Monday 28 August 2017

Presenter Information

Tim Wyatt, Erebus International

Start Date

28-8-2017 4:00 PM

End Date

28-8-2017 5:15 PM

Subjects

Evidence based practice, Evaluative thinking, Case studies, Teacher effectiveness, Professional development, Disadvantaged schools, School leaders, School improvement, Educational leadership, Data analysis, Literacy education, Numeracy

Comments

Concurrent session 3C

Abstract

The NSW Literacy and Numeracy Action Plan, which operated from 2012 to 2016, provided $261 millon to improve literacy and numeracy learning in 448 the most disadvantaged and lowest performing schools across the three education sectors in NSW. A key objective of the Action Plan was to enhance teacher and school leader capacity, including the ability to apply evidence-based practices and evaluative thinking to planning and programming for teaching and learning at a classroom level, and to planning and decision-making at a whole-school level. The concept and terminology of ‘evidence-based practice’ is in common parlance in Australian schools; however, in many of the schools targeted by the Action Plan, authentic application of the principles of evidence-based practice was not well developed at the commencement of the initiative, and in some cases, often misunderstood. This presentation draws on data gathered during more than 70 schools visited and six longitudinal case studies conducted as part of the evaluation of the NSW Action Plan to develop a ‘synthetic’ case study of how successful schools have gone about building the confidence and competence of teachers and school leaders to embrace the new ways of thinking and working required to become true ‘evaluative thinkers’. What occurred in many of the schools visited can be described as nothing less than a complete paradigm shift in how they operated, providing a much richer, engaging, and relevant learning experience for their students. The case study will discuss the key role of Instructional Leaders in providing the professional learning necessary to underpin the new practices, data systems to provide authentic evidence for planning and teaching, and the implications for adoption of differentiated teaching, personalised learning and targeted interventions from adoption of the new models.

Place of Publication

Melbourne, Vic

Publisher

Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)

ISBN

9781742864808

Geographic Subject

New South Wales

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Aug 28th, 4:00 PM Aug 28th, 5:15 PM

Developing evaluative thinking and evidence-based practice: A synthetic case study

The NSW Literacy and Numeracy Action Plan, which operated from 2012 to 2016, provided $261 millon to improve literacy and numeracy learning in 448 the most disadvantaged and lowest performing schools across the three education sectors in NSW. A key objective of the Action Plan was to enhance teacher and school leader capacity, including the ability to apply evidence-based practices and evaluative thinking to planning and programming for teaching and learning at a classroom level, and to planning and decision-making at a whole-school level. The concept and terminology of ‘evidence-based practice’ is in common parlance in Australian schools; however, in many of the schools targeted by the Action Plan, authentic application of the principles of evidence-based practice was not well developed at the commencement of the initiative, and in some cases, often misunderstood. This presentation draws on data gathered during more than 70 schools visited and six longitudinal case studies conducted as part of the evaluation of the NSW Action Plan to develop a ‘synthetic’ case study of how successful schools have gone about building the confidence and competence of teachers and school leaders to embrace the new ways of thinking and working required to become true ‘evaluative thinkers’. What occurred in many of the schools visited can be described as nothing less than a complete paradigm shift in how they operated, providing a much richer, engaging, and relevant learning experience for their students. The case study will discuss the key role of Instructional Leaders in providing the professional learning necessary to underpin the new practices, data systems to provide authentic evidence for planning and teaching, and the implications for adoption of differentiated teaching, personalised learning and targeted interventions from adoption of the new models.

 

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