Quality Teaching Model
The Quality Teaching Model highlights three dimensions of evidence-informed good teaching and assessment practice: Intellectual quality, Quality learning environment, and Significance.
The clear concepts and language of the Quality Teaching Model help build a shared understanding of quality teaching on a school or system-wide basis. It offers a comprehensive account of pedagogy relevant to all school contexts and educators at every stage of teaching experience.
The Quality Teaching Model was developed for the NSW Department of Education in consultation with the University of Newcastle, Associate Professor James Ladwig and Laureate Professor Jennifer Gore.
The Quality Teaching Model
The Quality Teaching Model is designed to support teachers with conceptual and practical tools to collaboratively reflect on their pedagogical practice.
Since 2003, the Quality Teaching Model has been used to guide programming, lesson delivery and assessment, and as a resource for professional self-reflection, collaborative inquiry and school improvement.
Quality teaching can be achieved regardless of the style of teaching or type of classroom environment. The Quality Teaching Model can be used to plan, observe, analyse and discuss classroom and assessment practice by attending to the fundamental curriculum planning questions:
- What do I want my students to learn?
- Why does the learning matter?
- What will the student do or produce?
- How well do I expect them to do it?
For an extended version of the Quality Teaching Model, access this document.
Learn more about the Quality Teaching Model dimensions and elements by clicking on the dropdowns or downloading our Quality Teaching Practice Guides below.
Intellectual quality
Intellectual Quality refers to pedagogy focused on deep understanding of important, substantive concepts, skills and ideas. Such pedagogy treats knowledge as requiring active construction and engages students in higher-order thinking and communicating about what they are learning.
Knowledge is deep when it concerns the central ideas or concepts of a topic, subject or learning area and when the knowledge is judged to be crucial to the topic, subject or learning area.
Deep understanding is evident when students demonstrate their grasp of central ideas and concepts.
Knowledge is treated as problematic when it involves an understanding of knowledge not as a fixed body of information, but rather as socially constructed, and hence subject to political, social and cultural influences and implications.
Higher-order thinking requires students to manipulate information and ideas in ways that transform their meaning and implications.
Lessons high in metalanguage have high levels of talk about language and how texts work.
Classes high in substantive communication have sustained interaction, communication focused on the substance of the lessons and reciprocal interaction.
Quality learning environment
Quality Learning Environment refers to pedagogy that creates classrooms where students and teachers work productively and are clearly focused on learning. Such pedagogy sets high expectations and develops positive relationships among teachers and students.
High explicit quality criteria is identified by frequent, detailed and specific statements about the quality of work required of students.
High engagement is identified by on-task behaviours that signal a serious investment in class work.
Expectations are high when teachers (or students) communicate the expectation that all members of the class can learn important knowledge and skills that are challenging for them.
Classrooms high in social support for student learning encourage all students to try hard and risk initial failure in a climate of mutual respect.
High student self-regulation is evident when the lesson proceeds without interruption and when students demonstrate autonomy and initiative in relation to their own behaviour in ways that allow the class to get on with learning.
Classrooms with high student direction see students exercising control over one or more of the following aspects of a lesson; choice of activities, time spent on activities, pace of the lesson or criteria by which they will be assessed.
Significance
Significance refers to pedagogy that helps make learning meaningful to students. Such pedagogy draws clear connections with students’ prior knowledge and identities, with contexts outside of the classroom, and multiple ways of knowing or cultural perspectives.
High background knowledge is evident when lessons provide students with opportunities (or they take opportunities) to make connections between their knowledge and experience and the substance of the lesson.
Cultural knowledge is high when there is an understanding, valuing and acceptance of the traditions, beliefs, skills, knowledges, languages, practices and protocols of diverse social groups.
High knowledge integration is identifiable when meaningful connections are made between different topics and/or between different subjects.
High inclusivity is evident when all students, from all cultural or social backgrounds, participate in the public work of the class and when their contributions are taken seriously and valued.
High connectedness is evident when learning has value and meaning beyond the classroom and school.
Use of narrative is high when the stories written, told, read, viewed or listened to help illustrate or bring to life the knowledge that students are addressing in the classroom.
Quality Teaching Practice Guides
The Classroom Practice Guide and Assessment Practice Guide articulate the Quality Teaching Model to support teacher professional learning and dialogue.
The purpose of these guides is to support teacher professional learning. They should not be used for the purpose of teacher assessment.
The Classroom Practice Guide is intended to structure planning, reflection and analysis in order to build capacity for quality teaching. Working individually or collaboratively, teachers use the guide to examine how each element of the Model informs their classroom practice
‘Classroom practice’ encompasses learning activities, a single lesson, sequences of lessons, units of work and teaching programs.
Assessment Practice Guide
The Assessment Practice Guide is intended to structure planning, reflection and analysis in order to build capacity for quality assessment practice. Working individually or collaboratively, teachers use the guide to examine how each element of the Model informs their assessment practice.
‘Assessment practice’ encompasses materials prepared for assessing students, including in-class tasks, research projects, design projects, performance tasks, classroom tests, formal examinations or written descriptions of classroom activities designed to produce evidence of student learning.
Other resources
- Strategic Improvement Plan (SIP) Implementation and Progress Monitoring (IPM) sample focused on Quality Teaching Rounds.
- QT Elements webinar series: available to Quality Teaching Academy members (Department staff are eligible for free membership to the Quality Teaching Academy).
Quality Teaching Rounds
Quality Teaching Rounds (QTR) is a structured professional learning experience aligned with the elements of high-impact professional learning (HIPL), that brings teachers together to learn from each other and improve their practice.
The Quality Teaching Model is the basis of QTR and supports detailed collaborative analysis of observed lessons and is a constant reference point during Quality Teaching Rounds.
QTR is structured around a 4-step process:
Step 1: Reading discussion
A Rounds day typically starts with a discussion of a reading to develop a shared knowledge base and build professional community.
Step 2: Lesson observation
This is followed by a lesson observation. One Professional Learning Community (PLC) member teaches a whole lesson which is observed by the other PLC members.
Step 3: Individual coding
All PLC members then code the observed lesson against the QT Model.
Step 4: Coding discussion
Following individual coding, all PLC members take part in an extended discussion of the lesson, and teaching more broadly, using the QT Model.
QTR is delivered through the University of Newcastle’s Quality Teaching Academy (QTA).
To find out more about QTR and its evidence base, or for opportunities to be involved in QTR research, visit the Quality Teaching Academy.
Contact
Have a question? Get in touch with us QTR@det.nsw.edu.au.
For more Quality Teaching Model and Quality Teaching Rounds resources and professional learning see the Quality Teaching Academy.
By signing up with their department email, department staff are eligible for free membership to the Quality Teaching Academy, with access to free and discounted professional learning courses and resources.