Knowledge Society turns knowledge into impact.
We believe practice change, informed by the best evidence, is the most powerful lever to improve education.
Tim McDonald’s story in the Australian highlights how safe and ordered classroom environments are crucial to student learning. Let's give teachers the tools for a calm, orderly classroom!
https://t.co/DtxsJrbFIh
Australian education standards need to lift and curriculum is key. Knowledge Society CEO Elena Douglas outlines the importance of a strong curriculum in improving student learning. #Curriculumreform#LearningFirst
Check out the link below:
https://t.co/9pq1sMa70V
Getting literacy right...based on science and evidence. It can be done - if we can just support our schools, we can get greater outcomes for Australian kids. This is a powerful show of unity:
https://t.co/ALNdmux8Ys
Yes Leora, that paper heralded a new era in teachers and education leaders facing into how the evidence and science of learning needed to be faced and classroom practice reviewed in its light. It had a global impact. We have a lot of implementation ahead. @LeoraCruddas
🚀Cohort 9 🌟
Through the grey day Cohort 9 showed hard work and determination in Workshop 7. They proved that progress comes from dedication as they reach the half way point of the program. Thanks to special guest Dahmen from elastik for the insightful session on data 👏📊💼
@buckingham_j@greg_ashman Even more recently, the Australian government has announced reforms to teacher training that borrow from key elements of our recent teacher development reforms: https://t.co/fEHe3LpjBH
If you haven't caught on to the fact that 'school is a place for learning' then you need to catch up! All children deserve to be in orderly, calm and safe classrooms. Well done RSC #rscproud@DrTimMcDonald1@douglas_elena@KnowledgeScty
One of the unexpected pleasures of a decade of successful reforms is other countries learning from what has gone well in this country. A final thread on the pride we should have in our reforms being echoed in Australia - and reflections on how there is much more to be done here.
I'm preparing to teach my Semester 2 pre-service units that have focused on the "science of learning and teaching children literacy" since 2002. This is why my @EdithCowanUni grads are so highly sought after. https://t.co/w2LaMVRuv0
Brilliant to see the terrific work of @ceacg profiled by @ABCaustralia. Really proud to be part of the journey. Excited to see how Australia's initial teacher education review can drive equity and excellence in education! Congrats @Rossefox@ellis_patrick@Brad1968@scott_trazel!
Great thread from Nick Gibb on England’s education reform and Australia learning from England and vice verdant. Gibb saw to it that the teaching of reading in England would be evidence-based and can be proud of the long term impact of this on his county. @NickGibbUK
We draw our Science of Learning UK Trip to close. What an amazing (and full) week. Highlights included meeting @P_A_Kirschner, visiting @Ambition_Inst and Michaela Community School, but everything was really a highlight.
I provide some reflections below…
I have summed the trip up in three words that I will take back to the Catalyst team…
Consistency, Precision & Clarity
We are well placed in our early journey within Catalyst, a long way to go, but affirming.
We have strong foundations through Catalyst, which has been reinforced on this trip.
- What we teach and how we teach matters
- The teacher is the most important learner
- Importance of teacher presence and authority
- Curriculum - lever of sustaining change
- Knowledge is power - You inquire, create and explore, from a place of knowledge
- Gaining attentional control is critical in order for students to learn - students learn what they attend to
- Well placed within Catalyst now after considerable training, to build upon the last three years for coaching, walk thrus and low stake observations and feedback to occur more often
- Responsive leadership - critical role of the leader
- Importance of culture, setting the conditions
- Structures and Standards - working together for longer term sustainability
- Iterations, what we now know that we didn’t know before, what we do now we didn’t do before
- Quality first wave teaching focus
- Don’t lower expectations - maintain the standard but have the wrap around supports for all children to succeed
- Routines and structures set up all students for success
- Calm and orderly environment - routines and structures provide space for students to reach full potential
- Raise the bar with student responses and attend to oracy
- Maximum effort pays off - set the tone
A few quotes/statements that stand out for me.
- Habits build character
- Keep getting better
- Work high, Be kind, Aim high
- I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.
At the start of the trip, I was looking at potential enablers to help us moving from implementation to embedding and sustaining Catalyst long term.
- onboarding - keep the standard - detail matters
- Still more to learn (external expertise balanced with internal capability/capacity)
- low stakes peer observations can be powerful for continuous culture of feedback
- Curriculum - scaffold for sustainability
- At all levels, what are we de-implementing to provide the space needed for continued change (eg structures and processes)
- be clear on design principles of Professional development to ensure impact
- Continue to leverage the ‘systemness’ to fed continued iterations and momentum (others don’t have that, we are fortunate)
- Anchor in the evidence base - keep coming back to what is most important
- Ground up (teachers) help to continue to drive this change (teacher to teacher)
- Monitoring and accountability
I appreciate the opportunity and privilege to have been able to attend this learning experience. (2 claps for you all who we visited on 2….1,2 👏🏻👏🏻 - part of gratitude time at family lunches in the Secondary schools we visited).
Thank you @Rossefox and @tony_bracken for allowing my attendance and @ceacg and @KnowledgeScty #Catalyst
Don’t know where to start sharing the clever practice and human wisdom of Ark Soane Academy. What an amazing place. So much for us to learn! https://t.co/zi1Upnp9M9
We learnt a lot from an hour with Hon. Nick Gibb Minister for Stat, Schools. The English reform journey has improved standards through structural change, evidence based practice and knowledge rich curriculum. Better student learning and climbing global rankings the rewards.
Wise principles for Australian educators to consider in improving how we approach education support for children with disabilities. https://t.co/p4IyiPLygg
Knowledge Society is in England with 16 Australian educators. Why have we chosen England for a learning tour? Not only has England England moved to fourth in the world, and even performed ahead of former poster-child Finland in PIRLS reading, but its in t…https://t.co/qD4kKmDoSm