ACEReSearch

This area covers a broad field of research into what is sometimes labelled systemic reform. The Teaching and Leadership Program embraces research and evaluation of educational programs designed to improve teaching and learning in educational settings.

There is a long history behind this research tradition that goes back to the large-scale curriculum reform programs of the 1960s and the research on school improvement and educational change in the 1980s, which transformed into the school effectiveness and accountability movements of the 1990s and now what is known as systemic reform. One of the recurring findings of research on the adoption and implementation of educational innovations or best practice is that there are no short cuts to significant change in classroom practice. It is difficult for policy to penetrate to the level of practice, as loose coupling theorists, for example, attempt to explain. Significant change comes from within and is a matter of learning to do something new; of building capacity. It is a message that sometimes gets lost because of the rapid turnover of educational policy makers. The ACER Teaching and Leadership team has conducted evaluations of many reform programs for a wide range of clients.