Quality Teaching Academy

Building capacity for quality teaching to deliver better outcomes for all students. 

You can have 1000 solutions designed to improve learning, but their success ultimately depends on the quality of teaching. 

Teachers are already overwhelmed with information about what they're supposed to do, and they have no way to unpack it and distil the essence of good teaching.

The first step to scaling up quality is developing a shared understanding of what quality is. 

The Quality Teaching Model does this. It focuses teachers' attention on three big ideas: Intellectual Quality, Quality Learning Environment and Significance.

We have a powerful pedagogical model, a proven process for teacher development, rare evidence of impact, and the necessary infrastructure for scaling. 

Quality Teaching Rounds is a low-cost, scalable form of PD that empowers teachers to analyse and refine their practice without external facilitation. It's relevant for teachers in every subject, grade, and career stage.

Over the past two decades we have demonstrated statistically significant effects of Quality Teaching Rounds on the quality of teaching, teacher morale and importantly student achievement.

The Quality Teaching Academy is a for-purpose social enterprise that make Quality Teaching Model and Quality Teaching Rounds accessible to teachers everywhere. 

We are uniquely positioned to help deliver the ambitious agenda of the Schools2030 initiative.

The Quality Teaching Model was first developed by Associate Professor James Ladwig and Laureate Professor Jenny Gore in 2003 for the NSW Department of Education, and has been used as its model of pedagogy ever since. The Quality Teaching Model was built upon the pioneering research of Professor Fred Newmann on ‘authentic pedagogy’, and Associate Professor James Ladwig and Professor Bob Lingard on ‘productive pedagogies’.

The Quality Teaching Model is currently embedded in more than 3,000 schools in Australia. Since its introduction, the Model has been evaluated in several rigorous studies, as the foundation of a form of professional development, Quality Teaching Rounds, to measure its impact on pedagogy, teaching quality and student achievement. 

These studies (2004-2007, 2009-2012, 2012, 2014-2015, and 2019-2023) have consistently demonstrated the power of the Quality Teaching Model and Quality Teaching Rounds in improving the quality of teaching and learning. 

In our most recent randomised controlled trial, we found that the students whose teachers participated in Quality Teaching Rounds achieved an additional 25% learning growth in mathematics - equivalent to two months in the eight month study period. Additionally, Quality Teaching Rounds has been shown to improve the quality of teaching, teacher morale and self-efficacy, and school culture.

As part of our ongoing strategy we would evaluate the adaptability and efficacy of the Quality Teaching Model and Quality Teaching Rounds in developing nations where cultural and linguistic differences, teachers’ understanding of pedagogy, and access to resources present significant barriers to quality teaching and learning.

This robust evidence demonstrates the strength of the Model for codifying teaching and learning solutions, and the ability for teachers to use the Model to enhance their classroom practice.

This solution is driving innovation to address two of the most pressing problems facing the profession – how to improve student learning outcomes and how to build, retain and sustain the teaching workforce. The Quality Teaching Model at the heart of this solution has proven impact across school types, curriculum areas, grades and at all points of teachers’ careers. 

The Model honours the complexity of teaching, rather than reducing it to its component parts. In so doing, it respects the realities of teachers’ work and provides a powerful mechanism for developing a shared understanding of good teaching as a first step in scaling up quality.

Research has demonstrated that Quality Teaching Rounds (QTR), simultaneously transforms the quality of teaching, teacher morale and student achievement. No other approach is founded on such a comprehensive pedagogical model or attends so carefully to the power relations inherent in teacher collaboration.

The focus on pedagogy rather than content makes it applicable across subject areas and therefore scalable. Targeting the quality of teaching, rather than the quality of teachers, recognises that teachers interactions with students is what matters most. Teachers from different curriculum areas of a school or from across different schools can engage together.

Unusually, while so many forms of PL rely on continued external support or technological solutions, the Quality Teaching Model is a comprehensive document that stands alone.  It is backed with online materials but access to these is not required to understand and utilise the Model.  

Assumptions:

• The Quality Teaching Model is successfully translated into the local context

• School leadership is willing to support teachers in developing their practice

• Teachers are willing to develop and change their views / practices

• Teachers want to collaborate and learn with their peers

Activities:

• Teachers assess their professional learning solution against the 18 elements of the Quality Teaching Model
• Teachers use the Model to understand and develop their classroom practice
• Teachers are trained in how to lead QTR in their schools

• Teachers undertake QTR in schools within their Professional Learning Communities

Intermediate Outcomes:

• Enhanced capacity to lead colleagues in refinement of teaching

• Enhanced professional learning among teachers

• Improved teacher efficacy

• Improved well-being, morale and engagement among teachers

• Enhanced professional identity among teachers

• Improved collaboration and support among teachers

Ultimate Goals:

• Improved quality of teaching

• Improved student outcomes (engagement, academic, equity)

• System adoption across multiple jurisdictions

• A comprehensive framework for the codification of teaching and professional learning programs

Evidence:

• Multiple studies (2004-2007, 2009-2012, 2012, 2014-2015, and 2019-2023) have consistently demonstrated the power of the Quality Teaching Model and Quality Teaching Rounds in improving the quality of teaching and learning
• Quality Teaching Rounds has been shown to improve the quality of teaching, teacher morale and self-efficacy, and school culture
• Our 2019 randomised controlled trial, found that the students whose teachers participated in Quality Teaching Rounds achieved an additional 25% learning growth in mathematics - equivalent to two months in the eight month study period

The Quality teaching Academy aims to build teachers’ capacity for ongoing improvement, the goal is to raise quality and improve equity, two of the most critical issues facing education across the world. The innovations in pedagogy and professional learning represented by the Quality Teaching Model have already begun to shape the future of education to improve learning for all students, whatever their cultural, geographic or socio-economic location. This in turn leads to enhanced life opportunities and progress on the intransigent issues facing many nations: inequity, poverty, under-achievement and diminished aspirations.

Teachers everywhere face mounting challenges in our increasingly complex world. They need concepts and strategies to ensure their students achieve well and get the grounding they require to create better futures. 

Over the coming three years, it is intended to expand QTR from a ground-breaking Australian approach to a global education reform movement. QTR began in New South Wales, one of the largest state Departments of Education in the world. As word spread of its effectiveness, other state systems opted in (including the ACT, Queensland and Victoria), after often complex negotiations, which other nations began to watch closely.

Now is the time for expansion internationally. Professor Gore and her team have the pedagogy (QT Model), they have the processes (QTR), they have the proof that it works for student achievement, improved teaching and teacher morale. And they have the capacity to grow. Their research is systematic and rigorous, characteristics which are crucial to broader uptake on the global scene.

The immediate barriers for advancing our solution are: 

• Establishing connections and local networks in developing countries
• On the ground resources to support the ongoing delivery
• Understanding and adapting to the country-level contexts
• Understanding teacher pedagogy, and levels of knowledge and qualifications in new contexts 

• Scalability and delivery based on teachers' resources and regional infrastructure

• Financial resources to adapt the solution to the local context

The longer term barriers are:

• Engagement and alignment with the policy priorities in new contexts

• Making research findings accessible for teachers and school leaders

• Reaching new schools and cutting through a crowded professional development market

• Cultural and linguistic differences that limit the applicability of the model

• Degree to which teacher qualifications and background knowledge make a difference to implementation and viability of Quality Teaching 

Establishing connections and local networks in developing countries

On the ground resources to support the ongoing delivery

Understanding and adapting to the country-level contexts

Understanding teacher pedagogy, and levels of knowledge and qualifications in new contexts 

• Utilise the Schools2030 National Advisory Committees to engage stakeholders, leverage local knowledge, and adapt to specific contexts and needs. Engage translators. Pilot, assess, evaluate, and refine the approach.

Scalability and delivery based on teachers' resources and regional infrastructure

• Our solution can be adapted to be as low tech as providing teachers with the Classroom Practice Guide booklet to facilitate their own development or implement a fully digital solution to connect isolated and rural teachers with other teachers across their nation.

Financial resources to adapt the solution to the local context

• Start with small scale pilots and leverage the prize money to increase the quantum  

Making research findings accessible for teachers and school leader

• Utilise current resources, engage translators and local education and communication experts to advise. Assess, analyse and refine material based on a continuous improvement model.

Reaching new schools and cutting through a crowded professional development market

• Leverage the Schools2030 consortium and other powerful networks to introduce our solution. Brief key stakeholders, government officials and association representatives to build broad advocacy networks. Engage local and international communication and marketing experts and educators to report on solution success.