Lasting and effective learning, for both students and teachers, depends on feedback which can be leveraged toward increasing competence and self-direction. Teachers working with us train in assessment practices which:

1. give students increasing control AS leaders of their own learning,
2. provide teachers with the necessary feedback FOR them to better address student needs and meet the best kinds of learning outcomes, and
3. offer parents and the community clear and useful evidence OF continuous improvement and achievement of school goals.

Effective teaching, aiming to achieve high expectations for ALL students, begins with careful planning long before a teacher walks into the classroom. We provide a model of reverse design that begins with a clear description of what students are expected to achieve and then builds a pathway of rich and engaging activities, differentiated to meet the needs of all students and emphasising increased student agency as self-directed learners.

The effective teacher does not wait until a final exam or assignment to determine the quality of student learning but collects data regularly to assess progress and determine what must be done to ensure ALL students meet learning goals. We help teachers develop the tools and habits of reflective practice in a focused process of assessment FOR learning.

Decades of research in the learning sciences has clearly demonstrated that deep and effective learning is the result of learners engaged in the active construction of knowledge in collaboration with other learners. Inquiry-driven or problem-based learning is the most effective model for facilitating this form of deep learning. We help teachers plan and deliver this kind of learning in their classrooms. Too often, professional development addresses planning without supporting the role of teachers in facilitating this mode of learning in the classroom. We address the critical need for teachers to redefine their role in the inquiring classroom and coach them in developing the skills to be effective facilitators.

School learning at its best helps students develop the skills, knowledge and dispositions associated with the disciplines that define humanity’s greatest accomplishments - such as history, literature, mathematics, science, and the visual and performing arts. We help teachers reimagine the curriculum and plan for engaging instruction working toward building disciplinary competencies. In maths, for example, mathematical reasoning becomes the goal for learning, which gives meaning to the computational skills we ask students to develop while simultaneously developing problem-solving skills that have value beyond the maths class. We help teachers plan and deliver authentic instruction in the subject areas that they teach.

Too often, educators aim low, teaching to standardised tests that generally represent minimum standards of competency in school subjects. While the responsibility certainly rests with teachers to move all students towards success in these kinds of tests, we help teachers set and meet higher goals for their students. High expectation begins with instructional design, but depends on a shift in student-teacher relational dynamics for those designs to bear fruit. We help teachers move beyond standard models of recitation and rote learning by coaching them in developing new identities as facilitators of learning, in which they become partners to student learning processes that allow them to raise expectations AND help students go beyond the standard curriculum to develop their full potential.

Research has established that learning emerges from focused interactions between students as a community of learners. Classroom discussions ONLY become high-leverage instruction when teachers moderate by setting clear tasks and engaging in the forms of questioning that move student talk towards desired outcomes, while prioritising student ideas in conversation with each other and the content to be learned. We help teachers plan for and facilitate these interactions, recognizing that skilful moderation is necessary to guide student interactions towards deeper learning.

A key challenge in teaching academic subjects is the emphasis on thinking skills and dispositions, building knowledge that can be applied to problem-solving. What is to be developed is within the minds of the learners. In sports, students and teachers can easily see what is working and what is not. The model for growth is visible. We work with teachers on models of instruction that make the thinking visible to students as forms of deliberate practice, while simultaneously making student thinking visible to teachers so they can guide and coach development effectively.

The relationships of teacher-to-student, student-to-student, student-to-subject, and teacher-to-subject are the basis for all classroom learning. These relational dynamics are complex and fundamental to all the other areas of teacher learning provided in this list. No aspect of teaching is independent of these dynamics, which is why we offer focused learning modules that address this dimension of the learning classroom.

All teachers bear the responsibility of meeting all students’ needs within the classroom. It is a supremely challenging task due to the heterogeneous nature of every classroom. Some students are learning a developing second language, others may have learning disabilities, many lack confidence or a strong learner identity, and every student brings unique backgrounds and dispositions to the classroom. We help teachers learn how to plan for and accommodate learner differences in a learning model that also gives students increasing control as leaders of their learning.

Many of the topics for developing teacher practice included here address the needs of students with special learning needs. We also offer teachers the opportunity to build a practical understanding of specific learner needs as well as models of practice that support students in deep learning. Learning needs should be seen as opportunities for growth and high achievement. Learner needs should NEVER be seen as limiting factors but as areas of potential in which teachers support students in developing adaptive skills and surpassing expectations.

The language of various disciplines contributes to developing skills, knowledge, and dispositions. Language use itself prompts significant learning and research and practice have demonstrated that writing can not only establish what one has learned but, more importantly, is a high-leverage practice in developing one’s ideas and understanding, both alone and in collaboration with others. We help teachers develop classroom writing practices that build student agency and competencies. We also use these practices in our work with teachers as powerful levers for learning that allow teachers to experience their value as learners for themselves.