Practitioner-led development and research

In this section


The ETF believes that enabling FE practitioners to take charge of their own professional development can lead to increased levels of empowerment, motivation and most importantly improvement for learners.

Over the years the ETF has offered practitioners the chance to support their own and others’ growth in teaching, learning and assessment through a variety of practitioner-led development and research activities.  

Outstanding Teaching, Learning and Assessment

The Outstanding Teaching, Learning and Assessment programme ran from 2015 to 2022 and consisted of small groups of FE practitioners undertaking an action research project with the support of a research mentor.

If you are interested in the action research process, the programme produced an organisational guide to undertaking action research

Practitioner Research Programme

We have recently relaunched the Practitioner Research Programme in 2024/25.

Practice Development Groups

Practice development groups involved groups of teachers and trainers meeting in action learning sets to develop an area of teaching, learning and assessment. The aim of action learning sets is to follow a set process to discuss problems and successes, hear different perspectives and share useful resources.

Current practitioner research activity at the ETF includes: