What does a good teacher look like? It's a good question, and one that the British Council is constantly asking itself in order to support the teachers, teacher educators and educational partners we work with around the world. What are the skills, knowledge and attributes that teachers can acquire and develop over the lifetime of their careers?
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Framework for teachers
One of the tools we use to try and answer this question is our CPD Framework for teachers – describing teacher skills, knowledge and attributes through the professional practices and in relation to the developmental stages detailed.
Download the CPD Framework
The revised CPD Framework for teachers is grounded in the evidence provided by the British Council's 2025 report: What’s changed in English Language Teaching?, which looks at how the field of English language teaching has evolved over the last ten years.
How can you use the framework?
The framework recognises the need for teachers to be lifelong learners, and can be used at any point in your teaching career as a tool to enable you to understand and plan your own development. If you're a teacher educator, the framework can also support you in the creation of training and learning resources for teachers.
How is the framework organised?
The framework consists of 11 deeply interconnected professional practices that provide a description of knowledge, skills, behaviours and attributes that you can develop and put into practice in your context. You can start anywhere on the framework, depending on the areas you wish to develop at a particular point in time.
The professional practices are grouped in the following way:
- Subject knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and the knowledge base for each professional practice (Knowing the subject).
- Professional practices that inform the decisions you make about teaching and learning in relation to where you are working, who you are teaching, and how you see yourself as a teacher now and in the future (Understanding and developing my professional identity, Understanding my context, Understanding my learners).
- Professional practices that describe general teaching and learning processes (Planning lessons and courses, Managing the lesson, Assessing learning).
- Cross-cutting professional practices (Using digital technologies, Using inclusive practices, Using multilingual practices, Using 21C skills/core skills).
TeachingEnglish professional development resources for teachers are all aligned to the professional practices in the framework. Choose a professional practice below to find out more and explore professional development resources to help you boost your skills and knowledge in that area.
