Can quality, evidence-based PD solve the teacher retention crisis?
This article by Rhiannon Bowman was recently published in the March edition of Education Matters Magazine.
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.
