Executive summary

The Executive Summary of the Learning and Teaching Curriculum Network Project 2019, is a document that concludes the findings of the project and recommendations ways forward. The graphic below summarises the key stages of the project.

Watch this interview with the Principals in Residence to find out more about the findings from the 2019 Curriculum Network Project.

Access the trascript for the principals in residence video.

Academic papers

Challenge: solidarity with solidity: The case for collaborative professionalism (Andy Hargreaves and Michael O’Connor 2018)

• the most successful and sustainable efforts are characterized by both solidity and solidarity, meaning that they draw on both expert knowledge and strong collegial relationships, creating what the authors call collaborative professionalism

Making progress possible: a conversation with Michael Fullan (Thiers 2017)

• fostering collaborative professionalism in schools, external and internal accountability, and educational leadership that make progress possible
• the need to infuse collaborative professionalism throughout schools with a focus on deep learning for all students.

Seven elements in the professional learning context were identified in the core studies as important for promoting professional learning in ways that impacted positively and substantively on a range of student outcomes:

• providing sufficient time for extended opportunities to learn and use the time effectively
• engaging external expertise
• focusing on engaging teachers in the learning process rather than being concerned about whether they volunteered or not
• challenging problematic discourses
• providing opportunities to interact in a community of professionals
• ensuring content was consistent with wider policy trends
• in school-based initiatives, having leaders actively leading the professional learning opportunities.

The elements of effective professional development (CESE 2014)

• Curriculum-focused professional development programs that emphasised content, how to teach specific content and how students learn, generated a more positive effect on student outcomes (effect size: 0.56) than programs that focus on pedagogy only (effect size: 0.07)