CPD: Continuous Professional Development
Advanced Pedagogical Expertise for Career-Long Growth
Continuous Professional Development (CPD) extends teacher learning beyond Base Training, providing ongoing opportunities to deepen pedagogical expertise, refine classroom practice, and strengthen application of CLT and TPA approaches across the full curriculum.
CPD programmes support teachers throughout their careers, ensuring professional growth doesn’t end with initial certification but continues as teachers gain experience, take on new responsibilities, and advance their pedagogical mastery.
Why Continuous Professional Development
Teaching expertise develops over years, not months. Whilst Base Training provides essential CLT methodology and introduces TPA approaches, true mastery comes through sustained application, reflection, and ongoing learning.
CPD addresses the reality that teachers encounter new challenges as they gain experience: teaching different year levels, working with diverse student needs, taking on mentoring roles, or deepening subject-specific pedagogy. Continuous professional development ensures teachers have support navigating these challenges and opportunities throughout their careers.
Research demonstrates that sustained, practice-focused professional development produces stronger teaching improvements than isolated training events. TDSO’s CPD programmes provide this sustained support, building on Base Training foundations with advanced methodology, specialised techniques, and subject-specific applications.
Who Participates in CPD?
CPD programmes are open to teachers who have successfully completed TDSO’s Base Training (EPPS). This ensures participants share common foundational understanding of CLT methodology and TPA approaches, allowing CPD sessions to build systematically on established knowledge rather than revisiting basics.
Teachers access CPD at different career stages and for different purposes:
- Recently Certified Teachers
Consolidating Base Training learning, deepening understanding of specific CLT techniques, building confidence in TPA application across subjects beyond English. - Experienced Teachers
Refining advanced pedagogical approaches, specialising in particular teaching contexts (e.g., large classes, mixed-ability groups), taking on peer coaching or mentoring roles.
- Teacher Leaders
Developing facilitation skills for leading Professional Learning Communities,supporting colleagues’ professional growth, contributing to school-levelpedagogical improvement.
- Subject Specialists
Deepening application of TPA approaches in specific subject areas (mathematics,science, social studies), adapting CLT principles to subject-specific contexts.
CPD Programme Areas
TDSO’s CPD offerings address diverse teacher development needs through specialised programmes, advanced workshops, and targeted support.
Advanced CLT Methodology : Deepening expertise in specific CLT techniques and approaches beyond Base Training foundations.
Workshop Topics Include:
- Advanced questioning strategies for deeper student thinking.
- Sophisticated scaffolding techniques for complex language tasks.
- Assessment for learning in communicative classrooms.
- Managing student-centred learning in large classes.
- Differentiation strategies for mixed-ability groups
- Classroom research and action inquiry
Focus: Refining CLT practice, addressing advanced pedagogical challenges, developing nuanced understanding of communicative methodology.
TPA across the Curriculum : Strengthening application of Transferable Pedagogical Approaches in subjects
beyond English teaching.
Workshop Topics Include:
- TPA in mathematics teaching: practice-based numeracy development
- TPA in science: inquiry-based learning and hands-on investigation
- TPA in social studies: discussion-based critical thinking
- Adapting CLT interaction techniques for non-language subjects
- Peer collaboration strategies across different content areas
- Systematic progression in subject-specific contexts
Focus: Explicit transfer of CLT-derived approaches to all subjects teachers, transforming entire teaching practice beyond English classes.
Specialised Teaching Contexts: Developing expertise for particular teaching challenges and opportunities.
Workshop Topics Include:
- Teaching in remote and rural contexts.
- Multi-grade classroom management and instruction.
- Working with students with learning difficulties.
- English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teaching
- Early literacy development.
- Technology integration in student-centred classrooms.
Focus: Adapting CLT and TPA approaches to specific teaching contexts, addressing challenges teachers encounter in diverse settings.
Coaching and Mentoring: Building capacity for teachers to support colleagues’ professional development.
Workshop Topics Include:
- Peer observation and feedback techniques.
- Coaching conversations and reflective practice.
- Facilitating teacher learning communities.
- Mentoring newly qualified teachers.
- Leading lesson study and collaborative planning.
- Supporting action research in schools
Focus: Developing teacher leaders who strengthen professional learning cultures in their schools and communities.
Assessment and Evaluation: Strengthening formative and summative assessment practices aligned with
student-centred teaching.
Workshop Topics Include:
- Designing communicative assessments.
- Assessment for learning strategies.
- Rubric development and performance assessment.
- Self and peer assessment techniques.
- Using assessment data to inform teaching.
- Portfolio assessment approaches.
Focus: Assessment practices that support student-centred learning rather than undermining it, measuring communication and understanding rather than rote recall.
How CPD works
CPD sessions combine workshop learning with practical application and ongoing support, ensuring new expertise transfers to classroom practice.
Workshop Sessions
Intensive 1-3 day workshops introducing advanced techniques, providing opportunities for practice and peer discussion, and creating concrete action plans for classroom implementation. Workshops balance input with active participation, modelling the student-centred approaches teachers apply with their own students.
Classroom Application
Teachers apply workshop learning in their classrooms between sessions, documenting experiences, gathering student work samples, and reflecting on implementation successes and challenges. This practice-based approach ensures CPD strengthens actual teaching, not just theoretical knowledge.
Follow-Up Support
Coaching visits, online discussion forums, and peer observation opportunities provide ongoing support as teachers implement new approaches. This sustained engagement addresses challenges arising during real classroom application.
Collaborative Reflection
Teachers share experiences, analyse student work, and refine approaches together. Collaborative reflection deepens understanding and builds professional learning communities extending beyond formal CPD sessions.
From CPD To Professional Learning Communities (PLC)
CPD and Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) work together to support career-long professional growth. CPD provides structured learning opportunities introducing new approaches and deepening expertise. PLCs create ongoing spaces for teachers to collaboratively refine practice, share experiences, and support each other’s continued development.
Many teachers begin with CPD workshops, then join or form PLCs to sustain learning momentum. Equally, teachers already active in PLCs return to CPD when collaborative inquiry surfaces questions requiring deeper expertise or when PLCs identify shared learning needs. This creates a continuous cycle: CPD introduces new approaches, PLCs refine them through practice, collaborative reflection surfaces new questions, and CPD provides targeted responses.
CPD Impact on Teaching Practice
Research on TDSO’s CPD programmes demonstrates measurable improvements in teaching practice and student engagement.
Teacher Feedback.
Teachers report increased confidence applying CLT and TPA approaches across multiple subjects, deeper understanding of student-centred pedagogy, and greater ability to adapt teaching to diverse student needs. Many cite CPD as transformative for their entire teaching practice, not just specific techniques.
Classroom Observations.
Classroom visits document sustained application of approaches learned in CPD, with teachers maintaining student-centred practices over extended periods. Teachers demonstrate sophisticated pedagogical decision-making, adapting approaches appropriately for different contexts and student groups.
Peer Leadership
CPD participants increasingly take on mentoring and coaching roles in their schools, sharing approaches with colleagues and leading school-level professional learning initiatives. This multiplication effect extends CPD impact beyond individual participants.
Investing in Long Career Excellence!
Continuous Professional Development reflects TDSO’s commitment to supporting teachers throughout their careers, not just at the beginning. Quality teaching develops over years through sustained practice, ongoing reflection, and continuous learning. CPD provides the structure, support, and community enabling this career-long growth.
By investing in CPD, teachers invest in their professional expertise, their students’ learning, and Cambodia’s education system. Each teacher who deepens pedagogical mastery strengthens the teaching profession, contributes to school improvement, and ultimately transforms educational outcomes for Cambodian students.
CPD is where good teachers become excellent teachers, and excellent teachers become leaders who lift the entire profession.