C.04. Research-based Teacher Professional Development as a Model of Professional Reflection for Teachers and Researchers

The Research-based Teacher Professional Development (R-TPD) framework, developed by the Interuniversity Educational Research Centre on Teacher Professional Development (CRESPI) (Asquini, 2018), promotes collaboration between researchers and educational stakeholders. Its aim is to produce scientifically robust knowledge while ensuring the sustainability of implemented actions. This approach has been applied in several intervention projects, including recent CRESPI PRIN2022 initiatives, to highlight a political–methodological model grounded in a transformative and reflexive paradigm (Dodman et al., 2025) and oriented towards the emancipation of educational practices.

At the core of R-TPD is collaborative inquiry between teachers and researchers, conceived as an interdisciplinary process integrating diverse theoretical and epistemological perspectives while keeping teacher reflexivity central.

Each project is structured around five principles that define R-TPD as a distinctive methodological approach and function as commitments and open questions:

Clear focus – explicit definition of research aims related to teacher learning and professional growth, with systematic analysis of change.
Co-construction – creation of an R-TPD group with clarified roles and negotiated goals, values, and methodological choices.
Context-specificity – attention to institutional and non-institutional conditions shaping each context, through ongoing analysis of constraints and resources.
Documentation-based practice – continuous discussion of collected documentation on processes and outcomes in school and professional development settings.
Impact-orientation – monitoring the effects of R-TPD on school practices, educational innovation, and teacher development.

The Panel presents main results from this research tradition and illustrates selected projects using the R-TPD model, encouraging reflection on its strengths, limitations, theoretical implications, and contribution to developing school professionalism.