Teachers and Trainers

In the Conclusions of the European Council of 15 November 2007 on improving the quality of teacher education, Ministers responsible for Education agreed as follows:

• to provide initial education, early career support (induction) and further professional development that is coordinated, coherent, adequately resourced and quality assured;
• to improve the quality of teacher education;
• to make the teaching profession a more attractive career choice,

Amongst other things, it was agreed that teachers should:

• possess pedagogical skills as well as specialist knowledge of their subjects;
• have access to effective early career support programmes at the start of their career;
• have sufficient incentives throughout their careers to review their learning needs and to acquire new knowledge, skills and competence;
• be able to teach key competences and to teach effectively in heterogeneous classes;
• engage in reflective practice and research;
• be autonomous learners in their own career-long professional development.

Outputs of the 'Teachers and Trainers' Peer Learning Cluster:

The Cluster adopts a peer learning approach to policy cooperation.

Its PLAs have so far produced policy conclusions on these themes:

• Teachers’ continuous professional development; 
• Schools as communities in which teachers as well as pupils are learning;
• Preparing teachers to teach in culturally diverse classroom settings;
• Effective relationships between schools and teacher education institutions; 
• The induction of beginning teachers.

Background