TPD@Scale: Designing Teacher Professional Development with ICTs to Support System-Wide Improvement in Teaching

As teachers and schools emerge from the disruption of the pandemic and adjust to new ways of working, bringing quality teaching to scale is critically important in all public education systems. Teacher professional development (TPD) is a strong component in this sustainable transformation of teaching and learning to meet the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 4. 

This working paper from the TPD@Scale Coalition for the Global South argues that harnessing the power of ICTs is essential to address the challenge of providing equitable, quality TPD for all teachers. Drawing on scholarship and initiatives in diverse contexts, it proposes the TPD@Scale Framework to guide the design and implementation of quality, equitable, and efficient professional development at scale. The TPD@Scale Framework is specifically concerned with meeting the professional learning needs of large numbers of teachers with diverse characteristics and skills, many of whom have access to limited resources and poor social conditions of work. 

Educators are already utilizing ICTs in TPD in resource constrained contexts but implementers often struggle with selecting appropriate ICTs to work efficiently at scale in ways that retain quality and attend to equity concerns. The TPD@Scale Framework responds to these opportunities and challenges: it combines a set of core components — ideas, practices, and tools — with local flexibility. This offers space for implementers and practitioners to exercise agency in using ICTs to adapt models of TPD provision for diverse professional needs and contexts within complex education systems. 

This working paper is addressed to policy makers and funders involved in the design, planning, and implementation of large-scale TPD systems and programs. It aims to stimulate conversations on how TPD mediated by ICTs can be scaled across contexts of the Global South as part of initiatives to strengthen the quality of teaching. 

(Excerpt from the Executive Summary)