Responding to learner diversity: Student views as a catalyst for powerful teacher development?

• A new model of teacher development that emphasises student views is presented.
• The views of students can help teachers to be more responsive to learner diversity.
• Engaging with the views of students and colleagues can stimulate experimentation.
• Collaboration is needed in order to support the introduction of new ways of working.
• Learning from differences is likely to be challenging of the status quo in schools.

Increasing diversity in schools means that teachers need more effective forms of professional development to address the challenges they face. Drawing on findings from a three-year study in three European countries, this paper presents a new way of thinking about what this should involve. What differentiates the proposed model is that it emphasises the views of students themselves, something that has previously been largely absent from teacher professional development literature. Through the use of illustrative examples, the paper shows how this factor can act as a catalyst for the development of new thinking and practices in response to learner differences.