The vision and mission of CfTE: meeting the objectives of the Scottish Government

The Centre for Teaching Excellence supports Scotland’s national ambition to improve outcomes for all children and young people and strengthen professional learning across the education system. Rooted in the Scottish Government’s vision, our mission is to enable equitable, high-quality education by supporting teachers to lead and engage with research and evidence in ways that directly enhance their practice.

To achieve this, the Centre is focused on meeting five core objectives:

  • Working in collaboration with teachers and other stakeholders to identify areas of priority for research on learning, teaching, and assessment in Scotland’s education system
  • Supporting practice-focused research, for example practitioner enquiry, on teaching, learning and assessment, in relation to those areas of priority
  • Gathering national and international evidence about pedagogy and practice, providing analysis and synthesis of that evidence, ensuring this is widely accessible and relevant in a range of different contexts
  • Sharing research evidence and experiences to support teachers to develop their own practice.
  • Establishing partnerships with educational stakeholders including local authorities, schools, universities, and national bodies to enable the development of professionally relevant research-practice collaborations

Through this work, the Centre contributes to the wider goal of closing the attainment gap and ensuring that all children and young people in Scotland benefit from high-quality, research-informed teaching.

Education Scotland will lead curriculum design, delivery and improvement, including the provision of resources to support high quality learning and teaching. In addition, it will continue to support professional learning and have oversight through a national framework as well as working with local authorities to inform approaches to wellbeing, inclusion, behaviour and enabling better support for those with additional support. More information can be found here: Education Scotland.

A range of organisations will also continue to provide teachers with different forms of support for professional learning, including through schools and/or local authorities.