In the last two decades, the importance of teacher professional development has gained prominence with researchers and policy-makers focusing on this field of teacher education. Meta-analyses of school and teaching quality discovered that teachers’ participation in professional development programmes positively correlates with student learning. Such programmes provide teachers with opportunities to learn from newest research about innovative practices and teaching tools to best meet their students’ needs. However, not every professional development programme is necessarily effective. In addition, in some countries, such as Germany, there are hardly any minimum requirements for teacher participation in professional development activities. Moreover, research shows that German teachers often perceive professional development programmes they have taken part in to be of low quality and too time-consuming. This article outlines the components of effective professional development and introduces two innovative approaches in Germany that could function as best practice examples for future programmes: The Dialogic Video Cycle and the Video Feedback2. Both programmes contain the core components content focus, active learning, collective participation, coherence and are of sustainable duration.