Professional Learning Only Matters if Teachers can Use it

Professional learning has never been more accessible. Schools have no shortage of expert speakers, evidence-informed research or innovative teaching strategies to draw upon. Yet access to professional learning is only part of the equation. The greater challenge is ensuring it translates into sustained improvements in classroom practice.

Teachers regularly leave professional development feeling inspired and equipped with new ideas. The harder part comes later, when the demands of everyday teaching compete with the best of intentions. Too often, professional learning is experienced as a series of valuable but disconnected events, rather than as a process that supports lasting change.

Earlier this year, Dr Simon Breakspear challenged us at Ave Maria College to think differently. His question was both simple and profound: “How do we make it easier for teachers to improve?”

The question reframed our thinking. Rather than asking how we could deliver another engaging professional development day, we began asking how schools create the conditions for teachers to implement, refine and sustain new practices over time.

That shift in thinking shaped a whole-school professional learning impact cycle centred on retrieval practice - an evidence-informed strategy that strengthens long-term learning by encouraging students to actively recall knowledge rather than simply revisit it.

It became the vehicle for that work. More importantly, the cycle prompted a broader question about professional learning itself: what needs to happen after teachers are introduced to the evidence?

Creating Time to Put Learning into Practice
The cycle began by building a shared understanding of the approach. Staff explored the research underpinning retrieval practice before reflecting on their existing knowledge, confidence and classroom practice through a baseline survey.

From there, the focus shifted from understanding the evidence to applying it in everyday teaching.

Across the term, teachers worked in self-selected Collaborative Planning Teams, using protected time to design, trial and refine retrieval practice strategies within their own learning areas.

This was important because evidence-informed practice is rarely implemented perfectly the first time. A strategy that works in one subject or year level may need to be adapted considerably for another. Effective implementation requires iteration. Teachers need opportunities to test ideas, adapt them to different contexts and refine their approach in response to what happens in their own classrooms.

Teachers were further strengthened through classroom modelling videos developed by the College's Pedagogical Coaches, alongside instructional coaching conversations that encouraged reflection rather than compliance.

Crucially, time to apply and refine new learning was built into the model rather than left for teachers to find around everything else.
The impact was evident in our staff data. In 2025, just 30.6 per cent of staff agreed or strongly agreed that there was an effective balance between professional learning and time to implement it. Following the 2026 cycle, that figure had risen to 64.6 per cent.

Similarly, the proportion who agreed or strongly agreed that professional learning helped them embed their learning into practice increased from 49 per cent to 79.2 per cent. Across all nine comparable survey measures, every result improved. 

The findings reinforced an important distinction. Professional learning doesn't improve classroom practice simply because teachers attend it. It improves when teachers have the time, support and opportunity to put new ideas into practice.

Significantly, the strongest gains were not in how enjoyable or engaging teachers found professional learning, but in the areas most closely associated with implementation and classroom practice.

Bringing Students into the Conversation
As educators, we often evaluate new initiatives through our own observations. Students offer a perspective that teachers alone cannot: how changes in practice are actually experienced by learners.

Two Year 11 students spoke directly with staff about the teaching strategies they had noticed across their classes, while a broader student survey provided further insight into how students were experiencing retrieval practice.

Their contribution added an important layer to the evaluation, bringing student experience alongside teacher reflection.

From Attending Professional Learning to Owning it
The cycle concluded with a whole-staff showcase, where teaching teams shared how retrieval practice had evolved within their classrooms and reflected on what they had learned through the process.

The results were encouraging. Across nine measures of staff experience and the impact of professional learning, positive responses increased from an average of 62.6 per cent in 2025 to 80.3 per cent in 2026.

But perhaps the more important shift was cultural.

Professional learning became less something teachers attended and more something they built together. Improvement became an ongoing conversation rather than an isolated event, and success was measured not simply by participation, but by what teachers were able to put into practice.

There is still work to do. Staff feedback continues to highlight the importance of protected time for implementation, collaboration and resource development. Rather than seeing this as a reason to move away from the model, it reinforces one of its central lessons: time is not an optional extra in professional learning. It is part of the professional learning.

Making Evidence Usable
The experience reinforced a broader lesson for schools. Evidence-informed practice depends on more than access to good research. Schools must also provide the time, structures and professional support that allow teachers to apply that research, learn from colleagues, receive feedback and refine their practice over time.

For us, retrieval practice was the vehicle. The more significant learning was about implementation itself.

If we want evidence-informed practice to improve student outcomes, the way we design professional learning deserves the same level of attention as the content we deliver.

That means moving beyond isolated professional development days and creating sustained opportunities for implementation, collaboration, coaching, student voice and evaluation.
Professional learning does not end when teachers leave the workshop. In many ways, that is where the real work begins.

Adam Hipwell is Director of Innovation and Learning Strategy at Ave Maria College. He has a particular interest in evidence-informed practice, instructional coaching and supporting teachers to translate research into sustained classroom improvement.