Getting started with professional development

Welcome to TeachingEnglish, a site for teachers and teacher educators working in schools, colleges, universities or language academies. On TeachingEnglish you’ll find a huge range of resources to help with your professional development, including training courses, webinars, articles, blog posts, videos, publications, information about events and much more. Our site is free of charge.

Continuing Professional Development

Our professional development resources for teachers and teacher educators are organised using the 'professional practices' in our Continuing Professional Development frameworks. For each professional practice, you can view a range of practical articles, engaging webinar and seminar recordings, useful publications and guidance, and insightful blog posts.

There are twelve professional practices in the Continuing Professional Development framework for teachers. Choose a professional practice from the drop-down list below to see the resources.

Continuing Professional Development for teachers

Planning lessons and courses Defining aims/learning outcomes that meet learners’ needs and the course objectives, selecting and developing engaging activities, resources and materials which correspond to the aims of the lesson.

Understanding learners Making decisions about teaching and assessment by applying an understanding of learner characteristics.

Managing the lesson Managing the lesson during the class time and monitoring learner engagement to maintain motivation, establish and maintain classroom discipline, adjust plans to take advantage of opportunities for learning that emerge during lessons.

Knowing the subject Developing and demonstrating proficiency in the target language in order to provide a good model for learners, developing an awareness of language systems, selecting appropriate methodology and resources for introducing and practising specific areas of the target language and language skills.

Managing resources Selecting, developing and adapting materials and resources for the classroom

Assessing learning Applying the principles and practice of assessment to design tasks for measuring learner’s progress.

Integrating ICT Developing effective strategies for locating appropriate digital content, following guidelines for e-safety, evaluating the potential effectiveness and appropriacy of digital content.

Taking responsibility for professional development Understanding your professional needs, interests and learning preferences in order to identify areas for development.

Using inclusive practices Recognising and valuing diversity among learners, and using pedagogical strategies that encourage inclusive education within a supportive learning environment.

Using multilingual approaches Recognising and valuing the multilingual nature of societies, schools and classrooms, and using pedagogical strategies that encourage inclusive education within a supportive multilingual learning environment.

Promoting 21st century skills Developing an awareness of and proficiency in critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration and communication, creativity and imagination, citizenship, digital literacy, student leadership and personal development.

Understanding educational policies and practices Locating and utilising up-to-date and relevant information about national, regional and institutional educational policies.

There are ten professional practices and a list of 'enabling skills and self-awareness features' in the Continuing Professional Development framework for teacher educators. Choose a professional practice from the drop-down list below to see the resources.

Continuing Professional Development for teacher educators

Knowing the subject Demonstrating proficiency in the subject area, demonstrating familiarity with a range of current reference materials/sources/(online) learning platforms relevant to the subject and using these to support teacher development.

Understanding the teaching context Demonstrating familiarity with a range of current sources of information concerning national/ regional/local and institutional policies and practices

Understanding how teachers learn Demonstrating familiarity with a range of sources, resources, opportunities, key research and current theories and practice of adult learning/teacher education in order to make decisions about teacher learning.

Supporting and mentoring teachers Providing advice on a range teaching-related issues, demonstrating familiarity with current research, and encouraging teachers to engage with professional development.

Research and contributing to the profession Contributing to the understanding of the subject discipline, teaching and teacher education by externalising research.

Taking responsibility for own professional development Understanding your own professional needs, interests and learning preferences in order to identify areas for development.

Monitoring teacher potential and performance Demonstrating familiarity with theory relating to, and research into, teacher evaluation, and familiarity with a range of tools for evaluating teachers in order to make decisions to support teacher learning.

Managing and developing learning resources for teachers Developing and adapting learning resources for teachers, and making effective use of equipment and technological platforms to support learning. 

Demonstrating effective teaching behaviour Showing competence in teacher professional practices and having an understanding of the professional context in which teachers work in order to demonstrate practical teaching solutions.

Planning and managing teacher learning Demonstrating familiarity with learning activities for teachers, and applying your understanding in order to select the most appropriate learning activity. 

Enabling skills and self-awareness features These features are part of the CPD framework for teacher educators. They involve communicating effectively, teamworking skills, thinking critically, building relationships, effective organisational skills, increasing motivation, and leadership/supervisory skills.

Training

Our short courses on FutureLearn are free for anyone to sign up to. The courses are three or four weeks long and there are a range of topics, from assessing learners to planning a great lesson. Study at your own pace and communicate with other teachers from all over the world. British Council educators will answer your questions on all of the courses. See all our training courses

In addition to our free training courses on FutureLearn, we have self-access training to help you teach reading and writing, and speaking.

 Teaching reading and writing is a nine-part series of videos and tasks to help you explore different ways of developing reading and writing skills with your students. 

Teaching speaking is a series of videos and interactive exercises to help you develop your students' speaking skills.

 Teaching in low-resource classrooms is a series of videos and tasks to help you focus on managing and developing resources for low-resource contexts.

Online events

Webinars

We run a regular schedule of webinars throughout the year, featuring a range of speakers with extensive experience and expertise in English Language Teaching. See a list of upcoming webinars and watch recordings of previous sessions

World Teachers' Day

To celebrate World Teachers' Day on October 5, we run a one-day web conference in partnership with IATEFL. Featuring a wide variety of practical and topical sessions by renowned speakers, our World Teachers' Day web conference is attended by more than 5,000 educators worldwide every year. See recordings from the World Teachers' Day web conference 2020.

British Council publications

Our extensive range of publications cover a complete range of teacher development issues and research topics that are relevant globally or in specific regions and countries. All of our publications are free to download.

Resource books

We have a number of resource books to help you as a teacher and a teacher educator. From practical classroom ideas and professional development resources for teachers, to support for teacher educators on how to effectively mentor teachers, our resource books and resource packs are a great way to develop your skills. 

Case studies, insights and research

Our selection of British Council case studies, insights and research include a wide variety of books, research reports and case studies focusing on English language teaching, teacher education and language education policy. They are divided by region and topic to help you find what you need, and are all free to download.

If you have any questions or feedback about TeachingEnglish, please contact us

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Research and insight

Browse fascinating case studies, research papers, publications and books by researchers and ELT experts from around the world.

See our publications, research and insight