Impact questions, indicators and key actions for school leaders, instructional leaders and teachers to use during the ‘prioritise and set goals’ phase of the Framework for improving student outcomes (FISO) improvement cycle.
During this phase, professional learning communities (PLCs):
- identify the learning needs of students and prioritise the areas that need to be addressed most
- co-construct learning goals and success criteria with students
- use co-constructed student learning goals and success criteria to identify priority areas for professional learning and set challenging professional learning goals
- align the goals of the PLC with those of the school’s annual implementation plan (AIP) and school strategic plan (SSP).
Impact questions and indicators
What does the evidence suggest students are ready to learn?
PLCs are enabled when we:
- identify the individual learning needs of every student
- map student needs to the curriculum through personalised approaches
- ensure student voice is heard when planning the curriculum
- understand factors of psychological and social readiness, such as self-confidence and self-efficacy.
What are possible evidence- based teaching practices and how will we prioritise them?
PLCs are enabled when we:
- research different pedagogical approaches from a variety of credible sources
- identify practices using the resources of the Victorian teaching and learning model
- draw on professional judgement, pooling the knowledge and expertise of the team
- prioritise practices based on individual student needs and on the anticipated effect of the intervention.
What learning goals will we establish with students?
PLCs are enabled when we:
- co-construct learning goals with students in all classrooms
- guide students to make the goals achievable, challenging and learning-focused in all classrooms
- co-construct success criteria for successful achievement of the goals with students
- support all teachers to co-construct goals and success criteria with students by providing the necessary professional development and resources.
What learning goals will we set for ourselves?
PLCs are enabled when we:
- work together to devise team learning goals aligned with co-constructed student learning goals and success criteria
- provide support for each other in the development of professional learning plans
- set goals that are challenging and ambitious
- establish processes where feedback can be provided by peers and students on performance to support ongoing learning and development.
Key actions
School leaders
- align PLC goals with the AIP goals and the SSP
- ensure that staff learning goals through both PLC and PDP are articulated clearly and are guided by student learning goals.
Instructional leaders
- articulate a clear focus for the inquiry cycle using student data analysis and school AIP goals
- use co-constructed student success criteria and learning goals to identify priority areas for professional learning and set challenging professional learning goals.
Teachers
- articulate and set learning goals with students, including the possible steps to be taken to achieve them
- contribute to the development of team learning goals.
Find out more
These resources and tools will help you to implement these rigorous practices in schools.
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