Edpractices 18
Edpractices 18
Edpractices 18
INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY
OF EDUCATION
INTERNATIONAL BUREAU
OF EDUCATION
Teacher
professional
learning and
development
by Helen Timperley
The International Academy
of Education
The International Academy of Education (IAE) is a not-for-profit
scientific association that promotes educational research, and its
dissemination and implementation. Founded in 1986, the Academy
is dedicated to strengthening the contributions of research, solving
critical educational problems throughout the world, and providing
better communication among policy makers, researchers, and
practitioners.
The seat of the Academy is at the Royal Academy of Science,
Literature, and Arts in Brussels, Belgium, and its co-ordinating centre
is at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia.
The general aim of the IAE is to foster scholarly excellence in all
fields of education. Towards this end, the Academy provides timely
syntheses of research-based evidence of international importance. The
Academy also provides critiques of research and of its evidentiary basis
and its application to policy.
The current members of the Board of Directors of the Academy
are:
Monique Boekaerts, University of Leiden, The Netherlands
(President);
Erik De Corte, University of Leuven, Belgium (Past President);
Barry Fraser, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
(Executive Director);
Jere Brophy, Michigan State University, United States of America;
Erik Hanushek, Hoover Institute, Stanford University, United
States of America;
Maria de Ibarrola, National Polytechnical Institute, Mexico;
Denis Phillips, Stanford University, United States of America.
2
Series Preface
This booklet about teacher professional learning and development has
been prepared for inclusion in the Educational Practices Series developed
by the International Academy of Education and distributed by the
International Bureau of Education and the Academy. As part of its
mission, the Academy provides timely syntheses of research on educational
topics of international importance. This is the eighteenth in a series of
booklets on educational practices that generally improve learning.
This particular booklet is based on a synthesis of research evidence
produced for the New Zealand Ministry of Educations Iterative Best
Evidence Synthesis (BES) Programme, which is designed to be a catalyst
for systemic improvement and sustainable development in education.
This synthesis, and others in the series, are available electronically at
www.educationcounts.govt.nz/themes/BES. All BESs are written using a
collaborative approach that involves the writers, teacher unions, principal
groups, teacher educators, academics, researchers, policy advisers, and
other interested parties. To ensure its rigour and usefulness, each BES
follows national guidelines developed by the Ministry of Education.
Professor Helen Timperley was lead writer for the Teacher Professional
Learning and Development: Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration [BES], assisted
by teacher educators Aaron Wilson and Heather Barrar and research
assistant Irene Fung, all of the University of Auckland. The BES is an
analysis of 97 studies of professional development that led to improved
outcomes for the students of the participating teachers. Most of these
studies came from the United States, New Zealand, the Netherlands, the
United Kingdom, Canada, and Israel. Dr Lorna Earl provided formative
quality assurance for the synthesis; Professor John Hattie and Dr Gavin
Brown oversaw the analysis of effect sizes.
Helen Timperley is Professor of Education at the University of
Auckland. The primary focus of her research is promotion of professional
and organizational learning in schools for the purpose of improving
student learning. She has published widely on this subject in peer-
reviewed journals, including the Review of Research in Education, Journal
of Curriculum Studies, Journal of Educational Change, and Teaching and
Teacher Education. She has also written four books in her specialist areas
for practitioner audiences.
The officers of the International Academy of Education are aware
that this booklet is based on research carried out primarily in economically
advanced countries. The booklet, however, focuses on practices likely to
be generally applicable throughout the world. Even so, the principles
should be assessed with reference to local conditions and adapted
accordingly.
3
In any educational or cultural context, suggestions or guidelines for
practice must be responsive to that context and open to continuing
evaluation. The inquiry model presented in this summary provides a tool
to help teachers and teacher educators adapt and build upon the findings
of this synthesis in their own contexts.
JERE BROPHY,
Editor, Michigan State University,
United States of America
4
Table of Contents
The International Academy of Education, page 2
Series Preface, page 3
Introduction, page 6
1. Focus on valued student outcomes, page 8
2. Worthwhile content, page 10
3. Integration of knowledge and skills, page 11
4. Assessment for professional inquiry, page 13
5. Multiple opportunities to learn and apply information, page 15
6. Approaches responsive to learning processes, page 17
7. Opportunities to process new learning with others, page 19
8. Knowledgeable expertise, page 20
9. Active leadership, page 22
10. Maintaining momentum, page 24
Conclusion, page 28
References, page 30
http://www.ibe.unesco.org
The authors are responsible for the choice and presentation of the
facts contained in this publication and for the opinions expressed
therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO/IBE and do
not commit the organization. The designations employed and the
presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the
expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of
UNESCO/IBE concerning the legal status of any country,
territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the
delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
5
Introduction
This booklet synthesises the research on teacher professional learning
and development that has been demonstrated to have a positive
impact on valued student outcomes. Its findings relate to teachers
who have received at least some initial teacher education and who are
in the process of deepening their knowledge and refining their skills.
The booklet should prove particularly useful to those who are
involved in helping teachers develop the professional skills they need
to teach challenging curricula to diverse students, including students
who typically have not achieved well in some of our educational
systems.
Behind the ten key principles identified in this synthesis are four
important understandings that arise from the evidence base:
1. Notwithstanding the influence of factors such as socio-economic
status, home, and community, student learning is strongly
influenced by what and how teachers teach.
2. Teaching is a complex activity. Teachers moment-by-moment
decisions about lesson content and process are shaped by
multiple factors, not just the agendas of those looking for
changes in practice. Such factors include teachers knowledge and
their beliefs about what is important to teach, how students learn,
and how to manage student behaviour and meet external
demands.
3. It is important to set up conditions that are responsive to the ways
in which teachers learn. A recent overview of the research
identified the following as important for encouraging learning:
engaging learners prior conceptions about how the world works;
developing deep factual and conceptual knowledge, organised
into frameworks that facilitate retrieval and application; and
promoting metacognitive and self-regulatory processes that help
learners define goals and then monitor their progress towards
them.
4. Professional learning is strongly shaped by the context in
which the teacher practises. This is usually the classroom, which,
in turn, is strongly influenced by the wider school culture and
the community and society in which the school is situated.
Teachers daily experiences in their practice context shape
their understandings, and their understandings shape their
experiences.
Other booklets in this series elaborate on aspects of these key
understandings. The focus of this particular booklet is on the
6
interrelated conditions for professional learning and development that
impact positively on valued student outcomes.
Helen Timperley
Suggested Readings
1. Alton-Lee, 2003; Donovan, Bransford, & Pellegrino, 1999;
Kennedy, 1998; Nye, Konstantanopoulos, & Hedges, 2004.
7
1. Focus on valued student
outcomes
Professional learning experiences that focus
on the links between particular teaching
activities and valued student outcomes are
associated with positive impacts on those
outcomes.
Research findings
An important factor influencing whether professional learning
activities have a positive impact on outcomes for students is the extent
to which those outcomes form the rationale for, and ongoing focus of,
teacher engagement. Such a focus requires teachers to understand the
links between particular teaching activities, the ways different groups
of students respond, and what their students actually learn.
Further, success needs to be defined not in terms of teacher
mastery of new strategies but in terms of the impact that changed
practice has on valued outcomes. Because teachers work in such varied
contexts, there can be no guarantee that any specific approach to
teaching will have the desired outcomes for students. For this reason,
it is important to keep progress towards the valued outcomes
constantly in view.
Professional learning opportunities that have little impact on
student outcomes typically focus on mastery of specific teaching skills
without checking whether the use of those skills has the desired effect
on students.
8
seeing improved outcomesthere is little evidence to suggest that
they can be developed independently of such improvement.
Taking responsibility
Teachers who are engaged in cycles of effective professional learning
take greater responsibility for the learning of all students; they do not
dismiss learning difficulties as an inevitable consequence of the home
or community environment. As they take more responsibility, and as
they discover that their new professional knowledge and practice are
having a positive impact on their students, they begin to feel more
effective as teachers. Like greater expectations, heightened
responsibility is developed most effectively when teachers observe that
their new teaching practices are having positive impacts on their
students.
Linking student learning issues to an expectation that teachers
will address them is likely, however, to lead to blaming and a lack of
learning unless teachers are confident that they will be given the
support they need to develop more effective practices.
9
2. Worthwhile content
The knowledge and skills developed are
those that have been established as effective
in achieving valued student outcomes.
Research findings
How can teachers teach more effectively? While some well-grounded
principles have been established (see Brophy, 1999), unproven ideas
continue to sweep through different educational jurisdictions. The
popularity of particular professional development programmes is not
necessarily matched by their impact on students.
Professional knowledge and skills that do have a positive impact
on student outcomes are consistent with evidence-based principles of
teaching effectiveness. The approaches in which they are embedded
have withstood the rigours of policy debates, have been recommended
by national school subject associations, or are based on generally
accepted research findings.
Some ineffective professional learning approaches also have been
justified on the basis of research or policy, but not research or
policy that has been adopted by a professional body or that forms part
of a wider programme of research and development.
10
3. Integration of knowledge
and skills
The integration of essential teacher
knowledge and skills promotes deep teacher
learning and effective changes in practice.
Research findings
This principle is central to meaningful change. To establish a firm
foundation for improved student outcomes, teachers must integrate
their knowledge about the curriculum, and about how to teach it
effectively and how to assess whether students have learned it.
Teachers need knowledge and skills in assessment to maintain a
student focus: the ability to identify exactly what students know and
can do is a prerequisite for teaching that is responsive to each students
needs. But teachers cannot develop their assessment knowledge in
isolation from their knowledge of pedagogical content, which is also
vital as they focus their teaching on meeting the student needs they
identify.
11
and how they view existing practice. This takes teacher diversity into
account just as we expect teachers to take student diversity into
account. If teachers have strong curriculum knowledge but weak
assessment knowledge, for example, effective approaches to
professional development will recognise this. Teachers also have very
diverse professional learning needs arising from the specific demands
that their particular students place on their teaching skills.
12
4. Assessment for professional
inquiry
Information about what students need to
know and do is used to identify what
teachers need to know and do.
Research findings
To engage in professional inquiry that makes a difference for students,
teachers need to learn how to identify the pedagogical content
knowledge and skills they need to assist their students to achieve the
valued outcomes. The core question is, What do we as teachers need
to learn to promote the learning of our students? Most models of
professional inquiry focus on structures and processes. Missing from
such models is the nature of the content or understandings to be
developed and the skills to be refined (specified through an inquiry
process) and the relationship between teacher inquiry and student
outcomes. For professional inquiry to have an impact on outcomes,
these elements are crucial.
Teachers need sophisticated assessment skills if they are to identify
(i) what their students know and can do in relation to valued
outcomes and (ii) what further learning they themselves need if they
are to assist their students in learning. Assessment of this kind cannot
take place outside of the teachinglearning processit is integral to
it. Teachers, therefore, need a variety of ways of assessing their
students progress, ways that include, but go beyond, standardised
testing. These include interviews with students about their learning,
systematic analysis of student work, and classroom observations.
13
to learn. Critical to such self-regulation is the identification of
intended outcomes and of cues that will make it possible to monitor
progress towards those outcomes. Prescribing sets of desirable
behaviours or leaving teachers to develop better practice in the
absence of clearly defined goals do not support the development of
self-regulation.
This use of assessment information is very different from
traditional uses, such as sorting and labelling students or making
summative judgments about teaching quality. Indeed, traditional
conceptions of assessment are not conducive to self-regulated inquiry:
teachers are unlikely to participate in an inquiry process in an open
and meaningful way if a less-than-desirable outcome puts their job,
pay, or reputation at risk.
14
5. Multiple opportunities to learn
and apply information
To make significant changes to their practice,
teachers need multiple opportunities to learn new
information and understand its implications for
practice. Furthermore, they need to encounter
these opportunities in environments that offer both
trust and challenge.
Research findings
Changing practice and developing the skills of professional inquiry
require in-depth understanding. For this reason, teachers need
multiple opportunities to absorb new information and translate it
into practice. Learning is cyclical rather than linear, so teachers need
to be able to revisit partially understood ideas as they try them out in
their everyday contexts.
Such opportunities should involve a variety of activities that are
designed to promote acquisition of the target knowledge and skills.
Much of the research literature privileges particular types of activity,
such as modelling and coaching, but a synthesis of the research does
not reveal that any particular activity is of itself more effective than
another. What is more important is that activities are designed and
aligned to meet the particular learning purpose.
For substantive learning, such as that involved in improving their
students reading comprehension, mathematical problem solving, or
scientific reasoning, teachers need extended time in which to learn
and change. In such cases, it typically takes one to two years for
teachers to understand how existing beliefs and practices are different
from those being promoted, to build the required pedagogical content
knowledge, and to change practice. Given that teachers engaged in
professional learning are simultaneously maintaining a teaching
workload, and that many of their existing assumptions about effective
practice are being challenged, it is not surprising that so much time is
required. Time, however, is not a sufficient condition for change:
teachers also need to have their current practice challenged and to be
supported as they make changes.
15
as it is about knowledge and skills. Expectations for change can touch
raw nerves if teachers take them as reflections on their competence or
challenges to their professional identity. If emotional issues are ignored,
teachers may close themselves off to learning and adopt defensive
postures to avoid exposing their inadequacies. At the opposite extreme,
if professional vulnerabilities are allowed to dictate the learning agenda,
then outcomes for students are unlikely to improve.
All learning activities require the twin elements of trust and
challenge. Little professional learning takes place without challenge.
Change, however, involves risk; before teachers take on that risk, they
need to trust that their honest efforts will be supported, not belittled.
16
6. Approaches responsive
to learning processes
The promotion of professional learning
requires different approaches depending on
whether or not new ideas are consistent with
the assumptions that currently underpin
practice.
Research findings
Teachers are diverse in their understandings and assumptions about
students and how they learn, what counts as valued knowledge, and
how best to teach it. How these understandings and assumptions
shape teachers responses to new information depends on the extent
to which they are consistent with, or dissonant from, the
understandings that underpin the new knowledge and skills to be
learned.
Professional learning approaches that focus primarily on building
new knowledge and skills are suitable when teachers existing
understandings are congruent with the new information and therefore
can be integrated readily into their existing practice. But when
teachers personal theories about students, valued curricula, and
effective teaching practices differ from those being promoted in the
professional learning, a different approach is needed. In the case of
mathematics and science, for example, existing curricula usually
emphasise computational and factual knowledge while new curricula
typically emphasise reasoning and problem-solving skills. This kind of
change involves more than learning new knowledge and skills. It
requires that teachers understand both the limitations of the current
emphasis and the new ways of deciding what knowledge is valued.
17
students. If they cannot be persuaded that a new approach is valuable
and be certain of support if they implement it, teachers are unlikely
to adopt itat least, not without strong accountability pressures. It is
particularly important to engage existing theories when challenging
teachers beliefs about, and expectations of, those students who have
traditionally underachieved.
Change appears to be promoted by a cyclical process in which
teachers have their current assumptions challenged by the
demonstration of effective alternative practice, develop new
knowledge and skills, make small changes to practice, and observe
resulting improvements in student outcomes. When this happens,
teachers come to expect more of their studentsthat they will learn
more quickly or deeply than they had previously believed possible.
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7. Opportunities to process
new learning with others
Collegial interaction that is focused on
student outcomes can help teachers
integrate new learning into existing practice.
Research findings
Collegial communities have been promoted as a means of improving
teaching, but research typically reveals only a weak relationship
between participation in such communities and improved student
outcomes. Yet findings from many studies suggest that participation
in a professional community with ones colleagues is an integral part
of professional learning that impacts positively on students. The
resolution of this apparent contradiction appears to be that if teachers
are to change, they need to participate in a professional learning
community that is focused on becoming responsive to students, because
such a community gives teachers opportunities to process new
information while helping them keep their eyes on the goal.
As an intervention on its own, a collegial community will often
end up merely entrenching existing practice and the assumptions on
which it is based. The research literature contains many examples of
situations where teachers were given the time and resources to meet
together to solve a problem or learn about new curricula or
pedagogical practices but where this aim was thwarted by norms of
politeness and the absence of challenge. As is the case for all other
areas of professional learning, the effectiveness of collegial interaction
needs to be assessed in terms of its focus on the relationship between
teaching practice and student outcomes. Samples of student work,
student achievement profiles, and the results of student interviews are
all resources that can be used to help maintain this focus.
19
8. Knowledgeable expertise
Expertise external to the group of
participating teachers is necessary to
challenge existing assumptions and develop
the kinds of new knowledge and skills
associated with positive outcomes for
students.
Research findings
The engagement of expertise external to the group of participating
teachers is necessary because substantive new learning requires
teachers to understand new content, learn new skills, and think about
their existing practice in new ways. An expert may come from within
the school (for example, the principal) or outside the school (for
example, a researcher).
Existing assumptions about curriculum or about what particular
groups of students are able to learn can prevent teachers from
examining how effective their own practice is in promoting student
learning. External experts need to be able to challenge assumptions
and present teachers with new possibilities; challenge the social norms
by which collegial groups operate, wherever these norms constrain
professional learning; and keep the focus on students and their
learning.
Experts need to know the content of the relevant curricula and
what teaching practices make a difference for students. They need to
be able to make new knowledge and skills meaningful to teachers and
manageable within their practice contexts, to connect theory and
practice in ways that teachers find helpful, and to develop teachers
ability to use inquiry and assessment data to inform their teaching.
Not everyone engaged in promoting teacher professional learning has
the knowledge and skills to do these things. For this reason, it is
unfortunately possible for professional development to have an
adverse impact on teacher practice and student outcomes.
Some professional developers treat teachers as technicians who
can be taught a new set of behaviours and then be expected to
implement them. This approach ignores the complexity of teaching
and disregards the need for teachers to be responsive to the learning
needs of their students. Effective teaching practice is based on a
coherent and integrated set of beliefs, knowledge, and values. External
experts who simply promote their own preferred practices are less
effective than those who involve teachers in discussing and developing
20
understandings that are meaningful in their particular practice
contexts.
Those who plan and facilitate professional development need to
support teachers as they develop the theoretical understandings and
tools that will enable them to take a self-regulated, inquiry approach
to their everyday practice.
21
9. Active leadership
Designated educational leaders have a key
role in developing expectations for
improved student outcomes and organising
and promoting engagement in professional
learning opportunities.
Research findings
In most educational jurisdictions, designated leaders have
responsibility for promoting professional learning and development
opportunities for teachers. Effective professional development may
take place outside the school environment, but if it is site-based, it is
important that leaders are actively involved.
Leaders may undertake multiple roles, depending on their
positions and expertise, but three roles appear to be crucial for gaining
and maintaining the interest of teachers and ensuring that their
learning is ongoing:
b. Leading learning
Even if leaders do not have expert understanding of the content of
new knowledge, and therefore choose to make use of external
expertise, they are responsible in several ways for managing teacher
engagement in the learning process. These include: ensuring that
22
teachers understand new information, engaging dissonance
constructively when existing assumptions are challenged, ensuring
that teachers have productive opportunities to learn, and providing
incentives for teachers to continue to enact the new learning in
practice.
Professional development led by outside experts has limitations
because these experts are not present in the school on a continuing
basis. This means that it falls to site-based leaders to help teachers
translate their new understandings into practice and to sustain the
professional inquiry process.
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10. Maintaining momentum
Sustained improvement in student
outcomes requires that teachers have
sound theoretical knowledge, evidence-
informed inquiry skills, and supportive
organizational conditions.
Research findings
Regrettably, most efforts to improve student outcomes through
professional learning and development are short-lived. For
improvement to be sustained, short-term perspectives need to be
extended to more distant horizons. Although the research base
identifying the conditions associated with long-term improvement is
somewhat thin, one thing does appear clear: sustainability depends
both on what happens during the professional learning experience and
on the organizational conditions that are in place when external
support is withdrawn.
24
Organizational conditions
Continued forward momentum also depends on an organizational
infrastructure that supports professional learning and self-regulated
inquiry. It is difficult for teachers to engage in sophisticated inquiry
processes unless site-based leaders reinforce the importance of goals
for student learning, assist teachers to collect and analyse relevant
evidence of progress toward them, and access expert assistance when
required.
25
Teacher inquiry and knowledge-building
26
cycles to promote valued student outcomes
27
Conclusion
The ten principles discussed above do not operate independently;
rather, they are integrated to inform cycles of learning and action.
Figure 1 brings the principles together in a cycle of inquiry and
knowledge-building. The four questions in the boxes are framed from
the perspective of teachers and their leaders because it is they who
must answer them. But it is assumed that they will receive support to
do so: the research evidence indicates that involving external expertise
can be crucial for promoting this kind of teacher inquiry and
knowledge building.
Principle 1focus on valued student outcomesmeans that the
cycle of professional inquiry and knowledge-building begins with a
question about students learning needs. These needs are determined
by first identifying the outcomes that the community values and then
assessing how all students are doing in relation to these outcomes.
Teachers understanding of what outcomes are important and
achievable often evolves in the course of professional learning cycles as
new possibilities suggest themselves. What is important is that the
teacher always maintains a focus on the students.
Principle 2 is about teachers learning worthwhile knowledge and
skills. Those teaching approaches that have been subject to research
and wide debate are most likely to have positive impacts on student
outcomes. Teachers need to be able to answer the question, What
knowledge and skills do we as teachers need to help students bridge
the gap between current understandings and valued student
outcomes?
Principle 3 concerns the importance of integrating theory and
practice as they relate to curriculum, teaching practice, and assessment
knowledge in the areas that are the focus for professional learning.
Teaching is a complex activity in which moment-by-moment
decisions are shaped by teachers beliefs and theories about what it
means to be effective. Theoretical understandings give coherence to
these decisions.
Principle 4 identifies the need to use assessment as the basis for
professional inquiry. If student learning needs, professional learning
needs, and worthwhile content are to be aligned, teachers must be
able to discover what students already know and can do and how to
build on that knowledge in deep, rather than superficial, ways.
In the most effective professional learning, judged by student
outcomes, leaders are active participants as described in principle 9.
Leaders are responsible for setting up ongoing, useful opportunities to
28
promote teacher learning. Even when external experts are involved,
leaders still play a crucial role in developing a realistic vision of
alternative possibilities, modelling what it means to be a learner, and
managing teacher engagement in the learning process.
The circumstances in which teachers sign up for professional
learning are not as important as the conditions that promote fruitful
engagement. Principles 5, 6, 7 and 8 concern the conditions that
promote engagement in professional learning once teachers have
identified what they need to learn. Principle 5 is about providing
multiple opportunities for teachers to learn and practise new
knowledge and skills in environments characterised by trust and
challenge. Principle 6 identifies the importance of adapting
approaches to professional learning to fit the kind of new learning
involved. Principle 7 identifies the need for participating teachers to
be given opportunities to process new learning with colleagues.
Principle 8 is about the role of knowledgeable expertise in facilitating
productive professional learning.
The final stage in the cycle modelled by the diagram involves
judging the impact of changed actions on students. This stage
incorporates principle 1 (focus on valued student outcomes),
principle 2 (worthwhile content), and principle 3 (integration of
knowledge and skills). Most important are principles 4 and 10
(assessment for professional inquiry, and maintaining momentum).
The first of these focuses on teachers developing the self-regulatory
skills they need in order to judge the impact of their teaching on
valued student outcomes. Given the varied contexts in which they
work, there can be no guarantee that any specific activity will have the
anticipated result. Once the experts withdraw their support, teachers
need to be able to determine for themselves the effectiveness of their
actions. For this reason, the extent to which they develop self-
regulatory skills is one of the most powerful determinants of ongoing
improvement.
29
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31
EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES SERIES18
The International
Bureau of
EducationIBE
The IBE was founded in Geneva, Switzerland, as a
private, non-governmental organization in 1925. In
1929, under new statutes, it became the first
intergovernmental organization in the field of
education. Since 1969 the Institute has been an integral
part of UNESCO while retaining wide intellectual and
functional autonomy.
The mission of the IBE is to function as an
international centre for the development of contents
and methods of education. It builds networks to share
expertise on, and foster national capacities for
curriculum change and development in all the regions
of the world. It aims to introduce modern approaches
in curriculum design and implementation, improve
practical skills, and foster international dialogue on
educational policies.
The IBE contributes to the attainment of quality
Education for All (EFA) mainly through: (a)
developing and facilitating a worldwide network and a
Community of Practice of curriculum specialists;
(b) providing advisory services and technical assistance
in response to specific demands for curriculum reform
or development; (c) collecting, producing and giving
access to a wide range of information resources and
materials on education systems, curricula and
curriculum development processes from around the
world, including online databases (such as World Data
on Education), thematic studies, publications (such as
Prospects, the quarterly review of education), national
reports, as well as curriculum materials and approaches
for HIV & AIDS education at primary and secondary
levels through the HIV & AIDS Clearinghouse; and
(d) facilitating and fostering international dialogue on
educational policies, strategies and reforms among
decision-makers and other stakeholders, in particular
through the International Conference on Education
organized by the IBE since 1934, which can be
considered one of the main forums for developing
world-level policy dialogue between Ministers of
Education.
The IBE is governed by a Council composed of
representatives of twenty-eight Member States elected
by the General Conference of UNESCO. The IBE is
proud to be associated with the work of the
International Academy of Education and publishes this
material in its capacity as a Clearinghouse promoting
the exchange of information on educational practices.