This research is concerned with the changes to teachers’ pedagogical practices after an intervention on implementing a key skills approach to teaching and learning. The context of the research is upper secondary school in Ireland. The intervention was implemented in two schools and the process tracked. This paper describes the changes to teachers’ beliefs about teaching and the impact of this on their pedagogical practice. The intervention was developed from work carried out and reported on by the NCCA from 2006 to 2010 (NCCA, 2008, 2009a, 2010b).

There is a considerable amount of literature on professional development, teacher learning and teacher change (see for example Villegas-Reimers, 2003). It is evident from the literature that changing practice is a very complex process. Day and Leitch (2001) advise that continuing professional development must give a central role to the emotional dimension of teachers’ selves as teaching requires motivation, commitment and emotional attachment, and this requires a deep knowledge of self (p. 414). Elmore (2004) has noted that the kind of difficult, contingent and uncertain learning that constitutes professional change for teachers is best situated in close proximity to the work itself – the teacher’s own classroom. There have been many studies on school change that point to the fact that teaching and learning and the quality of the learning environment is the one factor that teachers and schools can change to bring about enhanced learning for students (Hattie, 2003, Entwistle, 2009).

There have been a number of comprehensive reviews of key competence development in school education, in Europe (Eurydice 2012, KeyCoNet 2013, nfer 2014) and across the globe (Rosefsky and Opfer 2012, Salas Pilco 2013, Finegold and Notabartolo 2010). In order to develop competences requires rethinking what students learn, how they learn and the learning environment in which they learn whether this is within formal schooling or outside it. This requires changing the curriculum to embed competences within the knowledge, changing the dominant pedagogical strategies to enable students to socially construct knowledge, skills and attitudes within environments that encourage collaboration and the development of learning communities. Many of the frameworks developed describe qualities such as creativity, innovation, personal effectiveness skills such as reflection and so on. Heretofore the development of these competences was left to chance in many education systems, the competency agenda calls for them to be more evident in curricula, in teaching strategies employed and in assessment.

Taking into account the philosophical argument that a linear model of causality, you teach this way then key skills will be embedded, is not desirable, there is convincing evidence presented in this research (Clark, 2005). In this context this research set out to find out:

What is the impact on teacher attitudes and beliefs about learning and classroom practices with the implementation of a key skills approach to teaching and learning at second level?

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