Evaluate the impact of your teaching on student learning growth. This toolkit is for leading teachers and schools who are implementing a professional learning community.
Who should use this resource
The target audiences for this resource are:
- teacher leaders
- teams of teachers.
While individual teachers often take formal responsibility for a particular class of students, they are best supported when they partner with colleagues, learning with and from each other.
Team learning has the additional benefit of collective responsibility for all students – a hallmark of high-growth schools and systems.
Formal structures such as a professional learning communities (PLCs) offer an effective school architecture for team learning to occur. These structures are especially effective when supported by time and resources and underpinned by a schoolwide culture of respect and trust.
When it should be used
You should use this resource at various points in the learning and teaching cycle to support instructional decision-making.
The best initial entry point is when:
- curriculum or unit designs are being developed
- learning needs and intended learning are clarified and defined
- the appropriate assessment methods, tools and resources are designed and aligned.
Quality assessment design is needed to uncover where students are in their learning at the beginning, middle and end of a unit.
The approach that underpins the resource
The approach offered in this resource recognises quality assessment as a collaborative practice that enables learning together in a community. This acknowledges the critical contribution of teachers, leaders, support staff, students themselves, parents, families and communities as necessary for the full flourishing of every student.
As such, these tools and resources privilege dialogue and collaboration with and between leaders, teachers and students.
Building the assessment capability of teachers is a key aim, as they work together to:
- make sense of evidence
- clarify what progression of learning looks like
- empower students to make themselves known.
The approach offered also recognises that context matters. Just as we recognise a diversity of learners in each class, we recognise a diversity of schools in each system. As such, practical tools and resources are provided that offer significant flexibility for teachers to design, focus in on and find out exactly what they need to know about their students.