This article adopts a complexity theory framework to review the literature on teachers’ professional development practices, the generative systems of these practices, and the impact that learning experiences have on their knowledge and changes in classroom practices. The review brings together multiple strands of literature on teacher professional development, teaching and learning, teacher change, and organizational learning. In doing so, it illustrates that process–product logic has dominated the literature on teacher professional learning and that this has limited explanatory ability. The review demonstrates the ways the elements of three subsystems (the teacher, the school, and the learning activity) interact and combine in different ways and with varying intensities to influence teacher learning. The limitations of studies focusing on specific elements or subsystems are highlighted. The article concludes that to understand teacher learning scholars must adopt methodological practices that focus on explanatory causality and the reciprocal influences of all three subsystems.

New styles of instruction Globalization, economic necessity, and low civic engagement compound the urgency for students to develop the skills and knowledge they need for success. The interconnectedness of our global economy, ecosystem, and political networks require that students learn to communicate, collaborate, and problem solve with people worldwide. Employers demand fewer people with basic skill sets and more people with complex thinking and communication skills (Levy & Murnane, 2005). Low levels of civic engagement highlight the recognition that rote learning about government is not a suffi cient way for students to learn how and why to be engaged citizens (Levine, 2012). But the movement toward 21st-century skillsas any movement-must defi ne its objective, to wit, the skills that comprise the movement. Based on several hundred interviews with business, nonprofi t, and education leaders, Tony Wagner (2008) Learning 21st-century skills requires 21st-century teaching ANNA ROSEFSKY SAAVEDRA

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This article introduces the Schools and Continuing Professional Development State of the Nation study (SoNS). Discussion of English policy together with an account of the study's aims and research design provide a context for the other articles included in this special issue. A key assumption behind the research, and the prevailing CPD policy context in England, is that organisational conditions in schools are highly influential in the development of sustained and effective classroom‐based, collaborative, inquiry‐oriented CPD. Therefore, the aims of the study investigated the range and kinds of support that schools in England provide as well as the range and kinds of CPD activities in which teachers were able to participate. Teachers’ professional learning practices and perspectives were researched in relation to three main themes: (a) the benefits, status and effectiveness of CPD; (b) the planning and organisation of CPD; and (c) access to CPD. These questions were explored through a mixed methods design consisting of three strands: (a) literature review; (b) qualitative research (school snapshots); and (c) a national survey of primary and secondary teachers in England. Discussion of processes and procedures of data analysis is followed by a summary of our conceptual model of schools and teachers’ CPD.

Through its positive influence on teachers' classroom practices and their students' learning, effective professional learning of teachers is an important condition for school improvement. However, the Teaching and Learning International Survey reports that teachers' professional development in most countries falls short of meeting the needs of teachers. This paper reports analysis of survey data collected for a national study of teachers' professional development in England, although the issues it raises have international relevance. Through factor analysis four underlying dimensions of teachers' learning orientations were identified and used as the basis for developing profiles of teachers' professional learning values and practices through cluster analysis. Based on these profiles, five distinctive groupings of teachers were identified: 'engaged learners', 'moderate learners', 'infrequent learners', individual explorers' and 'solitary classroom learners'. The concept of dissonance between values and practice is a strong theme in the findings and for policy development. The main findings are that only a minority of teachers are 'engaged' learners. There is a prevailing individualist approach to learning among the majority of teachers. And there are important between and within school differences in the mix of teachers' learning orientations. This leads to recommendations for more differentiated forms of support for promoting effective professional learning in schools.

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Teachers are often bombarded with contradictory and changing messages about how they should be helping students meet state standards and raising student achievement. The push across the United States for uniform and rigorous standards-as well as high-quality, aligned assessments-represents a chance for states to reimagine ways to provide teachers with clearer and more-coherent messages about what they can be doing every day in their classrooms to support student learning. Yet, to date, we have little clear evidence that any state-level work is making a difference for teachers' implementation of standards; nor do we have evidence of state strategies that could be supporting strong implementation of standards. The impetus for this report is new evidence that state department of education work to align instruction with standards may make a difference for teachers' practices and understanding about their state standards. Using data from the RAND American Teacher Panel, we found that Louisiana teachers were more likely than other teachers to consult resources that address their state standards, and they reported teaching-and thinking about teaching-in ways that differ from U.S. norms and that are more aligned with Common Core State Standards. We examine Louisiana Department of Education strategies that could be contributing to these results, including a coherent academic strategy focused on alignment and quality across systems supporting standards, transparent and regular communication about academics across layers of the education system, and support for local decisionmaking and ownership of change by districts and teachers. This report is intended to provide guidance to states about sensible state systems that give educators coherent messages and concrete tools to help students meet high academic standards.