Introduction: Investing in Educational Excellence

The quality of education any child receives is fundamentally determined by the quality of their teachers. Research by the Sutton Trust demonstrates that effective teachers can add as much as one and a half years of additional learning progress for students over an academic year, while ineffective teachers may add as little as half a year’s progress (Sutton Trust, 2011, p.3). This dramatic variation in teacher effectiveness highlights why continuous professional development represents not merely a benefit but an essential investment in educational outcomes. Yet access to high-quality teacher training remains inequitably distributed, with teachers in disadvantaged schools and independent educators often lacking the development opportunities readily available to colleagues in well-resourced institutions.

At Raedan Institute, through our collaboration with Academica Mentoring, we provide world-class teacher training reaching educators across 30+ countries and we have served over 4,000 teachers since 2006. Our programmes combine rigorous research evidence, practical classroom application, cultural sensitivity, and technological innovation to deliver professional development that genuinely transforms teaching practice. As educational researcher John Hattie emphasises, “Teachers need to know thy impact” (Hattie, 2012, p.19)—our training equips educators with evidence-based strategies, reflective tools, and assessment frameworks enabling them to understand and maximize their impact on student learning.

Our approach recognises that effective professional development differs fundamentally from traditional one-off training sessions that produce minimal lasting change. The Education Endowment Foundation’s research demonstrates that effective professional development requires sustained engagement over time, practice-based learning with classroom application, peer collaboration and support, expert mentoring, and feedback, and focus on specific teaching practices with clear evidence of effectiveness (EEF, 2021, p.45). Our training programmes incorporate all these elements, ensuring participants don’t merely attend sessions but fundamentally enhance their teaching practice.

The Evidence Base: Why Teacher Training Matters

International evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that teacher quality represents the most important school-based factor influencing student achievement. The OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) found that teachers who engage in collaborative professional development report higher self-efficacy, greater job satisfaction, and more frequent use of effective teaching practices (OECD, 2019, p.167). Students taught by these teachers demonstrate superior learning outcomes across curriculum areas.

However, not all professional development produces these benefits. Research distinguishes between ineffective training—typically brief, disconnected from classroom practice, and focused on information transmission—and effective development characterized by sustained duration, active learning methodologies, coherence with teachers’ existing knowledge and school contexts, and collective participation fostering professional learning communities (Desimone, 2009, p.182). Our programmes deliberately incorporate characteristics of effective professional development, ensuring investment in training produces genuine teaching improvement.

The impact of high-quality teacher training extends beyond individual classrooms. When schools develop strong professional learning cultures where teachers continuously develop their practice through collaborative inquiry, student achievement across the entire school improves significantly (Stoll et al., 2006, p.223). Our training helps build these cultures, providing not just individual skill development but frameworks for ongoing collaborative professional learning.

Our Training Philosophy: Evidence-Informed, Practice-Focused

Raedan Institute’s teacher training rests on clearly articulated philosophical foundations that distinguish our approach from traditional professional development. We believe teaching is a research-informed profession requiring systematic engagement with educational evidence, classroom practice requires continuous refinement through reflection and experimentation, effective teaching transcends cultural contexts while requiring cultural adaptation, technology enhances teaching when purposefully integrated around pedagogical principles, and teachers are professionals deserving intellectually rigorous, evidence-based development rather than simplistic prescriptions.

These principles translate into distinctive training characteristics. Every strategy we teach is grounded in robust research evidence—we don’t promote educational fads but evidence-based practices with demonstrated effectiveness. We emphasize practical application, ensuring teachers leave training with specific strategies they can implement immediately. We recognise cultural diversity in educational contexts, adapting approaches to diverse settings while maintaining core pedagogical principles. We integrate technology meaningfully, showing how digital tools can enhance teaching rather than promoting technology for its own sake.

Core Training Programmes

Classroom Management and Behaviour Strategies

Effective classroom management represents the foundation upon which all learning builds. Research demonstrates that teachers spend up to 50% of instructional time managing behaviour rather than teaching when effective management strategies are absent (Emmer & Stough, 2001, p.103). Our classroom management training equips teachers with evidence-based approaches including establishing clear expectations and routines, preventative strategies minimizing disruptive behaviour, positive behaviour reinforcement systems, de-escalation techniques for challenging situations, and restorative approaches building student responsibility and community.

Drawing on research by behaviour management experts including Bill Rogers and Sue Cowley, our training moves beyond punitive approaches to proactive strategies creating positive learning environments. Teachers learn to establish authority through relationship-building and consistency rather than coercion, to use minimal interventions maintaining lesson flow while addressing behaviour, and to create classroom cultures where students choose appropriate behaviour because they feel valued and engaged rather than merely complying through fear of consequences (Rogers, 2015, p.67).

Differentiation and Inclusive Teaching

Contemporary classrooms contain extraordinary diversity—students with varying abilities, learning styles, language backgrounds, special educational needs, and social-emotional challenges. Effective teaching requires differentiation strategies ensuring all students access appropriate learning while being appropriately challenged. Our differentiation training covers assessing student learning needs and starting points, adapting content, process, and product to accommodate diversity, scaffolding learning for students requiring additional support, extending learning for high-achieving students, and creating inclusive environments where diversity is celebrated.

Research demonstrates that effective differentiation significantly narrows achievement gaps while raising overall attainment (Tomlinson, 2017, p.45). However, differentiation is often misunderstood as requiring individual lesson plans for every student—an impossible expectation. We teach practical differentiation strategies manageable within realistic teaching workloads, including tiered activities, flexible grouping, learning centres, and strategic use of teaching assistants.

Assessment for Learning

Assessment represents one of the most powerful tools available to teachers, yet it’s frequently underutilised or poorly implemented. Dylan Wiliam’s seminal research on formative assessment demonstrates that effective assessment for learning can double the rate of student progress—an impact larger than most educational interventions (Wiliam, 2011, p.134). Our assessment training develops skills in designing effective formative assessment strategies, using assessment evidence to inform teaching decisions, providing feedback that promotes learning rather than merely judging performance, involving students in self and peer assessment, and creating assessment-capable learners who understand learning intentions and success criteria.

Teachers learn the five key strategies of formative assessment: clarifying learning intentions and success criteria, engineering effective classroom discussions and activities eliciting evidence of learning, providing feedback moving learners forward, activating students as learning resources for one another, and activating students as owners of their own learning. These strategies, implemented systematically, transform classroom practice and student outcomes.

Technology-Enhanced Learning

Educational technology offers powerful possibilities for enhancing learning, yet technology integration often fails to improve outcomes because it’s not grounded in sound pedagogical principles. Our technology training follows the SAMR model (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition) helping teachers progress from basic technology use to transformative applications that fundamentally reimagine learning activities (Puentedura, 2006, p.12).

Training covers using technology for differentiation and personalized learning, creating engaging multimedia learning resources, facilitating collaborative learning through digital platforms, developing digital literacy and online safety, using learning analytics to inform teaching, and integrating assistive technologies supporting students with special needs. Crucially, we emphasize that technology serves pedagogical goals rather than driving them—the question is always “how does this technology enhance learning?” not “how can I use this technology?”

Subject-Specific Pedagogy

While general teaching strategies apply across subjects, each discipline has unique pedagogical considerations. Our subject-specific training addresses the distinctive challenges and opportunities in teaching mathematics, English language and literature, sciences, humanities, languages, and creative arts. Subject specialists explore discipline-specific misconceptions students commonly hold, effective ways of representing abstract concepts, assessment approaches suited to the discipline, and connections between subject content and real-world applications.

For example, mathematics training addresses common areas where students struggle—fractions, algebraic thinking, geometric reasoning—providing research-informed approaches that build conceptual understanding rather than procedural fluency alone. English training explores effective approaches to teaching reading comprehension, written composition, and language analysis, drawing on research in literacy development and cognitive science.

Supporting Students with Special Educational Needs

Inclusive education requires teachers to effectively support students with diverse special educational needs including autism spectrum disorders, ADHD, dyslexia and specific learning difficulties, speech and language challenges, physical disabilities, and social-emotional mental health needs. Our SEND training provides understanding of how different conditions affect learning, evidence-based intervention strategies, collaborative working with SENCOs and specialists, communication with parents and families, and legal responsibilities under SEND legislation.

Research demonstrates that many evidence-based strategies supporting SEND students—including explicit instruction, visual supports, structured routines, and multi-sensory learning—benefit all students, making inclusive teaching practices good teaching practices (Florian & Black-Hawkins, 2011, p.813).

International Reach: Training Teachers Globally

Our partnership with Academica Mentoring extends our training reach across 30+ countries, serving diverse educational contexts from British curriculum international schools to national education systems in developing countries. This international scope enriches our training, exposing participants to diverse educational approaches and challenges while identifying universal principles of effective teaching transcending cultural contexts.

Delivery Formats: Flexible, Accessible Professional Learning

Recognising that teachers face significant time constraints and geographical limitations, we offer training through multiple formats including intensive face-to-face workshops, online webinars and courses, blended learning combining online and face-to-face elements, school-based training delivered at individual schools, and self-paced online modules for independent learning.

Certification and Accreditation

Participants completing our training programmes receive recognised certification documenting their professional development. We offer certificates of attendance for individual training sessions, certificates of completion for programme completion including assessed components, and accredited qualifications for extended programmes meeting national qualification frameworks. These certifications support career progression, demonstrate commitment to professional learning, and provide evidence for appraisal and performance management processes.

Impact and Outcomes

Evaluation of our training demonstrates measurable impact on both teaching practice and student outcomes. Post-training surveys show 94% of participants report improved confidence in teaching, 87% implement new strategies within one month of training, 78% observe improved student engagement and learning, and 91% would recommend our training to colleagues.

Investment in Excellence

Our training represents exceptional value, with costs ranging from £150 for single-day workshops to £1,500 for extended certification programmes. Schools booking whole-staff training receive substantial discounts, making school-wide professional development affordable.

Join Our Learning Community

Beyond individual training, participants join a global community of educators committed to evidence-based practice and continuous improvement.

Conclusion: Teaching Excellence Through Continuous Learning

Teaching represents one of society’s most important and challenging professions. Effective teachers transform lives, opening doors of opportunity and possibility for their students.

Professional development is not an optional extra but an essential investment in teaching quality and student outcomes. Raedan Institute’s teacher training provides the evidence-based knowledge, practical strategies, and ongoing support that empowers teachers to maximise their impact.

Transform your teaching practice:

Phone: 07725974831

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.raedan-institute.co.uk

Address: 2 Overton Road, Leicester, LE5 0JA