What is QTR?
How does QTR work?
Quality Teaching Rounds traditionally starts with at least two teachers from your school attending a two-day QTR Foundational Workshop.
Those two teachers then join two more teachers back at school to form a professional learning community where they observe a whole lesson of one PLC member and use the QT Model to collaboratively analyse and discuss the lesson and teaching more broadly in order to refine their practice.
Completing a ‘set of Rounds’ means this process is repeated on separate days until all four teachers have taught an observed lesson. Those teachers can then form new PLCs with other teachers to lead them through the process and ‘ripple’ QTR across your school.
What does a Rounds day look like?
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A Rounds day starts with a discussion of a reading to develop a shared knowledge base and build professional community. |
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This is followed by a lesson observation. One PLC member teaches a whole lesson which is observed by other PLC members. |
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All participants then code the observed lesson individually against the QT Model. |
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Following individual coding, PLC members take part in an extended discussion of the lesson and teaching more broadly using the QT Model. |
Standard 1 – Know students and how they learn
Standard 2 – Know the content and how to teach it
The in-situ nature of QTR means teachers analyse and develop their understanding of how students learn within their own context. The collaborative nature of PLCs means all teachers contribute to the collective knowledge of teachers in their school by analysing the intellectual quality of observed lessons.
Standard 3 – Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning
Standard 4 – Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments
In QTR, teachers use the Quality Teaching Model as the basis for developing a shared understanding of what constitutes quality teaching practice during lesson analysis.
Teachers explicitly discuss elements such as social support and students’ self-regulation to create and maintain quality learning environments, enhancing student participation and opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning. After participating in QTR, teachers can use knowledge from professional discussions to plan and evaluate their teaching and learning activities, and programs.
Standard 6 – Engage in professional learning
In QTR, teachers work in PLCs to develop both individual and collective capacity. All participants in Rounds have their teaching practice observed and analysed in structured collegial discussions. The turn-taking process ensures all teachers in the PLC are heard. After participating in QTR, teachers can use knowledge from their PLC discussions and individual reflections to identify and plan professional learning needs using both the Quality Teaching Model and the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
QTR has a demonstrated positive impact on teacher morale, self-efficacy and collegiality, as well as statistically significant impacts on student outcomes. When teachers participate in QTR, they are involved in collegial and collaborative professional learning that is focused on pedagogy using a common understanding about what constitutes quality teaching practice.
