they can provide systemic coherence and consolidate the vision of w hat the country considers to be a good teacher professional standards describe a common set of competencies that good teachers are expected to have or develop throughout their careers they are an opportunity for members of the profession to link research and practice further building a collegial understanding of longterm goals means and accountability based in practice furthermore this shared understanding of what constitutes a good teacher can help to better align classrooms schools and systemlevel organisations while providing the necessary resources to teachers to better support student learning oecd kleinhenz and ingvarson toledo figueroa revai and guerriero