An essential text helping student teachers, classroom teachers at all stages in their careers, school mentors and teacher educators develop their effectiveness by analysing and improving their practice in the light of a deeper understanding of the professional Standards. The new format of the Teachers’ Standards means it is now necessary to develop shared understandings about, for example, what constitutes high expectations or good progress. Rather than making simple judgements about discrete skills or fragments of knowledge, a more holistic, rounded vision of teaching and learning is required.

Each aspect of the Standards is dealt with in a chapter of its own, where the central topic is presented as both complex and contested in a way that invites readers to formulate their own interpretations. The approach used accentuates the importance of reflection as a key professional attribute and readers are encouraged to reflect on their own experiences and on their responses to case studies and quotations as a means of helping them to develop their understandings.

Tony Ewens worked as a teacher and headteacher in primary and middle schools in Devon, then as the county’s advisory teacher for religious and moral education, before moving into Initial Teacher Education as a lecturer at St Martin’s College (now the University of Cumbria). Specialising in philosophy of education as well as RE, he became Head of Education and Associate Dean at St Martin’s College. Upon the formation of the University of Cumbria Tony was appointed Head of Education Studies. He retired in 2008 and is now a freelance consultant, an external examiner for ITE courses and an author.