Reform 4
EVIDENCE BENCHMARKS: Assist teachers in curating and updating curriculum and classroom practice materials against robust scientific research
Actions by Australian governments have fallen short in ensuring widespread access to robust research findings on literacy instruction for schools and educators.
These research insights have not been effectively integrated into curriculum materials and classroom teaching methodologies.
There appear to be gaps and a lack of consistency in what states and territories promote as evidence-based practice and a lack of knowledge as to what practices are being used from class to class.
The demanding workload of teachers and school leaders has left them with limited time to source and identify reliable curriculum materials and instructional approaches.
The Australian Teacher Workforce Data project indicates that teachers work, on average, 140-150% of their paid hours and the largest proportion of non-face-to-face teaching time was spent on preparation and assessment tasks.
Educators need to feel confident that their decisions are based on the best available evidence.
Too often terms like best practice and evidence-based are being used to describe teaching practices, which are – in fact – based on the weakest form of evidence, on anecdote, personal preference, and opinion.
Education Reform in other countries
Under United States (US) federal school funding (the Every School Succeeds Act; ESSA) “states are expected to ensure education initiatives address a four-tier hierarchy of evidence”. “Local and state taxes fund most of US school education, but federal dollars have substantial impact on state and local education decision-making. ESSA, the main vehicle for federal education funding, […] requires states, local education bodies and schools to prioritise evidence-based” interventions. The Evidence for ESSA website was established by education researcher Robert Slavin at Johns Hopkins University. The website reports affect sizes for interventions across reading, maths, socio-emotional learning and other domains.
In the United States, EDReports is a non-profit organisation which assists teachers and school leaders in identifying high-quality curriculum materials. It conducts thorough reviews of curriculum materials, including textbooks and web-based resources, and publishes the results.
In the United Kingdom, the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) is an independent charity, which supports schools to improve teaching and learning through better use of evidence. One of the ways in which EEF does this is by acting as an independent ‘evidence guardian’ for teacher development policies and programs.
In France, the French Scientific Council of National Education is comprised of a team of multidisciplinary experts providing evidence-based instructional guidance and protocols to address inequity in schools. Their work has shaped education reforms and policies.
Here in Australia…
Here in Australia, there is initial good practice with work by the Australian Education Research Organisation to share teacher-produced resources. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority has resources linked to the Australian Curriculum. AITSL hosts practice videos and Education Services Australia also has teacher resources available.