Beyond Content-Focused Professional Development: Fostering School Improvement Through a Focus on Pedagogy

• In Event: Conceptual and Statistical Models for Professional Development

Abstract

Articulations of effective professional development (PD) routinely include a focus on content knowledge. Arguably, however, pedagogical practices cut across grades and subjects. In this paper, we analyse the impact of a pedagogy-focused approach to PD, called Quality Teaching Rounds (QTR), that uses the Quality Teaching (QT) pedagogical model. Drawing on interviews with 96 teachers and school leaders at 24 schools in NSW, Australia, we found that QTR: 1) generated fresh insights about pedagogy and students, 2) enhanced collegiality among participants and, 3) increased professional collaboration within schools. We argue that pedagogy-focused PD, using QT and QTR, is an important mechanism for improving teaching on a large-scale, not just for this grade, topic or subject, but for teaching in general.

Authors

• Jennifer M. Gore, The University of Newcastle

• Brooke Rosser, The University of Newcastle