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Home > Reflective Teaching in Secondary Schools > 5. Deepening understanding > 16. Teacher expertise > How was the conceptual framework developed?


  1. 1. Becoming a reflective professional
       1. Identity
       2. Learning
  2.    3. Reflection
  3.    4. Principles
  4.    Observing [supplementary chapter]
  5.    Enquiry [supplementary chapter]
  6.    Mentoring [supplementary chapter]
  7.    Techniques of enquiry
       [supplementary chapter]

  8. 2. Creating conditions for learning
  9.    5. Contexts
  10.    6. Relationships
  11.    7. Engagement
  12.    8. Spaces

  13. 3. Teaching for learning
  14.    9. Curriculum
  15.    10. Planning
  16.    11. Pedagogy
  17.    12. Communication
  18.    13. Assessment

  19. 4. Reflecting on consequences
  20.    14. Outcomes
  21.    15. Social justice
  22.    Judgement
       [supplementary chapter]

  23. 5. Deepening understanding
  24.    16. Teacher expertise
  25.    17. Professional learning
  26.    18. Professionalism
  27.    Starting out [supplementary
       chapter]
  28.    Improvement [supplementary
       chapter]

How was the conceptual framework developed?

When Andrew Pollard (from the Institute of Education in London) and Lesley Saunders (then of the General Teaching Council for England) first explored the UK and international literature on pedagogy and teaching methods, they found a huge but disparate collection of ‘big ideas’ about teaching and learning in classrooms.  They consulted through the other UK GTCs and convened workshops with teachers to discuss the issues.  Various research studies of teacher thinking and discourse were reviewed and pedagogic concepts were collected, presented and discussed at international academic events.  To begin with then, a complex mass of words used when talking about pedagogy was assembled – many of which also embraced issues in curriculum and assessment.

Initial attempts to analyse this collection were not very productive. However, a breakthrough came when they focused on the relatively stable set of concepts which are often used to discuss curriculum design – for example, breadth, balance, relevance, differentiation, progression.  Interestingly, these were all promoted in a 1985 HMI publication, The Curriculum from 5 to 16.  How had these stood the test of time so well? Could they be related to contemporary vocabulary on pedagogy and assessment?

Patterns began to emerge.  In particular, there seemed to be a number of enduring educational issues to which these long-lasting concepts relate – those concerning the aims, contexts, processes and outcomes of education. Pollard and Saunders felt this was an important insight, because it began to describe the ‘epistemological work’ (contribution to knowledge) which such concepts must carry out. 

The conceptual framework is thus based on the idea that concepts concerning curriculum, pedagogy and assessment can be organised through the ‘work’ which they do in enabling discussion and understanding of enduring classroom issues. Perhaps, they reasoned, making this logic explicit could enable progress towards a more robust and sustainable conceptual framework for the professional expertise of teaching. 

The framework was first published in a TLRP/GTCE Commentary entitled Professionalism and Pedagogy: A Contemporary Opportunity (Pollard, 2010) and can be seen here.