The Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) has launched a new microcourse to support school leaders working to embed evidence-based teaching across their schools.
The 15-minute course ‘Implementation in schools: Achieving lasting change’ has been designed for all school leaders and aims to enhance understanding of the factors that contribute to effective implementation of evidence-based practice and improved student outcomes.
The microcourse has been informed by research, including AERO’s Learning Partner project involving more than 50 schools, and features a video case study of one of those schools, St Columban’s College in Caboolture, QLD.
“Amid the ongoing shift towards evidence-based practice in Australian education, school leaders are seeking out guidance on how to ensure effective implementation can be sustained,” AERO CEO Dr Jenny Donovan said.
“For a long time, effective implementation was a bit of a mystery, but implementation research now provides important insights for embedding and sustaining evidence-based practices over time, such as the importance of a deliberate and structured approach.
“This microcourse has been designed to provide practical support to schools and enhance understanding around the factors that contribute to lasting change and improved student outcomes.”
The course includes insights from St Columban’s College, a secondary school with an enrolment of 2000 students, which is implementing explicit teaching in Year 7 to 9 mathematics.
St Columban’s Assistant Principal – Learning and Teaching, Ms Amanda Schimke credited taking a careful and considered approach from the beginning for the success of the work so far.
“The focus on implementation – so it’s not rushed – has really given us an opportunity to think about how we’re going to do this well, so that there is that absolute buy-in from staff,” she said.
“The early signs are definitely promising, and our teachers are reporting greater confidence and consistency in their explicit teaching practice.”
As well as offering a starting point for school leaders and implementation teams, the microcourse provides an overview of a deliberate and structured approach to implementation.
The course is the latest in AERO’s collection of guides and resources to help schools implement change, including an interactive tool to help schools navigate the various stages of implementation.
For more practical resources, see AERO’s Implementation in Schools: Practical Resources collection.
