created wonderful opportunities for the teachers from my organisation and from other LTOs to learn deeply. I have personally seen the benefit of implementing the recommendations I have shared in this book within the organisations I have worked in and in other institutions I have supported and advised. This has ranged from small and medium-sized LTOs to Higher Education Language Departments and professional programmes for teachers at regional, national and international levels in different parts of the world. I know from my own experience and that of my colleagues that planning, implementing and evaluating deep, transferable and impactful teacher learning is by no means easy to achieve, but neither is anything that matters. It is a long-term endeavour which requires hard work, single-minded persistence, the constant and relentless application of analysis and critical evaluation skills, patient and empathetic understanding that it takes time for truly valuable teacher learning to take root, and unwavering faith in the process and in the people who embark on it. Depending on the culture of the organisation in which one works, it might also involve having to persuade the most senior leaders – often more than once – that it is an investment worth making.