Teacher learning

I spoke to over 100 teachers on Friday at a Mindful Learning: Mindful Teaching meeting. ML:MT is our system’s response to the federal government’s national partnership to improve literacy and numeracy in primary schools.

I stressed two key points to the cohort:

• Although MySchool has dominated the media in the last three weeks, it is not our primary focus and never will be.  Individually and collectively, we know much more about our schools than any website can tell us.
• No matter what the achievement levels of our students, we can ALWAYS do better – we know what makes a difference to student learning.

I don’t believe another strategy or website will show teachers what to do and how to do it.  Improving student learning outcomes is a direct result of improving teacher practice. We build the capacity of teachers by creating regular opportunities to work and share together.

This is what happened on Friday – teachers coming together, committed to improving literacy and numeracy; using contemporary theory and resources to inform their practice.

I’ve often written that teachers need to take charge of the education agenda. Friday’s  meeting reminds us how powerful teachers learning about learning is.