If you’ve been anywhere near the conversation on teacher professional learning lately, you’ll have heard a new word cropping up: didagogy. It’s not a typo. It’s a concept introduced by the Teacher Development Trust to attempt to describe something we’ve all been doing but never named—the unique discipline of teaching teachers.

The Teacher Development Trust’s paper makes an important point: teaching teachers -what we more commonly refer to as facilitating professional learning - is a discipline of its own. It’s not the same as teaching children (pedagogy), and it’s not generic adult learning (andragogy). The difference stems from the fact that teachers are professionals with years of experience, strong identities, and deeply ingrained views on learning. They’re unique in the world of learning and teaching; they’re experts AND learners at the same time.

Teacher professional learning requires educators to engage in higher-order thinking about their own professional knowledge, decision-making processes and leadership, whilst keeping the potential benefit to their own learners at the centre.  Rather than simply acquiring new strategies, teachers tend to critically examine their underlying beliefs, assumptions, and habitual practice. This involves monitoring the effectiveness of new approaches, evaluating their alignment with contextual realities, and making deliberate choices about what to retain, adapt, or discard in order to meet the needs of the learners in their setting. In essence, teacher learning is not a linear process of knowledge acquisition but a reflective, iterative cycle that reshapes professional identity whilst maintaining a focus on pupil outcomes. The paper points out that “The real struggle is to accord the respect that the teaching profession deserves for its expertise and for the multiple kinds of knowledge that teachers develop.” Indeed, supporting their growth means going beyond “delivering content” to crafting space for reflection, dialogue, and challenge.

This complexity is why TNT have offered the chance to consider the term didagogy as a basis for continuing these musings. It furnishes us with a shared language to talk about the unique principles and practices that make professional learning for educators distinct. They concur with our Leading the How of Change  model of co-creation and the underlying belief that educators require us to design experiences that are responsive to context, rooted in dialogue, and connected to identity—not a content delivery based, one-size-fits-all compliance session.

And here’s the truth about our leaders in education: headteachers often put themselves at the bottom of their own priority list. Fact. They’re leading schools, managing societal pressures, nurturing staff and holding the weight of accountability. But when do they get time to think? To collaborate? To breathe? That’s why we created Leading the How of Change—a programme we designed with a core group of headteachers in last year’s pilot. It was exceptionally well received because it gave leaders what they rarely get: time and space.

Built around the National Model of Professional Learning, this programme keeps learning at the centre—not as an add-on, but as the work itself. We’ve focused on depth, not overload. One quote from the TNT report sums up this approach:

“Unlike other professional learning, maybe we need to focus on the ‘less is more’ approach that we champion so often in classrooms. Instead of cramming sessions with content, invite teachers to think beforehand, come prepared, and engage deeply.”

That’s been our mantra: quality over quantity, depth over breadth.

And honestly, the privilege of working alongside senior leaders is immense. As noted in the TNT paper, every session reminds me:

“You’re teaching role models, and they’ll challenge you—often knowing as much or more. That’s not a threat; it’s an opportunity.”

So, teaching teachers is different. It’s emotional as well as intellectual. And it needs careful design—not just subject expertise, but facilitation skills that create trust and psychological safety.

This thinking space is not a luxury—it’s a catalyst for transformation…

Ready to join us?

Our next recruitment window for Leading the How of Change opens 1 December 2025. Join us online or in person and make space for the thinking that matters.

More details about the programme and recruitment: Leading professional learning programme