Staff development for effective secondary schools: A synthesis of research

Abstract

While recent work has synthesized some empirically supported characteristics of secondary school effectiveness, the role of staff development in establishing such characteristics has not been examined. Using a framework which categorizes these characteristics within three critical dimensions of staff development, a process of configurative mapping is carried out from the reported outcomes of staff development studies in order to illuminate associations between staff development studies and effective school variables. Two consistent patterns emerge from which broad guidelines for the conduct of staff development are described. Constraints identified by the literature in targeting staff development towards the creation of the characteristics of an effective secondary school are also discussed.