Science of Learning Network of Schools: The science of communities of practice

Frameworks referencing synthesised bodies of prominent research adorn education improvement policy like curiously named pieces of Ikea furniture—peculiar in their assemblage, ostensibly contemporary, and striking in their modular convenience. Amid this, most pundits still agree that we have an education advancement issue in this country. Despite significant increases in funding from successive federal and state governments, we simply haven’t been able to shift the needle. What we can ascertain is that compliance-based improvement approaches don’t work. They are unable to influence the cognitive maps, beliefs and understandings of the educator to the extent necessary to effectively improve outcomes for students at scale. Paradoxically, advancements in learning research mean we know more about learning now than at any other time in human history. Neuroscience, cognitive psychology and pedagogic research offer empirical insights into better understanding, measuring and promoting human development. However, despite this increased emphasis on learning research, one must ask, ‘What has been the impact of this new knowledge, really?’ Schools are awash with professional development options. In an age of such proliferation of professional learning and new information for teachers, is it that our school-based practitioners are simply overfed and undernourished? The Science of Learning Research Centre was established in 2012, funded as an Australian Research Council special research initiative, to improve learner outcomes in Australian classrooms. Five years later, the extensive transdisciplinary learning research is connecting with Australian schools in a very powerful way. The Science of Learning Network of Schools (SoLNoS) is a research translation initiative designed to create the necessary platform for schools and researchers to work better together in the implementation, development and refinement of learning research. The best professional learning communities not only have access to quality research but are also capable of engineering and implementing adaptive structures and systems that respond to the changing external environment and demands. These schools have a strong learning culture. The SoLNoS supports school leadership teams and syndicates of schools with critical guidance and access to the most relevant and reliable learning research available—research that is specifically related to their school improvement strategies and individual contexts. In doing so, the SoLNoS is able to assist school leaders in establishing the conditions for powerful professional learning to occur. This is a case study of a true community of practice—one inhabited by both researchers and teachers; one that impacts both knowledge and belief; and one designed to bridge the divide between research and practice.