Middle leaders can have responsibilities for coordinating the delivery of quality programs of instruction to build students' content knowledge and skills with high expectations of student progress and achievement. Practices within this standard align curriculum, pedagogy and assessment to meet learner needs and maximise learning progress for all learners.
In demonstrating the practices described in this standard the middle leader will draw, in particular, on deep knowledge of evidence-based teaching practices combined with educational insights from cognitive science and other research on how students learn. They will also draw on their knowledge of curriculum content, progressions and assessment to enable student learning progress to be monitored and improved over time.
Focus areas
4a: Curriculum
Providing a clear, structured and knowledge-rich curriculum with high expectations of systematically building students' content knowledge, skills and understandings to enable learning progress for all students.
Table: A continuum of increasing leadership capabilities
- Ensure that prescribed curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment are explicitly represented in teaching and learning programs.
- Support teachers to develop programs / unit plans that reflect a knowledge-rich, high expectation curriculum, enabling deep learning inclusive of all learners.
- Establish appropriate record keeping processes to document systematic curriculum delivery and assessment.
- Ensure parents/carers of students with identified needs are consulted in any adjustments made to curriculum delivery
| - Lead teachers to establish processes that ensure alignment between prescribed curriculum for a year or band level, curriculum in teaching learning programs, level of curriculum taught to students and the curriculum assessed.
- Lead the design of collaborative processes to ensure that teaching colleagues share a comprehensive understanding of required content and skills.
- Establish processes to ensure that the detail of the curriculum in programs/unit plans is responsive to the needs and contexts of all learners, so that there are equitable learning opportunities for all students, with multiple opportunities for students to learn challenging content.
- Lead teaching staff to understand that different learner groups bring different experiences to education and establish processes that consider how all students can be supported to learn through the design of effective teaching and learning programs
| - Lead initiatives, such as moderation of student work, that evaluate and improve teachers' knowledge of content and its appropriate sequencing, to continuously improve the quality of teaching to maximise the outcomes inclusive of all learners.
- Lead the cyclical review of teaching-learning programs and their implementation using a wide variety of sources including evidence of students' deep learning to improve program effectiveness in promoting student learning
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Resources
4b: Pedagogy
Prioritising the use of effective, evidence-based teaching strategies and application of insights from cognitive science and other research on how students learn, to optimise systematic deep learning through effective pedagogical practices.
Table: A continuum of increasing leadership capabilities
- Support teachers to develop the required depth of understanding of evidence-based teaching strategies and educational insights from cognitive science and other research on how students learn, to plan and implement effective teaching in order to enhance learning progress and wellbeing for all learners.
- Enable the use of effective digital technologies to enhance teaching and learning.
- Ensure that teachers understand that all students need to be provided with learning opportunities which are intellectually challenging, irrespective of student's learning starting point
| - Lead the development of processes in which teachers strategically collaborate to embed effective, evidence-based strategies, applying insights from cognitive science and other research on how students learn.
- Support teachers to refine their pedagogical practice through processes such as expert modelling, observation, and feedback, drawing on the use of evidence of student learning.
- Lead a team culture with high expectations for all students' progress and achievement and in which all students are challenged in their learning
| - Initiate and lead processes to enable collaborative monitoring and evaluation of individual student and year level cohort progress and achievement in curriculum learning areas to inform adjustments to teaching practice.
- Keep up-to-date with evidence-based research about teaching and learning, engage in educational networks to share and source those teachers or teacher-leaders with demonstrated, high-impact, evidence-based pedagogical expertise who will support the collaborative review and improvement of teaching practice
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Resources
4c: Assessment
Ensuring a program of assessment which provides timely and valid data to enable student learning progress to be monitored to inform teaching and continued learning.
Table: A continuum of increasing leadership capabilities
- Support teachers to develop a program of regular assessments for formative and summative purposes that is regularly reviewed to ensure it sets high expectations of achievement and aligns clearly with the prescribed curriculum and the learning of students.
- Ensure that teachers regularly collect and interpret assessment data, analyse it for learning impact, and use identified gaps to inform teaching decisions
| - Initiate the collaborative development of a range of assessment strategies that enable teachers to determine students' learning progress, identify learning needs and enable the provision of effective feedback for teaching and learning.
- Model effective practice in the moderation of students' work
| - Lead the collaborative review, refinement and interpretations of assessment strategies and moderation activities to determine their effectiveness in gauging student achievement, learning progress and the provision of effective feedback.
- Develop the capacity of others to lead assessment moderation activities which ensure consistency of teacher judgment
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Resources
Source: Professional Standards for Middle Leaders © 2024 Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL). Used with permission.