The quality teaching code with Quality Teaching Rounds
This story from Moruya High School in New South Wales, was recently published in Education Matters Magazine.
Quality Teaching Rounds professional development is creating breathing space for teachers to review, reflect and refine their craft – regardless of their experience.
When Mr Nick Ward, a Deputy Principal at Moruya High School, thinks about professional learning, his mind often turns to his sister, a paramedic in Newcastle, New South Wales.
Every shift, she works alongside another paramedic, constantly discussing decisions, reflecting on outcomes and examining how patient care can be improved.
Teaching, in Mr Ward’s experience, has traditionally been quite different, with educators spending large parts of their careers working in silos or isolated classrooms.
That’s where he believes Quality Teaching Rounds (QTR), developed at the University of Newcastle, can help schools improve teaching quality and therefore student engagement. In short, collaboration, observation and reflection become a normal part of teaching.
“As teachers, you often graduate, are placed in a classroom, and you might get observed by a head teacher twice a year,” says Mr Ward, whose many hats also include Head Teacher of Human Society and its Environment, Creative and Performing Arts and Japanese.
“By adopting QTR, this is breaking down that culture. Our teachers appreciate the opportunity to focus solely on pedagogy, in an evidence-based, structured way, rather than having discussions dominated by reports or behaviour.
“They’re able to reflect on what quality teaching looks like, and some teachers have remarked that it prevents complacency and staleness from creeping in.”
Today, more than half of Moruya High School’s teachers are engaged with QTR. A relatively small school with 350 students, Mr Ward describes it as a unique public school with seven support unit classes and a wide range of student abilities.
