Improving Teaching and Learning for the 2026-27 Academic Year
- Last updated on: 29th July, 2026
- IRIS Connect
The challenge to improve teaching and learning school-wide is a task leaders across the world attempt to tackle each year. Education never stands still. Priorities shift, initiatives come and go, and the urgent has a habit of crowding out the important. Yet the evidence is consistent: the single biggest in-school influence on how well pupils do is the quality of their teaching (Coe et al., 2014). For the 2026-27 academic year, the question for leaders is a familiar one. Where do we focus our attention, and our limited time, to help every teacher be at their best?
How to Improve Teaching and Learning in the Classroom
1. Use Technology and AI With Purpose
The internet is full of digital classroom tools. The ones worth your time are those that serve a teaching practice with evidence behind it, rather than novelty for its own sake.
Retrieval practice, the act of recalling information from memory, is a good example. It is one of the most robustly evidenced ways to help learning stick (Dunlosky et al., 2013), and free tools like Kahoot and Quizlet make low-stakes quizzing quick to set up and mark.
For oracy and creativity, Book Creator lets pupils publish their own books, while ThingLink turns images and video into interactive learning material. The tool always matters less than the pedagogy it serves, so it is worth choosing the two or three that fit how you already want to teach rather than chasing every new app.
The most significant development in recent years is artificial intelligence. IRIS Connect has built AI Insights, an AI tool that analyses a lesson in seconds using established research on key instructional strategies such as questioning, dialogue, and scaffolding, then surfaces moments worth exploring together. Rather than telling a teacher what to do, it highlights what it has noticed and invites reflection, so the thinking stays with the teacher. Used this way, AI has the potential to save valuable time, deepen coaching conversations, and support development at scale.
We explore this thinking in more depth across our recent work on AI in professional learning:
- Lesson Feedback: What Humans Can Learn From AI, on the evidence behind supportive, specific feedback.
- Scaling Adaptive Expertise, in which our founder Andy Newell sets out how schools can grow expert judgement rather than compliance.
- Professional Development in the Age of AI, a recording of our recent online event for school leaders.
The principle running through all of it is simple: technology should enhance professional expertise, not replace it.
2. Share Practice With Colleagues
Sharing techniques and ideas with colleagues is one of the most reliable ways to raise the quality of teaching across a school, and there is good evidence for it.
Drawing on survey and administrative data from more than 9,000 teachers in 336 schools over two years, Ronfeldt et al. (2015) found that schools with stronger collaboration saw larger gains in pupils’ maths and reading, and that individual teachers improved at a faster rate when they worked in more collaborative schools.
Structured coaching has an even firmer evidence base. Combining 60 studies that used causal research designs, Kraft et al. (2018) found average effects of 0.49 standard deviations on teachers’ instruction and 0.18 standard deviations on pupil achievement. Two findings are worth carrying into practice: effects tend to shrink as programmes grow, and the quality and focus of coaching matter more than the sheer number of hours. That is why feedback works best when it targets small, specific action steps rather than broad judgement. If you invite a colleague to observe, focus the conversation on one clear next step, and move towards a modern, research-informed approach to observation.
You can also draw on our free teaching technique guides and video models. There are over 80, each offering an explanation of the technique, an example modelled in a real classroom, and a cognitive rehearsal activity to help it stick.
3. Make Time to Reflect
The ability to reflect is a powerful thing – if you have the means to do so. Being able to teach a class and continually adapt as a practitioner with the experience gained is something that is arduous to achieve when the focus is on the lesson and tasks at hand.
The reason is straightforward. Classrooms are busy, cognitively demanding places, and no teacher can consciously attend to everything while also teaching. Reviewing a recording lets teachers see their practice, and their pupils’ learning, from the outside, and catch what they could never process in the moment. It also helps manage cognitive load.
This is not only about perception. In one of the largest experimental studies of teacher professional development ever conducted, the US Institute of Education Sciences and Mathematica (2022) ran a randomised controlled trial across around 100 schools, 353 teachers, and 8,906 pupils. It found that five structured cycles of video-based coaching, using Teachstone’s MyTeachingPartner programme with lessons recorded and shared on IRIS Connect’s video platform, improved pupil achievement.
4. Understand Learner Behaviours
Ellis and Tod (2018) describe learner behaviour as behaviour that is necessary for a person to learn effectively in the group setting of the classroom. Understanding these behaviours helps teachers create a learning environment suited to each pupil.
These learner behaviours can be cognitive, emotional or social and are affected by a number of different factors such as their relationship with themselves, their teachers, peers and their work. Their relationship with themselves involves pupils’ concept of their identity, their self-esteem, self-confidence and motivation. Their relationships with their teachers have a huge impact on their ability to learn and are affected by self-fulfilling prophecies – if a student is labelled a certain way by their teacher, they will accept that label and develop a self-concept based around this label. Positively or negatively. These labels are often a broad assumption of a student, rather than the complex individual that they are.
Approaches that support a positive learning climate include:
- Setting clear classroom expectations.
- Using specific, purposeful praise so pupils know exactly what they are doing well.
- Making the learning appropriately challenging and scaffolding where needed.
- Reducing the fear of failure.
- Allowing time for pupils to voice their thoughts and feelings.
- Modelling positive learning behaviours.
Evidence-Based Teaching Strategies That Improve Learning
- Teach in small, explicit steps. Rosenshine (2012) distilled the research on effective teaching into ten principles, including beginning with review, introducing new material in small steps, providing worked models, and guiding practice before pupils work alone. These reduce cognitive load and build success.
- Question to check understanding. Rosenshine (2012) found that the most effective teachers ask more questions and check understanding throughout a lesson, not just at the end, so misconceptions surface early.
- Build in retrieval and spaced practice. Recalling information from memory, and revisiting it over time, is among the most robustly evidenced ways to make learning stick (Dunlosky et al., 2013). Low-stakes quizzing and cumulative review are simple ways in.
- Use formative assessment. Assessment for learning, the practice of gathering evidence of understanding and adapting teaching in response, has a long evidence base (Black and Wiliam, 1998). It is what turns a lesson from a fixed plan into a responsive one.
- Give feedback that moves learning forward. The EEF’s feedback strand, drawing on 155 studies, estimates an average impact of six additional months of progress. The gain depends on pupils acting on the feedback, so build in time to respond to it.
- Teach metacognition and self-regulation. Helping pupils plan, monitor, and evaluate their own learning is one of the highest-impact, lowest-cost approaches in the EEF’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit, estimated at eight additional months of progress across 355 studies.
How to Improve Teaching Quality Across the School
The quality of teaching is shaped by many factors, some beyond a classroom teacher’s control such as previous learning, maturity, aspiration levels, diet and nutrition. There are, however, several that leaders can influence directly.
1. Encourage Regular Communication Between Staff
Strong collegial relationships are not simply good for morale, they are linked to both retention and results. Analysing teacher survey and outcome data, Johnson, Kraft, and Papay (2012) found that the quality of collegial relationships, the school’s culture, and the strength of its leadership were among the strongest predictors both of teachers’ job satisfaction and of pupils’ achievement growth over the following two years. Building a collaborative staff culture is, in other words, a direct investment in teaching quality.
That collaboration pays off in practical ways. It:
- Increases efficiency by sharing responsibility.
- Improves professional development by sharing skills and knowledge.
- Produces better outcomes by drawing on a range of professional strengths.
- Creates an environment in which staff feel supported, valued, and empowered.
2. Create a Culture of Supportive Improvement
There is a fine line for leaders to walk when encouraging teachers to develop. It is vital that teachers grow their skills, for the good of the school and, above all, for themselves. The goal is to give teachers the tools they need to develop, without managing performance so tightly that it undermines development and wellbeing. Staff need time and trust to embed new approaches with fidelity.
The evidence points clearly to what works. The Education Endowment Foundation’s review of effective professional development, drawing on a meta-analysis of more than 100 studies, identified 14 mechanisms that make professional development effective, centred on building knowledge, motivating staff, developing teaching techniques, and embedding practice (EEF, 2021). Related analysis found that programmes addressing all of these purposes were around three times as effective as those addressing fewer (Sims et al., 2021). Development that is sustained, collaborative, and focused on classroom practice is what moves teaching forward.
3. Analyse and Identify Staff Needs
What are your staff most concerned about? What is holding them back from delivering their best lessons? Understanding the pressures on your team is the first step towards addressing them. The same EEF evidence makes clear that professional development is not one size fits all. It works best when it is designed with care, taking the context and needs of the school into account.
As one illustration, Chris Harrison, Headteacher of Grove Road Community Primary School, created an online curriculum model bringing together resources, lesson clips, and templates for his staff. Subject leaders grew in confidence when discussing their areas of leadership, ECTs felt better supported, and staff became more confident in their practice. Identifying what his staff needed was the key to introducing a system that met those needs.
4. Create Open Communication Channels for Staff
Staff need genuine channels to share their views with senior leaders, and a leadership team that is willing to listen and act. The Department for Education’s research on teacher wellbeing found that teachers report higher wellbeing where they feel supported and valued by their leadership. Both the channel and the willingness to act on what comes through it matter, and both have a direct knock-on effect on teaching.
5. Encourage Regular Reflection
Reflection is the starting point of any improvement cycle: only by examining current practice can we analyse it, spot opportunities, and improve. Encouraging it is largely a matter of communicating its value and building in the time and tools to do it well. Regular reflection helps teachers to:
- Identify areas to refine in their practice.
- Strengthen their communication skills.
- Take ownership of their own development.
- See their teaching through the eyes of a pupil.
- Bring a fresh perspective to their style.
- Build their professional independence more quickly.
The Context Schools Are Working In
School leaders are balancing teaching quality against real pressures on budgets, staffing, and workload. Workload has long been recognised as one of the main sources of teacher stress (Kyriacou, 2001), and teacher and pupil wellbeing are linked: Harding et al. (2019) found an association between teachers’ wellbeing and that of their pupils, though as a correlational study it shows a relationship rather than a direct cause.
The year ahead also brings the most significant change to SEND policy in over a decade. The government’s white paper, Every Child Achieving and Thriving (2026), asks mainstream schools to be inclusive by design, with high-quality adaptive teaching available to every pupil as a matter of course. The near-term expectations are concrete: the Inclusive Mainstream Fund is already reaching schools, and every mainstream school must publish an Inclusion Strategy by 31 December 2026. The classroom model the Department for Education points to is adaptive teaching built on the EEF’s Five-a-Day, which includes explicit instruction, metacognition, and scaffolding, the same strategies set out earlier in this guide. The national training programme will build teachers’ knowledge, but turning that knowledge into embedded classroom practice still depends on the coaching, observation, and reflection described here. Our SEND Reform Briefing sets this out in full for school leaders, and you can watch the event recording, Inclusion in Practice: SEND Reform Briefing for School Leaders.
None of this can be wished away. What leaders can control is how they invest the time and resource they do have. Focusing on high-quality, sustainable professional development is one of the most effective responses available, because, as the evidence above shows, better teaching benefits every pupil who passes through the school, and its effects accumulate year on year.
Planning your CPD for the year ahead?
Our free CPD Planning Checklist walks you through nine practical areas to review before the new term.
How Can IRIS Connect Support You
- Record and reflect on their practice to identify areas for improvement, using an approach with a strong research base behind it.
- Access evidence-based theory and video examples of strategies in action, modelled by real teachers.
- Work with colleagues and coaches to give and receive feedback, share best practice, and improve together.
- Use AI Insights to analyse a lesson in seconds, surface moments of interest, and focus reflection where it will have the most impact.
- Follow adaptive Pathways that guide teachers step by step through coaching, guided reflection, and collaborative development, with progress tracked in one place.
References
- Coe, R., Aloisi, C., Higgins, S., and Elliot Major, L. (2014) What Makes Great Teaching? Review of the Underpinning Research. Sutton Trust.
- Education Endowment Foundation (2021) Effective Professional Development: Guidance Report. EEF.
- Ellis, S. and Tod, J. (2018) Behaviour for Learning: Proactive Approaches to Behaviour Management. 2nd edn. Routledge.
- Gaudin, C. and Chaliès, S. (2015) ‘Video viewing in teacher education and professional development: A literature review.’ Educational Research Review, 16, 41-67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2015.06.001
- Harding, S., Evans, R., Morris, R., Gunnell, D., Ford, T., Hollingworth, W., Tilling, K., Bell, S., Grey, J., Brockman, R., Campbell, R., Araya, R., Murphy, S., and Kidger, J. (2019) ‘Is teachers’ mental health and wellbeing associated with students’ mental health and wellbeing?’ Journal of Affective Disorders, 242, 180-187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2018.08.080
- Institute of Education Sciences and Mathematica (2022) Study of Teacher Coaching Based on Classroom Videos: Impacts on Student Achievement and Teachers’ Practices. US Department of Education.
- Johnson, S.M., Kraft, M.A., and Papay, J.P. (2012) ‘How context matters in high-need schools: The effects of teachers’ working conditions on their professional satisfaction and their students’ achievement.’ Teachers College Record, 114(10), 1-39.
- Kraft, M.A., Blazar, D., and Hogan, D. (2018) ‘The Effect of Teacher Coaching on Instruction and Achievement: A Meta-Analysis of the Causal Evidence.’ Review of Educational Research, 88(4), 547-588.
- Kyriacou, C. (2001) ‘Teacher Stress: Directions for Future Research.’ Educational Review, 53(1), 27-35.
- Roorda, D.L., Koomen, H.M.Y., Spilt, J.L., and Oort, F.J. (2011) ‘The Influence of Affective Teacher-Student Relationships on Students’ School Engagement and Achievement: A Meta-Analytic Approach.’ Review of Educational Research, 81(4), 493-529. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654311421793
- Ronfeldt, M., Farmer, S.O., McQueen, K., and Grissom, J.A. (2015) ‘Teacher Collaboration in Instructional Teams and Student Achievement.’ American Educational Research Journal, 52(3), 475-514. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831215585562
- Sims, S., Fletcher-Wood, H., O’Mara-Eves, A., Cottingham, S., Stansfield, C., Van Herwegen, J., and Anders, J. (2021) What Are the Characteristics of Effective Teacher Professional Development? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Education Endowment Foundation.
- Sutton Trust (2011) Improving the Impact of Teachers on Pupil Achievement in the UK: Interim Findings. Sutton Trust.
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