This paper identifies an "education through science" philosophy for school science teaching at the secondary level and determines its interrelationship with approaches to student acquisition of key educational competences and the identification of teacher needs to promote meaningful learning during science lessons. Based on the philosophy, factors identified as integral to the PROFILES project (PROFILES, 2010) and aspects related to the teaching approach, the paper sets out to put forward areas of potential teacher professional need and plan for an effective continuous development (CPD) programme to promote teacher's self-efficacy in undertaking teaching through "education through science," as advocated in PROFILES. From a breakdown of desired students' learning and components related to teacher self-efficacy, the professional needs of teachers are identified by means of a validated Teacher Needs Questionnaire (TNQ), covering identified pedagogical content knowledge and philosophical expectations, together with follow-up interviews with selected teachers. The TNQ/interview outcomes were analysed and used to develop a continuous professional development programme for teachers. Findings show that teacher competences needs were mainly focused on educational theories, assessment, inquiry-based learning and self-reflection, while their self-identified, perceived need for professional development was much wider and support in all potential components were requested. The wide request from teachers made the planning of the CPD more difficult but the various components were interlinked with the competence requirements in the developed CPD programme.