Diagnosing or evaluating teacher development needs? A session with the RISE Community of Practice

This article highlights the importance of teacher professional development (TPD) programs in equipping teachers with the skills to meet the learning needs of students. The article suggests that TPD programs should be adaptive and address teachers' own development needs. Reform suggestions include learning through classroom practice, reflective practice, and subject-specific practice. The article discusses tools for identifying teacher development needs in foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) in the Global South. The tools can be categorized into teacher competences assessment and classroom observation tools. The article mentions specific tools used in India to assess teachers' competences and tools for measuring teachers' beliefs and judgments. It also presents four classroom observation tools used in the Global South. The goal of these tools is to inform the design and delivery of TPD programs.