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1.4 Quality teaching in the middle years

Description

This is a continuing AGQTP activity. It links to and expands on the DEST funded Literacy in the Middle Years Initiative. The focus for this middle years activity is support for teachers to engage in professional learning to achieve quality pedagogy and improve student engagement and learning across the middle years of schooling (Years 5-9). Clusters of schools across the ten regions have identified a curriculum focus from civics and citizenship, literacy, numeracy, health education, or science and technology. In addition there is provision for school clusters to be funded to expand on previous AGQTP projects which focused on professional learning for teaching in the middle years.

Through action learning processes, a new cohort of school project teams is exploring the NSW DET model of pedagogy for application across the middle years, engaging in change management processes to build the links across schools and undertaking common project evaluation procedures. The school selection criteria have been refined in response to identified regional needs, and feedback from the designated curriculum project officers and participating school clusters. School clusters choose to work with an academic partner, regional consultancy teams and/or school education directors.

The activity is managed by designated curriculum project officers who take responsibility for the activity meeting the professional needs of participating teachers.

Contacts

Outcomes

Through participation in an AGQTP project, teachers will have strengthened the currency and depth of their learning area knowledge and understandings.
Through participation in an AGQTP project, teachers will have strengthened the currency and depth of their pedagogical knowledge and skills.

Access

Teachers and school executives Years 5-9

Design

Action learning teams will be established to address individual professional development needs and school needs through an inquiry process involving planning, acting, evaluating, observing, reflecting, recording, sharing and celebrating. Collegiality is essential to the effective operation of these action learning processes.

Action learning will be used by all project schools to reflect on current teaching, share existing expertise within and across schools, and improve teaching practice. Data/information will be collected and analysed throughout the project to monitor changes in school culture, and in teacher and student learning.

To stimulate their growth in professional learning teachers will engage with the following frameworks, experimenting with new ideas and taking planned risks:

• AGQTP framework of professional learning principles


• seven organisers of middle years action in NSW


• action learning/research framework as the change model


• quality teaching framework, influencing pedagogy, pedagogical content knowledge and assessment, and establishing consistency in the quality of pedagogy across the middle years of schooling


• curriculum planning framework, including BOS syllabuses and DET middle years strategies, providing continuity of student learning experiences and outcomes across the middle years of schooling


• project evaluation framework, including evaluation criteria and data collection, analysis and reporting procedures.

Implementation

The implementation of the activity will be supported by the following personnel: designated project officers, academic partners, sector and regional consultants, school-based professional learning teams.

Delivery

Workplace learning, action learning project, workshops

Timeline

By May 2007:

• school clusters identified


• planning workshops conducted with clusters of schools


• website functionality built


• submit progress report in May.

• project officer visits to schools to support action learning processes


• action learning team visits across schools


• action learning teams analysis of student data to inform next cycle of professional learning


• submit annual report in November.

Sectors