For Distinguished Laureate Professor Jenny Gore, quality professional learning is about more than good teaching – it’s about helping educators rediscover confidence, connection and purpose in their work.
When Laureate Professor Jenny Gore began her career as a secondary PE teacher in South Australia, she could never have imagined her work would one day shape national policy and practice in teacher development.
Yet two decades of research, evidence and advocacy later, her Quality Teaching (QT) Model and Quality Teaching Rounds (QTR) approach are changing the professional landscape for Australian educators – and proving that high-quality professional development can do far more than improve classroom practice. It can restore teachers’ confidence, connection and joy in their work.
“I’ve always had a passion for how we help teachers to do their jobs better and to feel more satisfied with their work,” Prof Gore says. That passion has driven her career from her early days in the classroom to her current role as Distinguished Laureate Professor at the University of Newcastle, where she leads the Teachers and Teaching Research Centre.
Her journey into academia wasn’t a deliberate one – “circumstances took me here”, she laughs – but it became a calling. Early research collaborations with leading education scholars, including Professor Alan Luke, Professor Bob Lingard and Associate Professor James Ladwig, led to the development of a new way of thinking about classroom practice.
The result was the QT Model, developed in partnership with the New South Wales Department of Education and first introduced in 2003. Built around three key dimensions – intellectual quality, quality learning environment, and significance – it offers a coherent framework for describing and improving teaching practice across grade levels, subject areas and school contexts.
From a model to a movement
While the QT Model helped schools define what good teaching looks like, Prof Gore and her team soon realised teachers needed a way to work with the Model collaboratively and meaningfully. “We needed to not only develop the Model but also a way of working with it that would be really powerful,” she explains.
That’s where QTR came in. Like medical rounds – where clinicians collectively observe, diagnose and discuss patient care – QTR brings teachers together in small professional learning communities to observe one another’s lessons, code them against the QT Model, and engage in deep professional dialogue.
“Teachers love getting into each other’s classrooms, which they so rarely get to do,” says Prof Gore. “They also value having time to read and talk about educational ideas. It’s a chance to engage with professional reading, observe a full lesson, and then come together for a rich, confidential discussion about what they’ve seen.”
Unlike quick ‘walk-throughs’ or observation checklists, QTR requires teachers to watch an entire lesson – seeing the flow of learning from start to finish – before individually coding and then discussing the lesson as a group. The process deliberately flattens hierarchy: everyone, including the observed teacher, participates equally. “We’ve done a lot to shift the power dynamics,” Prof Gore says. “It’s not about supervision or evaluation. It’s about collective diagnosis and professional growth.”
Teachers who have taken part consistently report that the experience strengthens trust, collegiality and professional confidence. “They laugh, they debate, they share vulnerabilities,” Prof Gore adds. “It’s a safe, supportive space for their learning – the opposite of high-pressure performance review.”
Prof Gore often describes QTR as addressing not just the substance of professional learning – what teachers need to know – but also its structure and relationships. Each round includes four components: professional reading, classroom observation, individual coding, and collaborative discussion. Together they create a cycle of inquiry that is rigorous, relational and rewarding.
“Many teachers tell us it’s the best professional learning they’ve ever done,” says Prof Gore. “It makes teaching more intellectually engaging again.”
The benefits also extend to students. Decades of research show that when teachers engage in QTR, student achievement can improve – with even greater effects in disadvantaged school settings. Cessnock High, for example, recently ranked second in NSW for improvement in HSC results and seventh in the state for NAPLAN improvement – this is a school with 75 per cent of students in the lowest quartile for socioeconomic advantage and 25 per cent who are Indigenous. “We’re seeing impact on equity as well as excellence,” Prof Gore says.
National investment, local impact
The value of quality professional development has never been more urgent. With Australia facing ongoing challenges in teacher recruitment and retention, programs that strengthen teacher efficacy and wellbeing are critical.
According to Prof Gore, QTR does exactly that. “We’re seeing fewer teachers reporting burnout, and statistically significant improvements in teacher efficacy – their sense that they can make a difference,” she says.
Gains are particularly strong across the areas of classroom management, effective strategies and student engagement.
Importantly, teachers who participate are also less likely to plan to leave the profession. “It’s having an impact on retention, which is huge,” Prof Gore adds.
That impact is now being amplified through a component of the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan (NTWAP) – a federal initiative providing free QTR professional development to 1,600 teachers to ensure quality induction into teaching.
Supported by $5 million in Commonwealth funding, the program was launched by Education Minister Jason Clare at Hambledon Public School in July 2023 and represents bipartisan recognition of the value of Prof Gore’s work.
“We’re just over halfway through now,” she says. “We’ve reached more than a thousand teachers from every state and territory, across government, Catholic and independent sectors.”
For participating schools, the professional learning itself is fully funded, with only teacher release time to cover.
“It’s a two-day workshop followed by four days of in-school Quality Teaching Rounds,” Prof Gore explains. “So there’s no external consultant coming in – it’s teachers working with teachers in their own context.”
Each group of four teachers includes at least two early-career educators and at least one more experienced colleague, deliberately mixing generations and expertise.
“That blend of early-career and experienced teachers is central to the induction project,” Prof Gore says. “It’s about building capability, confidence and connection at the start of a teacher’s career.”
Preliminary data from the program confirm strong results: reduced burnout, increased wellbeing, stronger professional trust, and significant gains in teacher self-efficacy.
Qualitative data mirror those findings. “Teachers talk about how it’s changed their knowledge, practice, relationships and wellbeing,” Prof Gore says. “And all from just four days of rounds with their peers.”
Perhaps most importantly, the approach is designed to be sustainable and self-propelling. “We’re actually trying to do ourselves out of a job,” Prof Gore laughs. “Once teachers understand the process, they can run it themselves.”
Workshops for the QTR induction program are offered throughout the year, both face-to-face and online. Even the virtual sessions receive exceptional feedback.
“Sitting at a computer for two days of PD doesn’t sound attractive,” Prof Gore admits, “but our participants rate the experience between ‘world class’ and ‘outstanding’ (using the Net Promoter Score). It’s engaging, interactive, and gives them a taste of the rounds process before they lead it themselves.”
Schools don’t need to send their entire staff – two to four teachers per school is enough to get started. “Once they’ve attended the workshop, they can lead rounds back in their own school,” she says.
The process is deliberately designed to stay developmental, not evaluative. “We’re clear that this isn’t about collecting data for principals or performance appraisal,” Prof Gore emphasises. “It’s about learning together and making everyday practice stronger.”
For Prof Gore, the real success of the Quality Teaching movement lies not just in measurable outcomes, but in how it re-energises the profession.
“When teachers feel trusted, supported and intellectually stimulated, everything else follows,” she says.
How to get involved
Schools interested in participating in the Strengthening Induction through Quality Teaching Rounds project can register for free two-day workshops – offered both in person and online – through the University of Newcastle’s non-profit social enterprise, the QT Academy.
Each school needs four participating teachers, two of whom are in their first three years of teaching and at least one with more experience, to participate in the project. Workshops will continue through to mid-2027, but places are limited. For more information, visit https://qtr.edu.au/induction.
