Findings 1: Attitudes to CPD

Attitudes to CPD tended to cluster, enabling teachers to be grouped into four categories, which the research team has characterised as: Seekers, Believers, Sceptics and Agnostics.

Believers

Some 38 per cent of the sample, they were more likely to be in primary schools or working as senior managers. They felt they had benefited from CPD, and were enthusiastic about others having access to it. They did not necessarily look for a great deal more CPD for themselves, but managers were convinced of the continuing need in their schools. As one primary senior manager put it: "Whole-school benefits naturally flow from individual benefits. Investing in skills and teacher confidence can be achieved through CPD."

Sceptics

This was a smaller group (12 per cent) but notably disaffected. They were concentrated in secondary schools, and disproportionately male (49 per cent, compared with 34 per cent for the sample as a whole). They associated CPD with imposed changes or new initiatives that did not improve the quality of education. As one secondary science teacher put it: "You rarely get to do something that will genuinely help you or is tailored to your needs." Many saw their future in the classroom and had little interest in CPD as an aid to promotion.

Seekers

These teachers, most often in secondary schools and/or heads of department, thought CPD should be on offer to all. However, they also tended to feel that opportunities were too few, or were based on whole-school initiatives rather than subject-based need. And they thought managers failed to support CPD, or did not have the money for it. Some 16 per cent of the total, they were receptive to efforts to boost CPD. As one said: "I would like the school to be more involved in planning my future and developing me."

Agnostics

This large group (33 per cent of the sample) tended to approve of CPD in principle, but was less convinced than Seekers or Believers about the value of existing CPD. They were more open to persuasion than the Sceptics. However, they would need to be sure that CPD was of high quality, and related to their subject needs, and would enhance their development and teaching approach. They were wary of the time courses might take.

Cluster analysis was carried out on the data, using the response to a series of attitude statements about CPD. The process divides the sets into a number of different groups (clusters) where members of each cluster possess similar attitudes. Once clusters were defined, it was then possible to look at the profile of each, for example whether one cluster was more likely than another to contain science teachers.