Eastbourne Primary School

High Quality Teachers, High Quality Learning, High Quality Outcomes

A vision for excellence for our community.

Some Context: Victorian Education- PISA 2009

The Vision:

The Strategy:

Eastbourne Primary School: socio-economic background

Socio-economic disadvantage: a moral imperative to get it right

Raudenbusch (2009), cited in Dinham. (2010)

The impact of the teacher

So… what do good teachers do?

Trade-based vs evidence-based

We know what works! e5

Hattie

Early Years

International agreement

A clinical approach: diagnose need, intervene based on evidence-based methods, monitor impact of intervention

Collaboration and making the data visible leads to greater consistency: ‘more like the best’

Prof Geoff Masters (ACER)

High Expectations The belief that all students can improve

Clarity About Learning Intentions Knowing what improvement/progress looks like

Starting Point for Learning Knowing where learner is at

Evidence-Based Methods Knowing which teaching strategies/methods have proven to

help students make progress

Monitoring and Feedback Knowing whether or not teaching is working, how much and

for whom

Personalising Learning

Precision: to what extent does the learning match the individual’s point of need?

Engagement: to what extent is the learner participating behaviourally, emotionally and cognitively in their learning?

High Engagement, Low Precision

High Engagement, High Precision

Low Engagement, Low Precision

Low Engagement, High Precision

Personalised Learning: Imagine how hard this is!The average teacher begins each lesson with only generalised knowledge of what students know and do not know and where to focus instruction and provide instruction so that each student’s learning needs are met. As a consequence, teaching in classrooms lacks the kind of focus and precision needed…

Teachers know this and are all too conscious of the gap between what they believe about learning and the practicalities of making it happen in the busy classroom…

Given the realities of the classroom and the logistics of interacting with 30 or so students day in and day out, it is almost impossible for these conditions to be met for all students on a consistent and sustained basis.

- Fullan, Hill and Crevola (2006)

‘Critical Learning Path’

• Identify area of need

• Build developmental progression

• Develop assessment method and data display

•Plan, facilitate and monitor student-centred learning

• Reflect on effect of instruction

What does it look like?

Teams of 2-3 teachers

Meet during class time to plan

Professional Learning Team Leader: facilitates the process

Assistant Principal ‘coaches’ the team to higher engagement and precision

What does it look like?

What are we teaching?

How will we find out where students are currently at?

Where are they at?

What can we do to help the student make progress (learn)?

Who is making progress? Why?

Who isn't making progress? Why not? What can we do about that?

How much progress did we make over the period? What can we learn about effective teaching from that?

Finding the point of need…

Use of pre-assessments to diagnose, and subsequent assessments to monitor student progress

Students can see what they have to do to be successful

Increasing Student Engagement

Helping students set goals that are specific, measurable, attainable and relevant

All students are challenged and supported to make progress

Growth is reinforced and celebrated

Teacher-Directed, Student-Centred Teaching

Small-group explicit instruction: students with the same goal working to achieve their next step

Independent practise of current level to develop fluency, understanding and application

Feedback to the learner about where they are at, what their next step is, and how they might get there.

Teacher-Directed, Student-Centred Teaching

Small-group explicit instruction: students with the same goal working to achieve their next step

Independent practise of current level to develop fluency, understanding and application

Feedback to the learner about where they are at, what their next step is, and how they might get there.

Success so far…

Use of effect size to measure impact of interventions

A common scale to determine the impact of our changed actions and attitudes

Next steps…

Strategic resourcing to fit with the ‘engagement-precision-collaboration’ vision

Technology: iPads in junior school for independent learning to free up teacher for more precise instruction, media production space for students

Space to meet in collaborative teams with access to wi-fi and data projection

‘Sharepoint’ networking technology to enhance collaboration and storage of assessment data and curriculum planning

Further refinements to the timetable to facilitate collaboration

Increased planning time for teacher teams to further increase precision and point of need instruction (common literacy and numeracy times)