Paul A. Kirschner & Mirjam Neelen

Actually, it’s absurd. Students studying to become doctors and lawyers have fairly standard curricula which provide them with an evidence-based basis for their future professions. Students who want to become teachers, on the other hand, have no standard curriculum to provide them with a solid foundation needed for their future profession and many have curricula which are far from evidence-based. Recently, the British government launched a country-wide framework which forms the basis for teacher education. This blog is a plea for other countries around the world to follow this example.

We know that the quality of the teacher is the most important factor when it comes to influencing student learning (also see our blogs ‘The Teacher Makes the Difference’ and ‘What Makes a Top Teacher?’). The British government is clearly well-informed and is taking the evidence around teacher quality to…