The evaluation found:

• There is no single best approach to preparing and supporting teachers; the choice of pre-service and/or in-service approaches depends on context-specific needs, and readiness to sustain the approach.
• DFAT’s experience provides valuable lessons compared to what the literature suggests is ‘good practice’ e.g. the importance of educational leadership, centrality of good teaching (student-centred and appropriate to the school and classroom context), and the drawbacks of clusters and cascade models (especially difficulty of maintaining good quality).
• Particular teaching and learning challenges in each context need carefully designed solutions (for example to effectively address low literacy and numeracy of teachers and pupils, multi-lingual and multi-grade teaching, and disability-inclusive education).
• It is important for the wider teacher management system—i.e. how teachers are recruited, qualified, deployed, retained and supported in the classroom—to reinforce good quality teaching and learning.
• Education personnel at all levels need to support improved teaching and learning for sustainable change.
• The activities reviewed had almost no data on outcomes that could be attributed to teacher development interventions—this suggests DFAT needs better monitoring and evaluation to understand the effects of teacher development on teaching practices and pupils’ learning outcomes.