School-based teacher professional development to transform the teaching of reading comprehension: an Irish case study

Despite recent research indicating that students require explicit teaching in the key reading skill of comprehension in order to become successful readers, a significant gap in the research relates to teacher professional development (PD) in the area. A recent Irish study used gathered survey data to create a year-long PD programme for teachers in reading comprehension strategy instruction (CSI) in one case-study school. This paper will analyse and discuss the PD programme, its impact on the participating teachers' pedagogy, the teachers' assessment of the overall in-school continuing professional development (CPD) experience, as well as the overall lessons to be gleaned from the year-long innovative initiative. It is envisioned that the experience of designing, implementing, participating in and reflecting on the CPD initiative on CSI may have some contribution to make to the Irish and international debate on effective models of CPD for teachers, school and education systems.