The NSW Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation has launched a guide to help the State’s teachers collaborate to improve students’ learning outcomes.
Executive Director, Schools Policy and Evidence at the Department of Education, Jacky Hodges said the Guide to evidence-based models of collaborative inquiry identified five models of collaboration and the conditions under which they worked best.
“Collaboration allows best practice to be identified and shared across classrooms, and doing so effectively improves both student outcomes and teaching practice,” Ms Hodges said.
“School leaders and teachers may choose to apply one or more models depending on their school’s context,” she said.
“By reviewing the common elements across the models, school leaders and teachers can develop an understanding of which models may meet which needs or purposes in their school.”
Ms Hodges said the resource explored the evidence to support the five models, instructional rounds, quality teaching rounds, data walls, learning walks, and spirals of inquiry.
She said a spiral of inquiry provided a step-by-step framework for teachers to work in teams to address key challenges in their school and ensure that their students’ needs were being met.
“This concept is based on the idea that innovation and change are driven by systems that encourage, nurture and sustain curiosity,” the Executive Director said.
“Teachers can use spirals of inquiry to understand what is going on for learners, interrogate how they know what is going on and reflect on why it matters.”
Ms Hodges said the Guide to evidence-based models of collaborative inquiry was currently only available to Department of Education teachers and school leaders.
The Guide to evidence based on models of collaborative inquiry is currently only available to teachers and school leaders in the NSW Department of Education.
