Information for University of Newcastle education students

The Quality Teaching Academy has designed resources that will assist University of Newcastle education students with the in-class component of the NTPA, specifically, coding your teaching using the Quality Teaching (QT) Model.

These resources are designed to help develop your understanding of the QT Model.

Membership of the QT Academy is free for university students. Sign up here.

The QT Model was developed in 2003 by Associate Professor James Ladwig and Laureate Professor Jenny Gore from the University of Newcastle for the NSW Department of Education. It has been the Department’s endorsed framework of quality teaching ever since.

The QT Model clearly articulates teaching that makes a difference for students. It comprehensively attends to matters of curriculum, student engagement, and equity within classroom and assessment practice. The Model centres on three specific dimensions of good teaching practice, each with six elements.

Read more about the QT Model

Coding is a process used during Quality Teaching Rounds professional development to help facilitate robust discussion of teaching practice between participating teachers. When observing a whole lesson, teachers provide a 1-5 code for each of the 18 elements of the QT Model, along with evidence to support their code. These codes are based on descriptions of each element in the Classroom Practice Guide. The coding process is followed by a detailed discussion where teachers take turns to discuss each of the elements and arrive at consensus on the codes.

This evidence-backed professional development process has been adapted for use in the NTPA. Student teachers and their tertiary supervisors code a lesson against the 18 elements of the Model. This provides all participants with a way to both demonstrate and come to a shared understanding of the strengths and challenges of the lesson. Such professional conversations can include past, current and future learning about the delivery of productive lessons, which in turn can demonstrate the student teacher’s classroom readiness.

The QT Academy is a non-profit social enterprise established by the University of Newcastle’s Teachers and Teaching Research Centre. It delivers high-impact, research-backed professional development, advocates for the teaching profession, and supports a community of teachers with a share vision for quality teaching.